Johan Laidoner, born on February 12th 1884 in Viratsi, Estonia (then part of the Russian Empire) was one of the seminal figures of Estonian history between the World Wars, his highest positions being dictator and commander in chief of the Estonian army. Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start of... Dictator was the title of a magistrate in ancient Rome appointed by the Senate to rule the state in times of emergency. ...

As a boy he worked as a herder during the summer and attended parish school during the year. In 1901 he volunteered for the army, was first stationed in Kaunas as a member of an infantry regiment, and in 1902 entered the Vilnius military academy (where he met his wife Maria). Laidoner then continued his military education in 1909 at the Nikolai military academy in St. Petersburg. He achieved the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Russian army (in which he achieved 7 medals) before the Russian empire dissolved. Afterwards he returned home and took command of the 1st Estonian Division, part of the national independence army. In 1918 he was promoted to the Commander in Chief of the Estonian Armed Forces, and subsequently to the rank of major general, and as such established an Estonian military academy in 1919. After the First World War, the West decided to make Germany and the future Soviet satellites such as Estonia and Latvia into a bulwark against communism/bolshevism. For this purpose, in 1919, the British gifted the Estonians with two captured Russian ships, with which Laidoner was able to lead Estonian and international volunteer troops in a rout of Soviet forces from Estonia. In 1920 he was promoted to lieutenant-general in the new official national army, and after relinquishing his position as commander in chief for the first time (winning a total of 5 Estonian medals for valor and service in his lifetime), Laidoner went on to chair several government committees, the Estonian Olympic committee, and represent Estonia in the League of Nations (in which he expressed rather hostile isolationist sentiments regarding military alliances, even in the face of German or Soviet expansion). Laidoner also took part, when he resumed his duties as Commander in Chief for the second time, in crushing a small-scale socialist uprising in 1924, briefly supported by the Soviet Union before its demise. In 1934 , as the Estonian economy was failing, the League of Veterans (mostly from the First World War) threatened the political order with the imminent election of a Naziesqe regime to effect reforms, and the current government (an Agrarian party coalition) was about to lose its hold on office, Laidoner reclaimed his position as commander in chief at the request of Konstantin Pats, and together they froze all political party activity. Along with President Konstantin Pats in 1935, Laidoner as dictator and commander of the army helped push constitutional reform through the government to remodel Estonia according to a Fascist model, citing national defense as the main reason (New York Times Archives). Many of the League of Veterans’ leaders were imprisoned, Pats ruled by decree, and elections were suspended without any plan for resumption. Though many of the League of Veterans’ leaders were later freed, Pats and Laidoner had secured the future of the right-wing Agrarian Party. Included in the proposals of Pats’ and Laidoner’s reforms were military training in universities, and the restrictions on free speech and freedom of the press. Though neither Pats nor Laidoner desired such curtailed rights, they recognized the need to establish a stable government before returning the peoples’ rights (Pats attempted to reform the government into a stable entity by broadening the representation of many of the segments of society). In 1939 Laidoner put forward a plan to the government to modernize and upgrade the Estonian army’s equipment in the face of rapid foreign expansion and upgrades, and to draft more soldiers. When Estonia’s gamble on German victory in World War II in choosing allies failed to pay off, the Soviet Union took control of Estonia in 1940, and deported Laidoner along with other Baltic leaders such as Ulmanis, Pats, and Balodis. Johan and his wife Maria were deported to Russia, where he died on March 14, 1953 in Vladimir prison. During his lifetime, Laidoner earned medals of recognition for service and valor from Great Britain, Lativa, Finland, France, Poland, Sweden, and Germany. Many of these are now preserved by the U.S. army after being smuggled out from under communist control.

References

New York Times Archives http://proquest.umi.com/pdf/4778916e531bfb08b20bae5cf794f2f8/1134028310/share1/pqimage/hnirs2/20051208022150212/2635/out.pdf

Estonian National War Museum http://www.laidoner.ee/cms/english/generallaidoner

Encyclopedia Britannica http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9046856

Clarence A. Manning, The Forgotten Republics. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press Publishers, 1952

David Kirby, The Baltic World 1772-1993. New York: Longman Publishing, 1995