PhD Thesis: The Estonian Wartime Cartoons Were Not Propaganda Per Se
On 20 January, Antonia Nael from the Tallinn University School of Humanities will defend her doctoral thesis, which analysed the cartoons published in Estonian interwar journals, and the process of creating an image of the “enemy” in these.
On 20 January, Antonia Nael from the Tallinn University School of Humanities will defend her doctoral thesis, which analysed the cartoons published in Estonian interwar journals, and the process of creating an image of the “enemy” in these. The thesis concludes that it is not possible to speak of propaganda in its full meaning in this context.
“The thesis analyses the contradiction between Estonia and several “stranger” and “enemy” groups, including the Russian White Movement, local Russians, and Estonian communists – Soviet agents of influence,” the author said. She emphasised that one of the most important conclusions in the thesis is the fact that these cartoons are not propaganda by definition – the image of the “enemy” is not set up methodologically, scientifically or even deliberately. On the contrary, the artists would present what they saw around them: events and mood shifts.
“During this period, Estonia saw and felt the danger the Soviet Union posed, and which became a reality in 1940. It can be seen that local governments and the people shared the opinion that our eastern neighbour was and is a potential aggressor,” Nael explained. The material analysed in the thesis shows that Russia was an important subject in journalism in general, and especially in political cartoons.
“Estonian journalism in the 1920s and 1930s was characterised by a variety in imagery, a fixation on hostility, and the detailed depiction of an unpredictable and dangerous neighbour,” she said. Nael added that unlike the propaganda of dictator states, such as the Soviet Union and Nazi-Germany, where political cartoons (as any other field of life) were under strict control, Estonian artists were relatively free in their endeavours up until the beginning of the 1930s. “While totalitarian states used the destructive potential of humour to steam toward their goals, Estonia and its cartoons were much more democratic.”
The doctoral thesis "Иллюстрированный «враг»: образ русского «врага» в печатных изданиях межвоенной Эстонии" (“An Enemy Illustrated: the Image of Russian Enemy in Estonian Interwar Media”) was supervised by senior researcher Aurika Meimre from Tallinn University. The opponents were Professor David Vseviov from the Estonian Academy of Arts, and Professor Andrei Rogatschevski from the Arctic University of Norway.
The thesis, written in Russian, can be accessed via the Tallinn University Academic Library E-Repository ETERA.