THE PROS AND CONS OF PANEUROPE. ESTONIAN DISCUSSION ON EUROPEAN UNIFICATION IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

The First World War resulted in both numerous independent states and intensified plans for European unification. This article deals with the Estonian discussion on the unification during the interwar period as a national question: finding an Estonian place in Europe. The reasons to oppose or promote unification can be divided into diplomatic, economic and cultural dimensions. The latter was emphasized more in Estonia than anywhere else. Accordingly, the promoters (such as Kaarel Robert Pusta and Jaan Tonisson) cherished the idea of European solidarity as the ultimate reason for unification. The opponents (for example Harald Tammer) considered national identities too weak – at least for the moment – to engage in unification. The discussion was at its peak from autumn 1929 to January 1931, when the Estonian Society of Paneuropean Union was established and the French Prime Minister Aristide Briand circulated an official memorandum on European federation within the League of Nations. The discussion had already withered by 1934, the beginning of ‘the silent era’ in Estonian politics.