Chen, Pin-Yu Paris; (2024) Race, Nation, and Eugenics: Radical Ideologies and Politics in Interwar Estonia, 1918-1940. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Text Pin-Yu Paris Chen doctoral thesis (final).pdf - Accepted Version Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 1 February 2027. Download (1MB)

Abstract

This thesis explores the establishment, propagation, and institutionalisation of the closely intertwined ideas of race and eugenics in interwar Estonia. During the interwar period, Estonian race theorists and eugenicists actively propagated their beliefs and pursued their agenda. This thesis will demonstrate how they influenced each other, how they fought for their ideas, how they collaborated with other organised movements and the authoritarian regime, and how they responded to social and political resistance. This thesis identifies the early 1930s as a time of radicalisation for Estonian racial ideologues and the organised eugenic movement. The Nordic race became identified as a basic racial element of the Estonians. The growing self-confidence in the Estonian racial quality and the pursuit of Nordic whiteness led to the increasing rejection of intermarriage and miscegenation. In the same period, eugenicists campaigned vigorously for negative eugenic measures such as eugenic sterilisation as the solution to social problems. In the authoritarian era, the vocabulary of race and eugenics was appropriated to strengthen the concept of a strong national community. However, Estonian eugenicists had to significantly alter their messages and de-emphasise negative eugenic measures to secure the support of the nationalist and pronatalist regime. Challenges from nationalist intellectuals and the wider public on the core beliefs of eugenics also forced Estonian eugenicists to modify their proposals. The eventual implementation of eugenic sterilisation suggests a move to control and monitor an existing practice rather than the triumph of the eugenic movement. Besides the victims of forced sterilisation, nationally ambiguous groups such as the Setos and Germanised Estonians felt the social impact of racial and eugenic thinking most acutely. Radical nationalists followed racial and eugenic logic to denounce Germanised Estonians, while the eugenic-minded elite and eugenicists saw Setos’ higher fertility rates as undesirable.

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