THE IDEOLOGY OF THE “VAPS” THROUGH THE EYES OF THE ESTONIAN POLICE: BASED ON CRIMINAL CASE MATERIALS

In the early 1930s, the Republic of Estonia felt the effects of the global economic crisis. The growing economic problems led to a major domestic political crisis, which resulted in the adoption of a new constitution and the subsequent military coup d’état and the establishment of the personal dictatorship of Konstantin Päts, the interim president of the country. One of the key participants in the unfolding constitutional crisis was the Estonian Liberation War Veterans’ Union, a veterans’ organisation that actively campaigned to change the constitution and fight against the corrupt regime of the party elite. It was the Union’s accusation of preparing a fascist coup that became the basis for the imposition of the state of emergency and Päts’ seizure of power. This article explores the rhetoric of the Union representatives during the constitutional crisis, a topic that has not yet been addressed in Russian historiography. It uses as a source the previously unpublished materials of the criminal proceedings against the Union from the Estonian National Archives. The author concludes that the criminal case materials examined do not allow for the unequivocal classification of the Union as an explicit fascist organization. Moreover, it is also noted that the vast majority of the materials selected in the criminal case are mostly harmless political propaganda that does not pose a threat to the stability of the country.