MOSCOW--Russia was increasing her pressure on Estonia tonight and it appeared that the fate of the small Baltic state created by the World War settlements soon would be decided.

The outlook for the Tallinn government was made darker during the day by a Soviet announcement that the captain of the Russian steamer "Pioneer" had radioed that while entering Narva Bay off the Estonian coast he was attacked by an unknown submarine and forced to run on the rocks in the area of the Vigrund Banks.

Whatever was to happen to Estonia--and speculation ranged all the way from outright Soviet occupation to a "protectorate" status which would give Moscow military and naval domination of the little nation--apparently was being decided in conferences here between the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Premier and Foreign Commissar V. M. Molotov, with Josef Stalin himself attending.