The Battle of Määritsa (), or the Battle of Osula (), took place in

Osula Osula is a village in Võru Parish, Võru County, in southeastern Estonia. As of the 2011 census, the settlement's population was 335. The Battle of Määritsa was held in Osula village between the Estonian partisans Forest Brothers The ...

village, at that time in

Võru County Võru County ( or ''Võrumaa''; ) is a county in southern Estonia. It is bordered by Valga and Põlva counties, Latvia's Alūksne and Ape municipalities, and Russia's Pskov Oblast (making it the only Estonian county to border two countries) ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. It began on the night of 31 March 1946, involving members of the

Forest Brothers The guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an insurgency waged by Baltic states, Baltic (Latvian partisans, Latvian, Lithuanian partisans, Lithuanian and Estonian partisans, Estonian) partisans against the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1956. Known ...

and Soviet occupation forces. Seven Estonian fighters based at the Hindrik farmhouse were besieged by up to 300 Soviet soldiers. The battle lasted about seven hours before the farmhouse caught fire and the Soviets demanded that the rebels surrender. Only two fighters managed to escape alive from the farmhouse, but were subsequently killed in battle with the besiegers.

References

Battles involving the Soviet Union Cold War military history of the Soviet Union Occupation of the Baltic states Battles involving Estonia Conflicts in 1946 1946 in Estonia Võru Parish 1940s battles March 1946 in Europe Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic {{battle-stub