Reviewed by Ain Söödor
Andres Kasekamp is Director, Estonian Foreign policy Institute, Tallinn, and Associate professor, Department of Political Science, at the University of Tartu, Estonia. Born in Toronto, Canada, in 1966, he graduated from the University of Toronto and gained his PhD at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London.
THE RADICAL RIGHT IN INTERWAR ESTONIA by Andres Kasekamp is published in Great Britain and the United States of America and, according to the book's dust jacket, it is an examination of '...the unique case of the Estonian Veterans' League' and it '...should be of special interest to students of European fascist movements.'
In his three-page introductory chapter of THE RADICAL RIGHT IN INTERWAR ESTONIA, Kasekamp acknowledges that the history of the Veterans' League (Eesti Vabadussõjalaste Liit, also referred to as the Vaps movement), has always been a 'contentious and emotional issue', presumably because no one has succeeded in putting together a thoughtful, fair, balanced and accurate account of the actions of President Päts and the rise and fall of the Veterans' League. The NHL is the goal of most of those kids that lace on skates at an early age. As is well known the National Hockey league is no longer the domain of Canadian or American born players, Europeans are increasingly filling out the competitive rosters and earning commensurate income.
It is Kasekamp's view that '... the prevailing understanding of the domestic politics of Estonia during its first period of independence has been shaped by Eduard Laaman (1888 - 1946), - a brilliant journalist and publicist and confidant of President Konstantin Päts' - who, in order to justify 'the quashing of democracy' in Estonia by President Päts in 1934, showed the Veterans 'in the most negative light'. By accusing the Veterans of being 'fascists', Laaman succeeded in creating a 'myth' - a myth, that has subsequently been embellished by the 'apologists' of the Päts regime - a myth, that has persisted in the post-war Estonian 'émigré' commmunity and has been challenged '...by very few authors, notably William Tomingas, himself a former Veteran.' Even Tönu Parming and Alvin Isberg, two authors who have disputed the 'benign nature of the Päts regime', have provided only 'superficial generalizations' about the Veterans. (Page 2)
Kasekamp then praises the work of the Swedish-Estonian librarian Rein Marandi, whose '...judicious, dispassionate and meticulous investigation overcomes the limited and simplistic black and white portrayals of the Veterans as either villains or victims', but he adds that Marandi's book, MUST-VALGE LIPU ALL, is limited by the fact that it was '... largely researched and written while the Soviet Union still existed and thus he was denied access to Estonian archives and other important sources.' (Page 3)
Kasekamp concludes his introductory remarks by suggesting that his study will 'rectify' the shortcomings of other authors and 'put to rest some persistent stereotypes'.
Who will read his book? It's an important question, because the responses to the book are likely to be determined - to a considerable extent - by the knowledge, beliefs, experiences, education, sensitivities, intelligence, world view, emotional makeup and, perhaps most importantly, the aims of the readers. The careful reader, concerned with truth and accuracy, will already have noticed that Kasekamp has a way with words that does not inspire confidence in his ability to recognize the complexity, subtlety, and the sensitivity of the issues he addresses.
Does Kasekamp really believe that many scholars who have applied the label of 'fascism' to the Veterans, have done it without giving 'a n y' thought to its definition'? And does he really believe that those who applied the label 'fascism' to the Veterans were creating a 'myth'? The common usage of the word 'myth' corresponds to the Oxford dictionary definition of 'myth' as '... a purely fictitous narrative'. Does Kasekamp believe that any resemblance between the Veterans' League and 'fascists' was purely coincidental? He should read his own book.
Clearly, these actions of the leaders of the League deliberately invited comparisons with Hitler's Nazis and it is no wonder, as Kasekamp admits, that while '... there is no evidence of contact with the German Nazis, the Veterans could not shake off allegations of affiliation with them.' (Pages 155-156).
At this point the careful reader will begin to wonder if, in Kasekamp's mind, the absence of evidence constitutes proof of innocence. Kasekamp knows that very few documents, correspondence and membership lists of the League have survived because in 1934, the League's leadership, '... aware that the government was preparing to outlaw the organization ... destroyed most of its records.' (Page 1).
What was in these documents? Why were they destroyed? We don't know. What we do know is that the evidence is not all in and that Kasekamp's efforts to 'put to rest' various 'persistent stereotypes' are doomed, because any conclusions based on incomplete evidence can only be viewed as tentative. (To be continued)