Válka o pravdu: Pravda o Estonsku, Lotyšsku a Litvě
The War for Truth: The Truth About Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

Author(s): Mika Waltari
Contributor(s): Kateřina Běláková (Translator), Terezie Duroňová (Translator), Julie Minaříková (Translator), Martin Mokrý (Translator), Andrea Papugová (Translator), Markéty Hejkalové (Translator)
Subject(s): Military history, Political history, Recent History (1900 till today), Government/Political systems, Military policy, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949)
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: 1941; Finnish Winter War; Mika Waltari; War; European war history;
Summary/Abstract: In April 1941, during the fragile lull between the Finnish Winter War and the Continuation War, an inconspicuous book signed under the pseudonym Nauticus saw the light of day. This Finnish-language work, first published in Sweden, was added to the list of banned books shortly after the war and did not return to the shelves of shops and libraries until almost 70 years later, this time under the author’s real name. In his comprehensive, openly anti-Soviet reportage, Mika Waltari describes the conditions prevailing in the Baltic countries in the period between the autumn of 1939 and the summer of 1940, when Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were struggling against the ever-increasing influence of the Soviet Union, and the subsequent fall of all three countries into its vassalage. The author makes full use of his journalistic experience and extraordinary literary talent, and his ability to tell compelling stories. The book is complemented not only by excerpts from propaganda materials and speeches by state officials, but also by contemporary political anecdotes, which underline the ironic and sometimes almost bittersweet character of the otherwise straightforward text. The book is an invaluable testimony of the situation in the Baltic states when these countries were shrouded in darkness and isolated from the rest of the world. Waltari’s gloomy testimony thus becomes another piece in the mosaic of European war history.

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