Estonians furious over pamphlet by Finnish journalist

"Is she a communist or just crazy some other way?” researcher wonders.

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The Estonian media have stirred up a great fuss in the wake of Finnish journalist Leena Hietanen’s pamphlet entitled Estonia’s Cold War, which was published on Monday. Hietanen accuses Estonia of upholding an apartheid system, through which the country’s Russian minority have been deprived of their civil rights.
      Hietanen also questions the Estonians’ notion of the country’s occupation and claims that Estonia voluntarily joined the Soviet Union.
     
In Estonia, Hietanen’s accusations made it to the pages of every large Internet daily as well as the teletext headlines on TV.
      Hietanen’s book also provoked plenty of reader feedback. On the website of the Delfi online daily alone, there were more than a thousand reader comments, most of them unprintable.
      The party politicians of the Estonian Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica, who were interviewed by the Postimees.ee Net publication, were shocked by the Finnish journalist’s claims. MP Marko Mihkelson wondered why an article about such a book was to be published by a paper like Helsingin Sanomat. In Mihkelson’s view, Hietanen’s texts were reminiscent of the KGB or the party school liturgy.
      “The story in question is even worse than those [written] by Russian journalists”, Mihkelson said.
     
In MP Mart Nutt’s view, Hietanen’s accusations were groundless to the point that one could not even have a sensible conversation based on them. “Every journalist is entitled to his or her own opinion, though Hietanen evidently represents Moscow’s line. Other countries have not expressed their views in such a way regarding the Soviet occupation”, Nutt pointed out.
      The sharpest comments regarding Hietanen’s claims came from historian Lauri Vahtre, who stated that Hietanen was a “wretch”. “Is she some communist or just otherwise crazy?” Vahtre pondered.
      In an interview in Postimees, Hietanen herself poured oil on the flames by arguing that the Soviet-era Estonian SSR was more democratic than the present Estonia. To justify her claim, Hietanen stated that during the Soviet era there were 29 Russians in the Estonian Supreme Soviet, whereas today there is no Russian party in the Parliament.
      In an interview in the Wednesday issue of the Eesti Ekspress newspaper, Hietanen described President Lennart Meri (1929-2006, Estonia's head of state from 1992-2001) as a Finno-Ugric false idol, and accused him of being the principal architect of the “apartheid” practiced in modern-day Estonia.
     
The Estonians have also frequently commented on Leena Hietanen’s blog. In her own blog, Hietanen praises the Soviet Union and its system.
      According to her, “the western meritocratic democracy is but a feeble shadow of what the Soviets developed of their people’s democracy and their one-party system. The Russians were doing something for mankind, not just for themselves”, Hietanen alleges.
      In her blog Hietanen also claims that the Russians in Estonia are entitled to their own state.
      She expects the Russians in Estonia to set up their own “IRA” and for Russia to punish Estonia.
      “From the Finnish point of view, the key question is whether Finland is a member of NATO at the time when the Estonian bloodbaths begin”, Hietanen notes.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Former Estonian President Lennart Meri, 1929-2006 (14.3.2006)

Links:
  Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1944-1991 (Wikipedia)

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