Opinion: Cancelling Estonia's founding mother Alma Ostrat-Oinas smacks of Bolshevism

A counter-argument to Mart Sander defends Alma Ostrat-Oinas, a founding figure of independent Estonia, against what the author describes as cancellation attempts using Bolshevik-style methods. The piece argues that those wielding the 'club of communism' against historical figures are themselves behaving like the ideologues they claim to oppose.

A debate has erupted in Estonia over the legacy of Alma Ostrat-Oinas, one of the founding figures of independent Estonia, after attempts to reassess — or in the author's view, cancel — her historical standing drew sharp condemnation.

The counter-argument, directed at commentator Mart Sander, accuses those seeking to diminish Ostrat-Oinas of resorting to tactics reminiscent of early Soviet ideologues. The author contends that using the blunt instrument of ideological accusation to erase a woman who helped build Estonia's statehood is not historical scrutiny — it is a political purge by another name.

Ostrat-Oinas belongs to the generation that established Estonian independence in the early twentieth century. Her role among the founders of the Estonian state makes her a figure of considerable historical significance, and the author argues that such figures deserve careful, evidence-based reappraisal rather than wholesale condemnation driven by contemporary political fashions.

The piece draws an explicit parallel: just as Bolsheviks rewrote history by erasing inconvenient names from monuments and textbooks, today's cancellers risk repeating the same pattern under a different ideological banner. «Those who beat the founding mother of the Estonian state with the club of communism are behaving like Bolsheviks themselves,» the author argues.

The debate reflects a broader tension in Estonian public life over how to handle complex historical legacies — a question that carries particular weight in a country where the memory of Soviet occupation and the struggle for independence remain deeply personal for many citizens.