Bruno Linneberg – A little known hero of Estonian Military Intelligence.
In honour of Bruno Linneberg an exhibition in the Seaplane Harbour, in Tallinn, in cooperation between the Maritime Museum and the International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) is held until the beginning of 2022. The exhibition covers successfully conducted Military Intelligence activities by Estonia until 1939, largely thanks to Bruno Linneberg, that ensured good cooperation with various intelligence organisations. On the exhibition is exhibit a rare sea observation binocular which paired with the counterpart on the Finnish Southern coastline observation post secured the Red Amy Baltic Fleet couldn’t conduct anything in the Gulf of Finland without being noticed. The CDS fellow Ivo Juurvee notes Estonia had up until 1939 4th largest fleet in the region, that fell behind only to Russia, Sweden, England, and Germany. It’s a very remarkable factoid but even today mentioning it, for the Finns for instance, get them going and start to prove Estonia couldn’t’ because we weren’t a naval nation, because we hadn’t army, and because we weren’t during the Tsar era independent part of Russia but a mere куберня.
The exhibition of Bruno Linneberg is very unique and it must be seen by every Estonian to learn first-hand from our history extremely grave mistakes which resulted in loss of the independence, because our intelligence and army were in 1939 on par and shouldn’t forget many the future Dutch volunteers in the Waffen SS Division recalled being deeply disturbed by the mighty Soviet Union attack against Finland, that became the cause for volunteering.
When in September 1939 Estonia was made clear by a 30-minute telephone call about the inevitable arrival of the Soviet bases and the key actors of the dictatorship quietly surrendered, the Winter War began 60 days later, which could have been different if Estonia had resisted militarily. The claims that Estonia would have paid the Finnish price for this, or finlandized, don’t stand the test of time, because in 1944 we did what was not allowed to be done in 1939, and we are now living in Estonia, which is the Estonia that has not finlandized, although we see deep trends in falsifying our history and justifying the status quo as inevitable. Unlike the Finns, we still have a chance to learn our history and remember what it really was. Don’t miss this opportunity, because we won’t have another moment like this.
Extract from the appointment of Bruno Linneberg as the temporary Head of General Staff of 20 September 1939.
(https://dea.digar.ee/cgi-bin/dea?a=d&d=jarvateatajaew19390920.2.33)
For a news section of the exhibition see “Ringvaade” on the 47:00 mark. In Estonian.
