Towards stronger national unity: statist ideas in Estonian nationalism during the “Era of Silence” (1934–1940)

Abstract

This article examines how the political elites of the Estonian authoritarian regime, established in 1934, imagined and reframed the state-nation relationship, and what the origins of their thinking were. It will also consider how these ideas were instrumentalized to legitimize the new authoritarian order. The argument is that the new regime was essentially statist and ‘nationalizing’ in character. The relationship between the state, the nation, and the individual remained, however, under discussion among the political elites. Not entirely uniform in their attitudes toward authoritarianism, they sought to define a new illiberal form of democracy, where individual autonomy would be in principle respected but, if necessary, restricted for the national interests.