The northern wing of the Red offensive struck the border city of Narva on 28 November 1918, as the 6th Red Rifle Division attacked units of the hastily-assembled paramilitary Estonian Defense League and German Infantry Regiment 405 defending the city. (The Treaty of Versailles had required Germany to maintain border guard units on the eastern front to guard against the Bolshevik threat.)

The 6th Red Rifle Division consisted of 2,800 infantry, 6 field guns, an armored train, 2 armored cars, a naval landing party of 700 men, and the Bogatyr-class cruiser Oleg and two destroyers. Facing them were roughly 750 dispirited Germans, a couple dozen machine guns and artillery pieces, along with an equal portion of the Estonian military forces, which at the time totaled only 2000 men with light weapons and about 14,500 poorly armed Home Guard spread across three fronts (north, southeast, and south). The Soviet goal was to quickly crush this rebellion, reestablish control over the region, and work on consolidating their power base against the White Forces arrayed against them. Estonia wanted independence.

The Germans and Estonian militia repulsed the frst attempted crossing of the Narva River, but a large naval landing flanked their position on the second attempt. The 6th Red Rifle Division captured an abandoned Narva on 29 November. The Soviets kept up the pressure immediately, pushing further west toward the critical Tapa railway junction that they seized on 24 December, having marched and fought across 120km in less than a month. But their eye was on the fnal prize, Tallinn. Estonian Bolsheviks declared the Estonian Workers’ Commune in captured Narva. As the Reds won successes everywhere the future of Estonian independence began to fade.