The new issue of the Estonian Yearbook of Military History examines military thought
Published in cooperation between the Estonian War Museum and Tallinn University Press, Estonian Military History Yearbook 2023, 13 (19) 2023 “Military Thought and its Transformation in the Newly Independent States of Europe in 1918–1940” is dedicated to the military theories of European countries born after World War I.
The changes in understanding of warfare brought about by the First World War also required a revision of military theory. How this task was accomplished, particularly in the European countries created after the First World War, was discussed at the 14th International Baltic Military History Conference “Military Thought and its Transformation in the Newly Independent States of Europe in 1918–1940” held in 2023 by the Estonian War Museum, the Baltic Defense College, and the Estonian Military Academy. The six articles in the yearbook are based on presentations given at this conference and include writings by Czechoslovakian officers, threat assessments by the Finnish army, the role of Marshal Józef Piłsudski in Polish military thinking, General Johan Laidoner’s role in the modernization of Estonian national defense, the views of Dutch military theorist Michael Calmeyer, and finally, assessments of Estonia’s readiness for war at the time and in the future.
The review section presents two monographs published as part of a research project on the history of Estonian military thought. The authors of the publication are military historians from the Czech Republic, Finland, Poland, the Netherlands, the United States, and Estonia.
The Estonian Military History Yearbook is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 2011 and published by the Estonian War Museum – General Laidoner Museum and Tallinn University Press. The journal is aimed at scholars of military history in Estonia and abroad, as well as a wider circle of military history enthusiasts in Estonia. The editor-in-chief of the journal is Toomas Hiio and the editor is Dr. Mari-Leen Tammela.
Table of contents:
Mari-Leen Tammela
Introduction
Michal Cáp
The Challenges of Our Defence: Military Knowledge and Officers’ Writings in Interwar Czechoslovakia.
Markus Wahlstein
The Red Army Rises – the Impact of Threat Assessment on Defence System and Military Thinking in Finland in the 1920s
Tomasz Gajownik
Polish Military Thought in the Interwar Period of the 20th Century and the Role of Marshal Józef Piłsudski
Aarne Ermus
Implications of General Johan Laidoner’s Active Defence Doctrine in the Estonian Defence Modernisation Plan of 1938
Wim Klinkert
Michael Calmeyer: A Dutch Infantry Officer Contemplates Modern War, 1935–1940
Peter Mitchell, Tanel Tatsi
Examining the Indefensible: Guarding Estonia in the Interwar Period and the Future
Toomas Hiio
History of Estonian Military Thought
Full text is available on the web page of the Estonian Yearbook of Military History.
