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EESTI ELU reedel, 12. veebruaril 2021 — Friday, February 12, 2021
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Mihkel Raud: Self-deprecation for a better understanding of relationships and North America English-language supplement to the Estonian weekly “EESTI ELU” Tartu College Publications Founding Chairman: Elmar Tampõld Editor: Laas Leivat 3 Madison Avenue, Toronto, ON M5R 2S2 T: 416-733-4550 • F: 416-733-0944 • E-mail: editor@eestielu.ca Digital: www.eestielu.ca
Russian terrorists abroad Recently the Canadian gov ernment designated the Rus sian Imperial Movement-RIM (Russkoe Imperskoe Dviz he nie) as a terrorist group, as defined by Canada’s Criminal Code. In April of 2020, The US Department of State had already classified the RID as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT)’ entity. In the US it was the first time that a white supremacist extremist or ganization was thus designated. As an ultra-nationalist, promonarchist paramilitary organi zation based in Russia that seeks to restore the Russian empire, RIM strives for a mo no-ethnic state in Russia ruled by an autocratic monarchy. RIM was established in 2002 as part of the Russian rightwing awakening, spurred by the socioeconomic chaos of the 1990s, increasing immigration and mounting restrictions on political dissent. It has its natural place within a broad spectrum of monarchist groups that identify with Russia’s im perialist past, espouses antise mitic ideas and advocates revolutionary violence. According to the group, power should be vested in two strong institutions: the tsar who was the political ruler in pre-communist Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church, holding spiritual power. Russian nationalism is rooted in ethnic identity, which translates into Russian control or influence over all territory in which ethnic Russians live. RIM operates two paramili tary training centres in St. Petersburg, offering courses called “Partisan”. It teaches rural and urban assault tech niques, handling weapons and other combat skills. It is known to have taught civilians military skills for fighting along pro-Moscow Ukrainian insur gents as part of an affiliated paramilitary unit called the Imperial Legion. Linked to the Russian Imperial Movement has been Igor Strelkov, a former colonel of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). He was indicted by Dutch prosecutors for his part in shooting down Flight MH 17, a civilian aircraft, downed in 2014 over Russianoccupied Eastern Ukrainian
t erritory. The anti-aircraft weapon was identified as a Buk missile system originating from the Anti Aircraft Missile Brigade, a unit of the Russian army. RIM has also been involved with white supremacist extre mists beyond Russia and Ukraine. As an example, in 2016 the group trained two Swedish members of the white supremacist Nordic Resistance Movement at the St. Petersburg Partisan centre. RIM is known to have provided modest finan cial support to the Swedish organization. In 2016 ads 2017, three men bombed a car and a migrant centre in Sweden and a migrant campsite. Swedish authorities indicate it’s possible that two of the suspects got their knowledge of explosives from Partisan training. RIM representatives have met with the Nordic Resistance Movement and identified se veral common enemies includ ing “Jewish oligarchs” in Ukraine – sufficient grounds for a friendly relationship. RIM has also invited a range of foreign organizations to join its World National-Conservative Move ment, an organization of which the RIM is a co-founder. This international organization has over 50 European and Russian extreme right groups who are united in opposing multi culturalism, liberalism and tolerance. It was intended that member organizations would share tactical skills and military training. While contacts between RIM and US counterparts have been limited, a few have been revealed. Among others, it is known that the RIM had offered paramilitary training to the or ganizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA and other members of USBased nationalist groups. (We remember Mr. Trump’s observa tion that “there are good people on both sides” in the Char lottesville riot that ensued.) But RIM’s radical views, its pro gram spreading ultra-nationalist and racist views, its efforts in offering paramilitary training are clearly dangerous. Up until 2014, RIM lan guished as an obscure fringe movement. Then the Russian annexation of Crimea and its assault on Eastern Ukraine
The first time I talked to Mihkel Raud was in 2014, at Kotkajärve Metsaülikool, where he was due to deliver a lecture. I had only recently become aware of who he was when I saw his and Lenna Kuurmaa’s performance of Morrissey’s “Everyday Is Like Sunday” on ETV; and so I struck up a conversation about Morrissey and song writing over hapukapsas (sau erkraut) at lunch. If we had to fit everything about Mihkel Raud on a short press release, we would men tion his rock and roll career in Singer Vinger and Mr. Law rence, the personal and some times coarse books he’s written about his life and perspectives, and the visibility he has as a television personality in Estonia. But as he told me himself, the Mihkel Raud that people in Estonia know from books, music, and television is not necessarily the same Mihkel Raud that you will get to know in a one-on-one conversation. Three years after his Cana dian lecture, he had settled in the city of Chicago. Getting to the “Windy City” was not direct, though. It happened after almost moving to Seattle, then moving to San Diego for eight months. This was a huge change for Raud, his wife Liina, and their two children. As he described, it caused a marriage crisis, which then led to writing a book. Raud broke out onto the book scene with his 2008 rock and roll coming-of-age story/ autobiography Musta pori näkku, about his memories of playing music in Estonia during the 80s. However, the chal lenges encountered since his family arrived in the United States in 2017 were what initiated his 2020 book, Võtku homme mind või saatan (https:// www.rahvaraamat. ee/p/v%C3%B5tku-hommem i n d - v % C 3 % B 5 i s a a t a n / 1 4 2 2 1 6 9 / en?isbn=9789949730452). The title could be translated as “Tomorrow may the Devil take me.” It’s a line from the Rock Hotel song “Aita mööda saata öö”, which in turn is an adap
prompted many Russian ex treme right groups to send their members to battle making it the focus for world-wide far-right militancy. RIM managed to form fully two brigades of volunteers trained in martial arts, sent to the combat zone. In addition RIM-trained merce naries are known to have parti cipated in conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East. (To be continued.) LAAS LEIVAT
tation of Kris Kristofferson’s pining country ballad “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” Based on what Raud said, it would seem that the lyric in the title, as Estonians will have heard sung by Ivo Linna, is used in a tongue-in-cheek man ner. The book is part advice and part humour; what Raud refers to as “self-irony”, or eneseiroo nia in Estonian. It’s a genre he’s been writing in for five or so years now, including the two books before this one. The ad vice is based on the scientific theories and studies of other researchers, while the humour and observation are sourced from his own life. Essentially, he wants to “drag the theories through [his] own life ex perience” and use comedic self-deprecation to make the ideas more relatable. Before making the transat lantic move, Raud considered Seattle, as it’s one of his favourite cities in the US. But at the last minute, while looking for apartments, he and Liina decided that they wanted to try living in a climate even more different than Estonia’s. They “fantasized that the idea of eter nal summer would be interest ing.” Though, as it turned out, if one is used to changing sea sons, it can be hard to cope without them. The Raud family had their first American Christmas in sunny San Diego, but were soon drawn to Chicago after a family trip there; enjoying the space, theatre, arts, and lively music scene of the metropolis. From this scene, Liina starting photo graphing local and national bands that came to the city. As mentioned above, moving somewhere new wasn’t easy. Regarding their marriage crisis, he says, “It’s a very common thing that happens to families and couples who move to another country. Even though
American culture is not too different for Europeans, it still is. Every country is different from what you’re used to. Moving to a totally new culture had a very severe impact on our relationship because I travelled, and still do, back and forth a lot [to Estonia]. But my family stays here in the United States.” His professional life remains wholly in Estonia, and he has been able to pull off an arrange ment that works for everybody. The book follows the journey of someone who has had chal lenges in their relationships and is luckily able to navigate through that. It describes the process of “how he would have done it if he knew the things he knows now.” The fact that he’s someone who has “been around for so many years in the Estonian public eye” gives read ers a better chance to connect with the content of the book. “Hopefully they will learn new things about the character, me being the character. Hopefully it’s inspirational.” He wants to be honest even to the point that some people might call “too honest.” “Sometimes I paint a picture that might come off as offensive, but it’s just so that I can make my point even louder. It’s a question of writing style rather than philosophy.” Speak ing again about his character, Raud says “the Mihkel Raud in the book is not always and rarely is the same person.” Still, I wanted to know what the biggest differences were that he noticed between rela tionships in North America and Estonia. For him, a big dif ference is willingness to talk. “Americans love to talk about their relationships, intellec tualize about them, analyze them. There’s a culture of therapy, which is very new to Estonians. It is starting up now. There are more and more (Continued on page 9)
Photo used with permission from Mihkel Raud
Vincent Teetsov
