This article contextualises the participation of Estonian elites in the transnational exchanges of racial and eugenic ideas. The Estonian Nationalist Club (ERK) became a crucial platform where radical nationalist thinkers appropriated ideologies of race and eugenics for the Estonian context. The ERK’s membership, elitist outlook, nationalist anxieties, and geopolitical orientation fostered enthusiastic engagement with racial and eugenic thinking. Inspired by the Swedish and German examples, ERK-affiliated commentators theorised Estonians’ Nordic racial belonging and expressed ambivalence over racial purity. They skilfully navigated between criticism of German extremism and the drive to advance a racial and eugenic agenda compatible with their radical nationalist beliefs.
1. See L. Kurvet-Käosaar. “The Vitality of Primeval Peasant Blood”: The Hereditary Potential of Estonians in the Work of Aino Kallas. – Aino Kallas: Negotiations with Modernity. Ed. by L. Kurvet-Käosaar, L. Rojola. SKS, Helsinki, 2011, 94-113; T. Karjahärm. Tõuküsimus Eestis iseseisvuse eel: Historiograafiline referaat. – Akadeemia, 1933, 7, 1347–1364.
2. K. Kalling. The Application of Eugenics in Estonia 1918–1940. – Baltic Eugenics: Bio-Politics, Race and Nation in Interwar Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania 1918–1940. Ed. by B. M. Felder, P. J. Weindling. Rodopi, Amsterdam, 2013, 52–54, 65–67.
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401209762_005
3. B. M. Felder. Introduction: Eugenics, Sterilisation and the Racial State: The Baltic States, Russia, and the Global Eugenics Movement. – Baltic Eugenics, 5.
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401209762_003
4. K. Kalling. The Application of Eugenics, 49–82. See also K. Kalling. The Self-Perception of a Small Nation: The Reception of Eugenics in Interwar Estonia – “Blood and Homeland”: Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900–1940. Ed. by M. Turda, Paul J. Weindling. Central European University Press, Budapest, 2007, 253–262.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9786155211041-013
5. K. Kalling. The Application of Eugenics, 49–52, 56–59, 65–68. For rahvustervik and its origin, see L. Veski. Towards Stronger National Unity: Statist Ideas in Estonian Nationalism during the “Era of Silence”. – Journal of Baltic Studies, 2024, 55, 1, 178.
6. See B. M. Felder. Introduction, 13–18.
7. R. Põldsam. Otsides kvääre lugusid sõdadevahelise Eesti ajakirjandusest: Eugeenika rollist homoseksuaalsust ja transsoolisust puudutavates aruteludes. – Mäetagused, 2020, 76, 114–115.
https://doi.org/10.7592/MT2020.76.poldsam
8. M. Turda. The History of East-Central Eugenics, 1900–1945: Sources and Commentaries. Ed. by M. Turda. Bloomsbury, London, 2015, 202–203, 277; M. Turda, P. J. Weindling. Eugenics, Race and Nation in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900–1940: A Historiographic Overview. – “Blood and Homeland”, 8–9.
https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474219464
9. P. A. Rudling. Eugenics and Racial Biology in Sweden and the USSR: Contacts across the Baltic Sea – Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, 2014, 31, 1, 64–65.
https://doi.org/10.3138/cbmh.31.1.41
10. M. Turda, P. J. Weindling. Eugenics, Race and Nation in Central and Southeast Europe, 8–9; E. Klautke. “The Germans Are Beating Us at Our Own Game”: American Eugenics and the German Sterilization Law of 1933 – History of the Human Sciences, 2016, 29, 3, 30–31.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695116631230
11. M. Turda, B. Balogun. Colonialism, Eugenics and “Race” in Central and Eastern Europe. – Global Social Challenges Journal, 2023, 2, 170–173.
https://doi.org/10.1332/TQUQ2535
12. Ibid., 172.
13. A. Kasekamp. The Radical Right in Interwar Estonia. Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2000, 30–31; T. Karjahärm, V. Sirk. Vaim ja võim: Eesti haritlaskond 1917–1940. Argo, Tallinn, 2001, 275.
https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403919557
14. For this narrower definition of eugenics, see N. Roll-Hansen. What Are We to Learn from the History of Eugenics? – Metascience, 2023, 22, 2, 389. See also S. Kühl. For the Betterment of the Race: The Rise and Fall of the International Movement for Eugenics and Racial Hygiene. Trans. by L. Schofer. Palgrave MacMillan, New York, 2013, 1.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-012-9721-y
15. D. B. Paul, J. Moore. The Darwinian Context: Evolution and Inheritance. – The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics. Ed. by A. Bashford, P. Levine. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010, 28, 36–38; P. J. Weindling. International Eugenics: Swedish Sterilization in Context. – Scandinavian Journal of History, 1999, 24, 2, 181–182.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03468759950115791
16. A. Bashford, P. Levine. Introduction: Eugenics and the Modern World. – The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics, 9.
17. For the centrality of race in eugenics, see M. Turda. Race, Science, and Eugenics in the Twentieth Century. – The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics, 62–79.
18. See K. Kalling. Karskustöö sünnitab eugeenikaliikumise. – Mäetagused, 2007, 36, 59–78.
https://doi.org/10.7592/MT2007.36.kalling
19. See T. Karjahärm. Tõuküsimus Eestis iseseisvuse eel, 1347–1364.
20. Ibid., 1347–1348; L. Kurvet-Käosaar. “The Vitality of Primeval Peasant Blood”, 100–107.
21. T. Karjahärm. Tõuküsimus Eestis iseseisvuse eel, 1351; K. Kalling. The Application of Eugenics, 57.
22. See T. Karjahärm. Tõuküsimus Eestis iseseisvuse eel, 1355.
23. K. Kalling. The Application of Eugenics, 52.
24. Ibid., 52–53, 64–65. For the Congresses of National Education, see also M. Loper. Eesti Vabariigi rahvusliku kasvatuse kongressid 1927 ja 1935: eeskujud, retseptsioon ja mõju ühiskonnas. – Tuna, 2022, 2, 41–59.
25. P. A. Rudling. Eugenics and Racial Biology in Sweden and the USSR, 42, 52.
26. K. Kalling. The Application of Eugenics, 53; Eesti 14. Karskuskongress. – Kaja, 27.06.1924.
27. U. Kjellman. A Whiter Shade of Pale: Visuality and Race in the Work of the Swedish State Institute for Race Biology. – Scandinavian Journal of History, 2013, 38, 2, 180–181, 183.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2013.769458
28. See S. Keskinen. Intra-Nordic Differences, Colonial/Racial Histories, and National Narratives: Rewriting Finnish History. – Scandinavian Studies, 2019, 91, 1–2, 171–177.
https://doi.org/10.5406/scanstud.91.1-2.0163
29. U. Kjellman. A Whiter Shade of Pale, 197.
30. See ibid., 180–181, 188–189.
31. P. A. Rudling. Eugenics and Racial Biology in Sweden and the USSR, 44.
32. G. Broberg, M. Tydén. Eugenics in Sweden: Efficient Care. – Eugenics and the Welfare State: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. Ed. by G. Broberg, N. Roll-Hansen. Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, 2005, 89.
33. R. Andreassen. The Search of the White Nordic: Analysis of the Contemporary New Nordic Kitchen and Former Race Science. – Social Identities, 2014, 20, 6, 444–445.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2014.1002599
34. U. Kjellman. A Whiter Shade of Pale, 180.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2013.769458
35. P. A. Rudling. Eugenics and Racial Biology in Sweden and the USSR, 44–46.
36. For a summary of Nazi racial and eugenic measures, see P. Weindling. German Eugenics and the Wider World: Beyond the Racial State. – The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics, 321–324.
37. See S. Kühl. For the Betterment of the Race, 109–119.
38. R. N. Proctor. Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA., 1988, 100–101; E. Klautke. “The Germans Are Beating Us at Our Own Game”, 26–27.
39. H. Madisson. Pärilikult haigete sigivõimetuks tegemine. – Eesti Arst, 1933, 12, 10, 494–497.
40. M. Tydén. The Scandinavian States: Reformed Eugenics Applied – The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics, 368–369; V. Kuznecovs. Latvian Psychiatry and Medical Legislation of the 1930s and the German Sterilisation Law. – Baltic Eugenics, 156–162.
41. A. Kasekamp. Fascism by Popular Initiative: The Rise and Fall of the Vaps Movement in Estonia. – Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies, 2015, 4, 156–158. See also A. Kasekamp. The Radical Right in Interwar Estonia, 32–33.
https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-00402006
42. Mis on Eesti Rahvuslaste Klubi? – Postimees, 23.11.1931. See also Peakoosolekute protokolliraamat. Rahvusarhiiv (National Archives of Estonia, RA) Tallinn, ERA-2698-1-1, 9.
43. Mis on Eesti Rahvuslaste Klubi?
44. A. Kasekamp. The Radical Right in Interwar Estonia, 30–31; T. Karjahärm, V. Sirk. Vaim ja võim, 274–283; M. Klesment. The Origins of Economic Nationalism in Interwar Estonia. – Acta Historica Tallinnensia, 2005, 9, 1, 119–122, 128–131.
https://doi.org/10.3176/hist.2005.1.05
45. Eesti Rahwuslaste Klubi (lühendatult ERK) põhikiri, Eesti Rahvuslaste Klubi (E.R.K.). RA, Tallinn, ERA-14-11-59, 4.
46. See Peakoosolekute protokolliraamat, RA, Tallinn, ERA-2698-1-1, 9, 68.
47. Ibid., 9.
48. For a discussion on the ERK’s ultranationalism, see T. Karjahärm, V. Sirk. Vaim ja võim, 275–276.
49. Peakoosolekute protokolliraamat, RA, Tallinn, ERA-2698-1-1, 56.
50. Ibid., 71–72.
51. Ibid., 61; Protokolliraamat, RA, Tallinn, ERA-2698-1-7, 5-6.
52. E. Kant. Lähteks. – ERK, 1933, 1, 1, 1–2.
53. Peakoosolekute protokolliraamat, RA, Tallinn, ERA-2698-1-1, 89.
54. Eesti rahvuslaste klubide algatus. – Järva Teataja, 16.01.1934.
55. Põhikogu protokolliraamat, RA, Tallinn, ERA-2698-1-2, 42–43.
56. ERK-ide Liidu Märgukiri Nr. 5 nimede-eestistamise asjus – ERK, 1934, 2, 5, 87; ERK-ide Liidu Märgukiri Nr. 6 keskkooli reformi asjus. – ERK, 1934, 2, 5, 87–89.
57. Kultuurtegelased pidasid Toompeal nõu. – Virumaa Teataja, 10.10.1934; Peakoosolekute protokolliraamat, RA, Tallinn, ERA-2698-1-1, 107.
58. T. Karjahärm, V. Sirk. Vaim ja võim, 275.
59. For these two organisations, see A. Kasekamp. The Radical Right in Interwar Estonia, 122, 129.
60. See T. Karjahärm, V. Sirk. Vaim ja võim, 284–288; M. Klesment. The Origins of Economic Nationalism, 128–131; D. J. Smith. Estonia: A Model for Inter-War Europe? – Ethnopolitics, 2016, 15, 1, 99.
61. Eesti eugeenika seltsi põhikirjad, kodukord ja liikmete nimekirjad. RA, Tallinn, ERA-4855-1-1, 10; 1935. a kassa aruanne ja 1936. a eelarve ning kirjavahetus klubi töösse puutuvais küsimustes juhatuse ja liikmete vahel. RA, Tallinn, ERA-2698-1-6, 81–83.
62. Eesti Rahvuslaste Klubide Põhimõtteid. – ERK, 1933, 1, 9–10, 223; ERK-ide Liidu Märgukiri. – ERK, 1934, 2, 44–45; H. Madisson. Järeltulevasoo tõulise väärtuse kaitseseaduse eelnõu. – Tööd ja artiklid, 1921–1934. Manuscript and Rare Books Collection, University of Tartu Library, Tartu.
63. II Rahvusliku Kasvatuse Kongressi stenogramm. RA, Tallinn, ERA-4855-1-2, 185.
64. E. Kant, Lähteks, 5.
65. Peakoosolekute protokolliraamat. RA, Tallinn, ERA-2698-1-1, 78.
66. J. Vilms. Erakondadeta ühiskonna poole: Eesti kui korporatiivne riik. Vaba Maa, Tallinn, 1933, 92.
67. See K. Kalling, L. Heapost. Racial Identity and Physical Anthropology in Estonia, 1800–1945. – Baltic Eugenics, 98.
68. J. Aul. Eesti antropoloogilisest uurimisest. – ERK, 1937, 5, 7–8, 159.
69. K. Pearson, E. M. Elderton. Foreword. – Annals of Eugenics, 1925, 1, 1, 1.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-1809.1925.tb02036.x
70. See J. Aul. Intensiivsemale loomingule rahvuslike teaduste alal. – ERK, 1936, 4, 9–10, 205.
71. Põhikiri 1934. a. tegevuse aruanne. ERK-i juhatuse teadaandeid klubiliikmetele. RA, Tallinn, ERA-2698-1-13, 5.
72. Eesti Rahvuslaste Klubide Põhimõtteid, 221.
73. See J. Tumblety. Remaking the Male Body: Masculinity and the Uses of Physical Culture in Interwar and Vichy France. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012, 44–54;
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695577.001.0001
I. Zweiniger-Bargielowska. Building a British Superman: Physical Culture in Interwar Britain. – Journal of Contemporary History, 2006, 41, 4, 596–599;
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022009406067743
M. Hau. Sports in the Human Economy: “Leibesübungen”, Medicine, Psychology, and Performance Enhancement during the Weimar Republic. – Central European History, 2008, 41, 3, 384–385, 407–408.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938908000563
74. K. Kalling. “Kultuurrahvaste mentaliteet peab saama enam kollektivistlikumaks” (Dr Juhan Vilmsi sõnad ja teod). – Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi, 2015, 43, 97–99; J. Vilms. Abinõud ja teed tõutervise tõstmiseks. – Pärivus ja valik: Tõutervishoiu käsiraamat. Koost. A. Audova et al. Loodus, Tartu, 1927, 283–284.
75. E. Sahkenberg. Miks hooldame alaväärtuslikke isikuid? – ERK, 1933, 1, 4, 109.
76. For a discussion of concept of race in interwar Estonia, see K. Kalling. The Application of Eugenics, 50.
77. Mis on Eesti Rahvuslaste Klubi?
78. J. Aul. Mõnda H. Reimani “Eestlaste rassilisest koostisest”. – Postimees, 13.06.1931; H. Reiman. Eestlaste rassiline koostis. Loodus, Tartu, 1931, 126. For an extended critique, see J. Aul. Mõningaid märkmeid H. Reimani “Eestlaste rassilise koostise” kohta. – Olion, 1931, 2, 7/8, 259–262.
79. Peakoosolekute protokolliraamat. RA, Tallinn, ERA-2698-1-1, 22.
80. Ibid., 24.
81. J. Aul. Eestlaste tõuline kuuluvus. – Tähiseid: Eestluse Aastaraamat. Koost. E. Roos. Eesti Rahvuslaste Klubi Kirjandus, Tartu, 1935, 43–45.
82. B. Pushaw. The Visual Whitening of Estonians. – Eurozine, 30.11.2020.
83. J. Mark et al. Introduction: Racial Disavowals – Historicising Whiteness in Central and Eastern Europe. – Off White: Central and Eastern Europe and the Global History of Race. Ed. by Catherine Baker et al. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2024, 7–10.
84. Eesti Rahvuslaste Klubide Põhimõtteid, 224; M. Kuldkepp. The Scandinavian Connection in Early Estonian Nationalism. – Journal of Baltic Studies, 2013, 44, 3, 321; Peakoosolekute protokolliraamat, RA, Tallinn, ERA-2698-1-1, 82–83.
85. E. Tammiksaar et al. Edgar Kant, Estonian Geography and the Reception of Walter Christaller’s Central Place Theory, 1933–1960. – Journal of Historical Geography, 2018, 60, 79. For the ERK Magazine contributors who advocated Baltoscandia, see M. Lehti. Baltoscandia as a National Construction. – Relations between the Nordic Countries and the Baltic Nations in the XX Century. Ed. by K. Hovi. University of Turku, Turku, 1998, 40–41.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2018.02.001
86. E. Kant. Eesti geograafilisest kuuluvusest. – ERK, 1935, 3, 7/8, 139–140.
87. T. Lundén. The Dream of a Balto-Scandian Federation: Sweden and the Independent Baltic States 1918–1940 in Geography and Politics. – Baltic Worlds, 2019, 2, 23–24.
88. J. Aul. Põhja tõu osatähtsusest ja levikust Eestis. – Litterarum Societas Esthonica 1838–1938: Liber Saecularis. Õpetatud Eesti Seltsi, Tartu, 1937, 79–86.
89. For Nordicism, see C. Hutton. Racial Ideology as Elite Discourse: Nordicism and the Visual in an Age of Mass Culture. – Social Semiotics, 2017, 27, 3, 337.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2017.1301798
90. J. Maide. II Ülemaailmse Välis-Eesti Kongressi puhul. – ERK, 1933, 1, 7, 192.
91. T. Karjahärm. Unistus Euroopast. Argo, Tallinn, 2003, 92–95.
92. See ibid., 91; A. Kasekamp. The Radical Right in Interwar Estonia, 75–76.
93. See J. Aul. Poliitilisest antropoloogiast. – ERK, 1933, 1, 7, 190–191.
94. J. Aul. Kirjandust. – ERK, 1934, 2, 9–10, 171–172; K. Kalling, L. Heapost. Racial Identity and Physical Anthropology, 94.
95. J. Aul. Poliitilisest antropoloogiast, 191.
96. J. Aul. Anthropologische Forschungen in Eesti. K. Mattiesen, Tartu, 1936, 11.
97. See, for example, J. Aul. Põhja tõu osatähtsusest ja levikust Eestis, 79–86.
98. Ibid., 80–83.
99. J. Aul. Anthropologische Forschungen in Eesti, 11, 13.
100. Kes on aarialased? – Vaba Sõna, 25.10.1934.
101. A. Perandi. Genealoogia rahvuslikke ülesandeid. – ERK, 1935, 3, 9–10, 177. For an overview of Nazi legal requirements for racial proof, see E. Ehrenreich. The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2007, 58–70.
102. A. Perandi. Genealoogia rahvuslikke ülesandeid, 177–178.
103. Ibid., 180; A. Perandi. Genealoogia senine viljelemine tuleviku ülesanded Eestis. – ERK, 1937, 5, 7–8, 161, 163–164.
104. J. Vilms. Segaabielud rahvuspoliitiliselt. – ERK, 1936, 4, 1, 19. For the Nuremberg Laws, see P. Weindling. Health, Race, and German Politics Between National Unification and Nazism, 1870–1945. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993, 530–532.
105. J. Vilms. Segaabielud rahvuspoliitiliselt, 18–20.
106. See also K. Kalling. The Application of Eugenics, 58–59.
107. J. Vilms. Segaabielud rahvuspoliitiliselt, 20.
108. J. Aul. Poliitilisest antropoloogiast’, 191–192; O. Liiv. Eesti sakslaste päritolu. – Tähiseid: Eestluse aastaraamat, 63–64.
109. J. Aul. Eestlaste tõuline kuuluvus, 42; J. Vilms. Segaabielud rahvuspoliitiliselt, 19.
110. J. Vilms. Segaabielud rahvuspoliitiliselt, 18–20.
111. M. Tamm. History as Cultural Memory: Mnemohistory and the Construction of the Estonian Nation. – Journal of Baltic Studies, 2008, 39, 4, 504.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01629770802468865
112. See J. Vasar. Meie rahvusliku ajaloo ülesannetest ja orientatsioonist. – ERK, 1933, 1, 5, 120–121; H. Sepp. Võõrast mõjust, eriti venestumishädaohust enne Eesti iseseisvust. – ERK, 1933, 1, 3, 6–71; H. Sepp. Ajaloolilsi mõjusid eesti rahvuse säilitamisel. – ERK, 1935, 3, 1, 10–14. For the pro-Swedish tendency in interwar Estonian historiography, see M. Kuldkepp. The Scandinavian Connection, 325–326.
113. O. Liiv. Eesti sakslaste päritolu, 64, 67.
114. Ibid., 67.
