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

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.

Keywords

• estonian nationalist club (erk)
• right-wing radicalism
• race
• eugenics
• racial mixing
• nationalism
• transnational history
• sweden
• germany
• estonia