Foreign Involvement and Loss of Democracy, Estonia 1934

Abstract

Estonia, where influential major powers have often had competing interests, is able to provide a specific example of how involvement from foreign countries can influence the collapse of democracy. Both the undemocratic Soviet Union, with 150 times the population of Estonia, and 60 times more populous Germany, which had become undemocratic in 1933, were seen in Estonia as security risks. In contrast to this, the democratic United Kingdom was seen as Estonia's best friend. The United Kingdom and Germany were also Estonia's main trading partners. But London was primarily concerned to limit the influence of Germany in the Baltic States, and Estonia's internal situation was of interest in this context. The co-operation by Estonian socialists with Moscow undoubtedly aggravated the Estonian domestic political situation, but the initiators of this co-operation were more the Estonian socialists themselves. Germany's attempts to influence Estonian domestic politics were of a limited nature. But there is no doubt that events in Germany had a major influence on Estonia's domestic politics.