Baltic Military History Newsletter April The Establishment of the Estonian Security Police

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1 Baltic Military History Newsletter April 2013 The Establishment of the Estonian Security Police Captain Helmut Veem The independence of the Republic of Estonia was proclaimed on 24 February 1918, in Tallinn. On the following day German troops took control of the town and a 9- month-long occupation started, at the end of which the Germans handed over the power to the Estonian Provisional Government. The Estonian Police was established on 12 November 1918, but already on 28 November the newly started development of the country was disrupted by the Red Army attack and the outbreak of the War of Independence. In the wartime the investigation of political crimes as well as intelligence and counterintelligence were the responsibilities of the Military Intelligence Section of the General Staff.

2 In July 1919 the Government of the Republic convened a committee which started developing a law enforcement agency that would tackle crimes targeted against constitutional order. The new agency, the Security Police, was initially under the Ministry of Justice, but was placed under the Ministry of Interior in January Prime Minister Jaan Tõnisson and Interior Minister Aleksander Hellat signed the Security Police Order on 12 April 1920 establishing the legal basis for the work of the agency. The main task assigned to the Security Police was combating crimes aimed at overthrowing the democratic republic and constitutional order. The anniversary of the establishment of the Estonian Security Police is celebrated every year on 12 April. The Security Police started work de facto on 1 May 1920 when the office of the Security Police Headquarters was opened in Tallinn. Captain Helmut Veem, who had previously worked in the Intelligence section of the General Staff, was appointed the first Head of the Security Police. In the same summer Security Police branch offices were also opened in Tartu, Narva, Rakvere, Valga, Võru, Viljandi, Pärnu, Haapsalu, Kuressaare and Tapa. As the agency had to start almost entirely from scratch, the staff was almost entirely drawn from experienced military men. (From the Estonian Security Police webpage) Military Censorship Chicago Daily Tribune 14 November 1919 Richard Henry Little of the Chicago Daily Tribune Another Tribune correspondent is in trouble with the censors. Prior to the accident in which he was injured on the Petrograd Front, Richard Henry Little was hauled up before the Esthonian censor, charged with uttering grave insults to the Esthonian soldiery. The censor declared that Little had called the Esthonian soldiers Negroes.

3 Mr. Little demanded proof of the charges, whereupon he was confronted with an excerpt from a recent dispatch concerning American Relief Administration food supplies to the Esthonians. As the supplies were all of one kind, Little wrote: The Esthonian soldiers are eating potatoes until they are black in the face. The Independent 9 August 1919 Enter if you Dare! There is a girl heroine to who Uncle Sam certainly owes a medal...she passed thru the her ordeal with the Bolsheviki like a hero; a heroic job was well and faithfully done and all the white folks in Riga commend to Secretary Lansing s attention Miss Paula Põdder. When the American Consul was called away from Riga he left the premises in the care of Miss Põdder who had once lived in Detroit and who, for five years, had been secretary of the Riga consulate. The first disconcerting word Miss Põdder received from the Bolshevik officials was that all of the typewriters in the city, including her own, must be turned over to the Bolsheviks. You might well have asked Miss Põdder for her right arm as for her typewriter. It was by her typewriter that she lived and by her typewriter she determined to die. That afternoon as the first move in her campaign against the Bolsheviki, she pasted a photograph of President Wilson on the consulate door. Then she sat herself down to await the worst. It didn t occur that day. That night, she admits, she kept herself awake to plan out further means of defense. It occurred to her that there was nothing about the photograph of President Wilson to make it look official. The Consul had taken away all his seals and his official rubber stamps. In the small hours of the morning Miss Põdder thought her way thru the problem. At the office, a few hours later, she found in the litter of papers a great sheet of American postage stamps. She made a border of these around the Wilson photograph, replaced the picture on the door, and the Bolshevik soldiers came at last for her typewriter she showed them the official nature of the Wilson picture and dared them to enter. They departed. Whereupon Miss Põdder went to the office of the Bolshevik commanding officer and declared that she simply couldn t abide having soldiers coming around to the American premises while she was in charge of them, that her typewriter was Uncle Sam s and she wouldn t give it up. She made such a strong impression on the commander that when she complained that a Bolshevik soldier had entered an ante room and stolen a towel which belonged to the consulate, the pilferer, to Miss Põdder s horror, was taken out and shot.

4 When the Bolsheviks were finally driven out of Riga, the Allies found Miss Põdder enjoying unquestioned possession of the American Consulate Nothing but the one towel had been touched by Bolshevik fingers in the four months of Bolshevik rule. The Times of London 10 March 1919 Decaying Moral Another sign of the Red Army s decayed moral is that for the first time since the introduction of the Red Terror an official newspaper published a long list of the names of Red Army officer and soldier who have been shot on the front of 6 th Army operating in the Baltic provinces. Thus 37 soldiers of the 87 th Regiment were executed for attempting desertion and the spread of alarming rumours, while all the relatives of 28 officer of the 87 th Regiment, which surrendered to the Esthonians have been arrested and their property confiscated. Bolshevik Prisoners of War at Tapa in 1919

5 Upcoming Conferences First World War in the Baltic region ( ) At the Latvian War Museum in Riga (Smilšu iela 20) on June 2014 In 2014 the world will mark the centenary of the outbreak of that global military and political conflict which was known long after as the Great War. The war came to involve almost all the countries of the world, and precipitated major long-term political, social and economic changes. In order to assess the events, consequences and significance of the First World War in the Baltic region, the Latvian War Museum and the Faculty of History and Philosophy of the University of Latvia will be holding an international research conference Society, war and history: The military, political and social developments of the First World War in the Baltic region ( ). The conference will take place at the Latvian War Museum in Riga (Smilšu iela 20) on June We invite conference papers on the following themes: the military, political and social situation in Europe and the Baltic region before and during the war; the armed forces and military resources of the countries involved in the war; warfare in the Baltic region; fortifications and engineering infrastructure of the First World War in the Baltic region; the consequences and significance of the First World War in the Baltic; evidence of the First World War in museums and archives; the archaeology of the First World War; the history of research on the First World War; preserving the memory of the First World War in the Baltic; or any other theme... Please submit the themes of papers with a short abstract (up to 300 words) by 1 September 2013 to Juris Ciganovs, Deputy Director of the Latvian War Museum ( juris.ciganovs@karamuzejs.lv), or Andris Šnē, Dean of the Faculty of History and Philosophy of the University of Latvia ( Andris.Sne@lu.lv).The papers should be 20 minutes long. The languages of the conference will be Latvian and English. The conference papers will be published in autumn Participation in the conference is free, but we ask participants to cover their own hotel and travel costs. During the conference there will be an excursion to the Christmas Battles Museum at Mangaļi and after the conference, on 29 June, the participants will be offered an excursion (at their own expense) through the Kurzeme region, including a visit to the military port district of Liepāja, developed during the First World War.

6 Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) and the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies (SASS) will once again hold a joint conference on March 13-15, The conference will be hosted by the European Studies Council at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. For more information about the conference, please contact Bradley.woodward@yale.edu. Call for Articles Baltic Security and Defence Review The Baltic Security and Defence Review is a peer reviewed academic journal published twice a year by the Baltic Defence College, a staff college for the three Baltic States located in Estonia. The language of the journal is English. We welcome scholars to submit academic articles of 6,000 12,000 words in length with endnotes (Chicago style) on subjects dealing with security issues and military history of the Baltic region as well as articles on current NATO and European security issues. Submit all articles and enquiries to:dr. James S. Corum Dean, Baltic Defence College and Editor, The Baltic Security and Defence Review The Baltic Defence College, Riia Tartu, Estonia james.corum@bdcol.ee Send all article drafts as a word file Baltic Military History Newsletter The Baltic Military History Newsletter endeavours to publish material of interest primarily dealing with the military history of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We also publish in a broad manner material on operational art, military theory war studies and military affairs of interest to the Baltic armed forces. The newsletter also prints information regarding Baltic military history related events, meetings, seminars, conferences, recent books and articles, history courses, museum exhibits, status of collections, and recent scholarship. The preference is for articles (and especially announcements) to be as brief as possible, but there is flexibility on length. Lengthy pieces maybe published over multiple months. If you have material to publish or have questions or inquiries, please contact the general editor Dr. Eric A. Sibul at eric.sibul@bdcol.ee

7 Northern Interests The Baltic Defence College is establishing an e-journal that will start publishing in April The journal will focus on security issues concerning the wider Baltic region (to include the countries on the Baltic and far north) and contain commentary on a broad variety of security issues as well as information from institutions and scholars interested in the security and strategic issues. The e-journal which will be called The Northern Interest -- is looking for short articles/commentary on subjects concerning security (defining security in its broadest sense to include foreign policy, energy security, strategic communications, cyber security, economic security etc. as well as military security). Articles can be: commentaries, of 800-1,500 words; analytical pieces, 1,500-2,500 words; book reviews, interviews, etc., not longer than 1,000 words We will also publish announcements of conferences and workshops dealing with greater Baltic/Northern security, as well as notes about ongoing scholarly activity in the security field. If you want to contribute to the e-journal or wish to publish information about events and scholarship on Greater Baltic/Northern security at your institution please contact Mr. James Rogers at the Baltic Defence College at his james.rogers@bdcol.ee