Article -Spooked by Russia, Tiny Estonia Trains a Nation of Insurgents

Posted on by

Cubs win World Series.
Truly, we are in the End Times.

========================================================

I love this article.

Encouraging citizens to stash warm clothes, canned goods, boots and a rifle may seem a cartoonish defense strategy against a military colossus like Russia. Yet the Estonians say they need look no further than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to see the effectiveness today, as ever, of an insurgency to even the odds against a powerful army.

Estonia is hardly alone in striking upon the idea of dispersing guns among the populace to advertise the potential for widespread resistance, as a deterrent.

…..

The number of firearms, mostly Swedish-made AK-4 automatic rifles, that Estonia has dispersed among its populace is classified. But the league said it had stepped up the pace of the program since the Ukraine crisis began. Under the program, members must hide the weapons and ammunition, perhaps in a safe built into a wall or buried in the backyard.

My government gives me higher taxes and forces me to buy health insurance. Their .gov gives them G3 rifles and encourages them to be survivalists. *sigh*

I’m taking an Economics class at the university with a professor from Estonia. She’s a cute little bohunk who fits the stereotype of blonde former-Soviet polytech instructor. I wonder if she has relatives doing this sorta thing.

It’s interesting to note that the US (and, to a lesser degree, Soviet/Russian) experience in asymmetrical warfare is convincing some that tiny forces can, if nothing else, stalemate larger ones. Used to be that was ‘outside the box’ thinking…now it’s empiric data.

24 thoughts on “Article -Spooked by Russia, Tiny Estonia Trains a Nation of Insurgents”

  1. my wife works with an estonian lady. she says the lady is very worried about her family and is sending extra food and things to them. the poles are doing this but on a mega scale. they have volunteer brigades all over poland, armed to the teeth and training nearly every weekend, again, no pay. they are proud to do it and highly motivated. from what i saw on film, i’d hate to fight them. too bad we can’t do that here, because our government fears us.

  2. meanwhile folks in Russia are just try’n to get by with 200-300% inflation. 1st quarter 2014 – 1 usd to 30rub, current at 1 usd to 63rub, peak was 1usd to 90rub..America would be crush’d by now with 3 years of those inflation numbers. The EU and UN have done great at the job of scaring the shit out of everyone of the former Baltic’s. a boogieman. create the boogieman they will do your biding…as for training, good! they should be for both foreign and domestic. sound familiar.

    • Yes, if US went through 200-300% for 3 years we might be have some issues but crushed. In fact, since all outstanding US debt is denominated in USD, it might be a good thing for us. China, who holds about a trillion would see that value drop dramatically. If they sell, they will just get bottom price while the fed prints money and buy back the debt.

      Venezuela is going through 1600% and they are still hanging on by the skin of their teeth. Russia is not going through 2-300%. A year. In 2014. 2015, 2016, they went through 11.36, 12.91, and the latest year to year is like 7% or something. Non trivial but no where near 2-300% annualized.

      Russia isn’t a boogeyman of EUROPE and NATO’s creation; they already took parts of Ukraine. They need and want warm water ports and Estonia is in the way. They have Ukraine and with Estonia their North Sea fleet can be repositioned and won’t have to travel all the way around the Barents sea to get to key parts of Europe. This is their last chance for a land grab before their population gets too small, old, and poor. A country with aging and shrinking population with no real exports and small foreign exchange reserves is a crappy place to be.

      • I was in Estonia back during September 11, 2001. Funny thing was that I had to go to the other side of the world to find a McDonalds where the employees spoke English. Estonia doesn’t offer warm water ports to Russia like Ukraine does. It sets on the Baltic Sea, which has been know to freeze over in places. Saint Petersburg, Russia is just across the boarder and has a large naval base. The Russians also have Kaliningrad which is wedge between Poland and Lithuania. However Estonia does have a large Russian population of about 25 percent. So, that might be the trigger for intervention.

        • Awesome info, thanks.. 25% Russian population sounds like good cause; since it worked in Crimea.

          Yes, it’s getting difficult to find people who will speak English in majority of fast food places. I am a 1st gen immigrant and find this trend very disturbing. Sometimes I want to channel Samul Jackson and ask “English, mf, do you speak it?” 🙂

    • Dude, your numbers are seriously off. Over the last five years, inflation rate (cumulatively) was 50%. Last year it peaked at 15%, and that was the worst of it. Not fun, no, but orders of magnitude lower than what you’re claiming, and just slightly worse than what the US saw in the 70s, over a shorter period of time.

      https://www.statbureau.org/en/russia/inflation

      http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/inflation-cpi

      And yes, my definition of a “boogieman” is a dictator who has invaded multiple neighbors, murders journalists and shoots down civilian airliners for fun.

      I hope the Estonians kick your a** when you invade. You dreserve it.

  3. You don’t need to ‘dig very deep’ to understand why Estonians fell this way. They have a long & tragic history of being invaded repeatedly from all directions.

  4. What a sad state of affairs. These nations–Poland, The Baltics, and Ukraine, which suffered terribly under the Communists, and have had a brief taste of freedom and capitalism (such as it is), are now faced with a possible renewal of Russian domination. I think many of them would rather die than go back under that yoke. . . they know from their own experience—the USA, not so much.

  5. I have a friend in Poland, my age (about 50 ish) who HATES the Russians. She grew up under Communism and remembers the food shortages of the 70’s. No love lost there. It might not be possible to win in an invasion scenario, but making the cost of occupation (in lives AND money) too expensive for the invaders is the next best thing.

  6. I applaud the Estonians efforts, but they need more than G-3 or Galil rifles ( a good start). Frankly I’d prefer to see a 60mm mortar & a couple dozen rounds under every bed.

    • I would imagine that when you are equipping a populace for this sort of thing, there is probably an upper limit to the level of armament you can pass out before you generate more risks than you are preventing.

      • Oh, no question on that, but that is what Officers & senior NCO’s are for. Keep them at their homes.
        On a related note, read some AAR’s & recommendations on the Rus invasion of Georgia in 2008. Terrain different of course, but if I recall the main recommendations were: Mortars (which a militia can be trained on in a couple of weekends), ATGMs, AT mines (employed by artillery), laser target designators and something a militia could also handle, anti-material rifles.
        Enjoy your blog btw Z. Check in weekly. 🙂

    • I suspect that RPG’s would be cheaper. That, and a lot easier to hide in the meantime. Would require APC and Tank capable warheads, of course. Actually, with the lattice type frame-work that tanks are sprouting now, anti-APC types would suffice. Just take out the tracks, and then convince the crew to bail or broil.

  8. May be that’s why some one gave you a H&K so you would not feel left out. After all you never needed any encouragement.

  9. Just think there is one government that thinks our lifestyle choices is a good idea may be it will catch on.

  10. What a bunch of BS in these comments, I get the impression almost everybody that post on this story, believes everything that the MSN has been pushing for the last few years. People look behind the BS. The US does a Coup in Ukraine, bring the Nazis back, our grand parents are spinning in their graves, over US support for Nazis, a the terrorist in Syria.

    One thing people don’t see, because it been hidden, during the commie period, the people in charge of Poland where Poles, etc, etc. Sure the Russian put the guide lines in but the secret police where locals.

    Christ, it like everybody here, believed the REFFER Madness movie.

    Think for yourself.

    • Just like here, the irs and fbi, atf are the ones doing the secret squirrel type of things to our own people.

    • Really, so Poles and Kulaks were running the NKVD during the great purge when they launched a genocide on the Poles and the Kulaks?

      Note to Vladimir: make sure your trolls can write in proper English grammar before you hire them to comment on American blogs.

  11. In Estonia, a rifle behind every blade of grass. The Russians might then be discouraged as the Japs were inWWII.

Comments are closed.