I’m talking about Estonia, the tiny nation on Russia’s doorstep. The New York Times features a fascinating piece discussing Estonia’s efforts to mobilize its people in the face of Russian aggression. The story begins with the popularity of “military sports” in the country, including contests like a “patrol competition.”
The competitions, held nearly every weekend, are called war games, but are not intended as fun. The Estonian Defense League, which organizes the events, requires its 25,400 volunteers to turn out occasionally for weekend training sessions that have taken on a serious hue since Russia’s incursions in Ukraine two years ago raised fears of a similar thrust by Moscow into the Baltic States.
Estonia, a NATO member with a population of 1.3 million people and a standing army of about 6,000, would not stand a chance in a conventional war with Russia. But two armies fighting on an open field is not Estonia’s plan, and was not even before Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, said European members of NATO should not count on American support unless they pay more alliance costs.
To put participation in perspective, Estonia’s 25,400 volunteers would represent a citizen militia of more than six million Americans, assuming equivalent proportional participation. Moreover, the Estonian government is actively encouraging citizens to own firearms. The intent is to create a partisan force that could drain Russian resources in the event of a direct invasion, rendering an occupation too costly to maintain. Estonians understand the value of the armed citizen:
Encouraging citizens to stash warm clothes, canned goods, boots and a rifle may seem a cartoonish defense strategy against a military colossus like Russia. Yet the Estonians say they need look no further than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to see the effectiveness today, as ever, of an insurgency to even the odds against a powerful army.
Estonia is hardly alone in striking upon the idea of dispersing guns among the populace to advertise the potential for widespread resistance, as a deterrent.
Of the top four nations in the world for private gun ownership — the United States, Yemen, Switzerland and Finland — the No. 3 and 4 spots belong to small nations with a minutemen-style civilian call-up as a defense strategy or with a history of partisan war.
“The best deterrent is not only armed soldiers, but armed citizens, too,” Brig. Gen. Meelis Kiili, the commander of the Estonian Defense League, said in an interview in Tallinn, the capital.
In America, the citizen’s “musket over the mantle” is the AR-15. In Estonia, it’s apparently the Swedish AK-4. Someone needs to inform Donald Trump. Estonia isn’t just a formal American ally — a member of the NATO alliance — it’s a nation that does far more than “pull its weight.” It embodies a spirit of resistance that strikes me as not so dissimilar to the spirit of the American founding. Estonia has proven to be a faithful ally, can we make the same claim?