New volunteers for the Estonian Defense League prepare for training last month outside Tallinn. Some 600 men and women joined in the first half of 2014, double last year’s pace. Liis Kangsepp/The Wall Street Journal
TALLINN, Estonia—On a recent weekend in an Estonian forest, a group of new recruits in army fatigues practiced maneuvers. A sergeant major barked out instructions and the unit changed formation, sometimes crawling in the dirt between birch trees.
But these weren’t professional soldiers: They were some of the hundreds of edgy Estonians who have flocked to a volunteer army in the months since neighboring Russia annexed part of Ukraine to the south.
Recruitment in the first half of this year doubled to 600 compared with 300 in the same period last year. The Estonian Defense League, or Kaitseliit, now has around 14,500 members in its fighting units, compared with around 3,800 in the professional military.
The surge is a sign of how Russia’s newly aggressive foreign policy is rattling people across Eastern Europe. It is echoed in the rising popularity of similar paramilitary forces like the Riflemen’s Unions of Lithuania and Poland and Latvia’s home guard.
The Kaitseliit is run by the Defense Department and its members are expected to report for duty in the event of a national crisis.
“I want to defend my homeland, my family,” said Kevin Ungro, an 18-year-old student, during a break in training. “The more people who know how to handle a gun, the better our chances of defending ourselves.”
In the woods outside Tallinn, students mix with doctors, chief executives and engineers, daubing each other’s faces in green and brown camouflage paint and checking each other’s helmet straps.
New Kaitseliit recruits take positions for battle training on Sept. 19. Liis Kangsepp/The Wall Street Journal
“Charlie covers, Delta move out,” shouts the instructor and briefly there is a confusion—Which of the eight men belong to Charlie, which to Delta? Who has to run forward and who stays back to secure the imaginary line of battle? Who is partnered with whom? What happens if your partner is taken down in battle?
Finally it is established who is Charlie and the men and women, all equipped with rifles, try again. “Delta covers, Charlie move out,” the instructor shouts and four people jump up, move a few steps further and throw themselves back on the ground. Another group watches taking notes.
The battle training, called “fire and movement,” is conducted by senior Kaitseliit members. They are hoping that such skills will help at least slow any invasion from the east.
Moscow talks regularly of a need to defend ethnic Russian minorities in nearby states, whose interests it claims are threatened by hostile governments from Tallinn to Kiev. Officials in the Baltics worry this could be used as a pretext for military aggression against them,
as happened in Ukraine.
A quarter of Estonia’s population of 1.3 million is ethnic Russians.
Conflicts with Moscow are a recurring feature of the history of Estonia. It won its freedom from Russia after a war ending 1920, but was annexed again by the Soviets in 1940. Estonia regained independence in 1991 and joined the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2004, along with its Baltic neighbors.
U.S. President Barack
Obama visited Tallinn last month to reassure nervous Balts that protecting them is every bit as important as protecting Berlin or London. Article 5 of the NATO charter commits alliance members to defend each other if any one is attacked.
Yet as Russia has rebuilt its military capabilities under
President Vladimir Putin, Estonia has been watching with rising trepidation. Ukraine, which isn’t a NATO member, lost its Crimea region to Russia early this year, then saw its eastern border destabilized by Russian-backed separatists.
“Russia’s attack against Ukraine influenced all of us a lot,” said Helary Poolmaa, a student and Kaitseliit newcomer. “If Russia can act like this in Ukraine, they are surely able to do the same thing here.”
Kaitseliit recruit Helary Poolmaa practicing riot control. Liis Kangsepp/The Wall Street Journal
Brig. Gen. Meelis Kiili, who heads the volunteer league, calls it a valuable addition to Estonia’s military deterrent.
“Everyone talks about NATO Article 5,” Gen. Kiili said. “For us in Estonia, one of the most important articles is Article 3, which says every country is responsible for its own defense.”
At another point in the weekend training session, 16 recruits learn how to handle a riot. They stand four in a row, the first row holding shields. Behind them are four people with rifles.
“Go and arrest this man in green,” shouts their instructor, and shields open, men and women run out and take down the “offender,” grabbing him and dragging him back behind the shield line.
Their first attempts are slow and clumsy, but as the shadows grow longer they become faster and more experienced, despite being pelted by bottles and bricks.
Mart Luik, the chief executive of an Estonian newspaper and another new recruit, said he hopes his training might enable him to slow down an enemy advance.
The 43-year-old had dodged his military service in 1989, when he refused to respond to a call from the Soviet Army on the grounds that it was an occupying force. Now, he says, he wants to learn the basics about defense.
“I don’t even like guns but we need to do something,” he said. “We need to make an aggressor think twice.”
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