Idealists or Adventurers? The Swedish volunteers in Estonia in 1919

Abstract

Swedish volunteers fought alongside the Finns and the Danes in the Estonian War of Independence. Sweden had been neutral in World War I, but some 1,000 Swedish volunteers had fought in the Finnish War of Independence in the first half of 1918. Many of those Swedish fighters were among the volunteers who came from Finland to Estonia in 1919. ‘The Swedish corps’ – in fact a company – spent nearly half a year in Estonia and was disbanded in the beginning of June 1919. The unit did not play a significant military role; for the most part, it attracted the attention of the Swedish public with several scandals. There were quite a few volunteers who did not return home. Some men joined the Estonian Army, but some also ended up in Russian White Guard units, as well as in Latvia or Lithuania. Major Carl Mothander, the commander of the Swedish volunteers, is known in Sweden, Estonia and Finland thanks to his memoirs. Captain Einar Lundborg became a pilot after returning to Sweden. He is renowned for rescuing the Italian Arctic explorer, Umberto Nobile, from an ice field in 1928.