 After the Soviet occupation in 1940, he was elected to the City Komsomol Committee in Tallinn and was instructed to create a Komsomol organization in his Estonian army unit.After the absorption of his unit into the Red Army 22nd Estonian Territorial Rifle Corps, he was appointed a deputy political officer in 415th Radio Battalion.Meri voluntarily joined the Red Army in 1940 while the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was still in force.