Racial and Eugenic Thinking in Interwar Estonia: The Case of the Estonian Nationalist Club and the ERK Magazine

Paris Pin-Yu Chen

doi:10.3176/hist.2024.1.04

Racial and Eugenic Thinking in Interwar Estonia: The Case of the Estonian Nationalist Club and the ERK Magazine

Paris Pin-Yu Chen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Arts and Law

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Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	113-134
Number of pages	22
Journal	Acta Historica Tallinnensia
Volume	30
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3176/hist.2024.1.04
Publication status	Published - 2 May 2024

Keywords

Estonian Nationalist Club (ERK)
right-wing radicalism
race
eugenics
racial mixing
nationalism
transnational history
Sweden
Germany
Estonia

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10.3176/hist.2024.1.04Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

ChenP2024RacialFinal published version, 274 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

Cite this

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