< p>Russian propaganda declares the future EU foreign minister Kaya Callas an extreme Russophobe and offers "facts" with which to discredit not only her, but also to distort her entire family history from the time of the USSR.
"This is Kaia Kalas - the mentally ill and extremely Russophobic prime minister of Estonia and the new EU foreign minister" - thus begins a post on social networks, which should show a photo of the Estonian Prime Minister and her family. The photo shows young Kaya Kalas and her parents sitting on a couch, ARD reports.
The photo was distributed by pro-Russian channels, the idea being to question her family history and the explanation for her antipathy towards Russia. It was a myth that her family had suffered under the USSR, as well as that the Soviet occupation had meant “decades of darkness and terror”. However, the post in question contains several false statements, according to a study by the German public-law media.
The photo is not from Soviet times
First, the photo of Kalas and her parents was not taken during Soviet times, but later, as she herself confirms. The shot is from 1994 or 1995, that is, a few years after Estonia achieved its independence in 1991. In other words, the photo is no proof of how well the family lived in Soviet times.
I asked @kajakallas about this photo.
— Karmen Joller 🇪🇪 (@KarmenJoller) July 1, 2024
This pic has been taken when Kaja was in 11th or 12th grade, i.e 1994 or 1995. Kaja has been born in 1977, Estonia regained independence in 1991.
The furniture in these pics is family heritage. This kind of furniture was never sold in the USSR. pic.twitter.com/zaF8sPDBY0
Kalas has repeatedly touched on the topic of the fate of her family in the times of the Soviet Union. She said that after the occupation of Estonia in 1949, her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were deported to Siberia, and her mother was then only six months old. Her grandfather was interned in a camp.
During the rule of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, such mass deportations were common, ARD recalls. In Estonia alone, in the years 1945 to 1953, over 35,000 people were deported to Russia - often quite arbitrarily. Kalas' family members survived the deportation to Siberia and later returned to Estonia.
„Typical Estonian family story“
Kaya Callas' father – Siem – made a career in the Soviet Union, but reached high positions only after Estonian independence, ARD explains. He was a member of the Communist Party, worked in the Ministry of Finance of the Estonian Soviet Republic, and finally became the chairman of the Central Trade Union. He is considered an advocate of economic liberalization in Estonia.
Siim Kalas, who after the declaration of Estonian independence became not only the prime minister of the country, but also held high positions in the EU, said the following at a hearing before the Parliament of Estonia about his positions during the time of the USSR: “I have always been supporter of the market economy“. Siem Kallas points out that he was not part of the repressive communist bodies, nor did he participate in crimes. And he became a member of the Communist Party because he believed that “it could change the system from within”.
„The history of the Kallas family is very typical for Estonia,”, Karsten Brueggemann, professor of Estonian and general history at Tallinn University, told ARD. “Some members of the family were deported, others over time entered the party organs and made a career.“ So it cannot simply be said that Siem Kallas benefited from the Soviet regime. “ People who wanted to make a career naturally had to join the party hierarchy.“ In 1987, Kalas co-authored a plan aimed at the economic autonomy of the Estonian Soviet Republic – and this did not at all coincide with the planned ideology of the party headquarters in Moscow, points out ARD.
The difficult relations between Estonia and Russia
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, relations between Estonia and Russia became very tense, Kai-Olaf Lang from the “Science and Politics” Foundation told ARD. On the one hand, because in Estonia, ethnic Russians do not automatically receive Estonian citizenship, and this problem affects several hundred thousand people.
Estonia's attitude towards Soviet monuments, which have been removed or moved, also plays a role. This leads to protests among the Russian-speaking inhabitants of Estonia, as well as from the Russian government. There have also been numerous hacker attacks against state institutions in Estonia. After the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Kaya Kalas announced that all Soviet monuments in Estonia would be dismantled or moved. Because of this, Russia declared her wanted, as she was conducting hostile actions against historical memory.
The false claims about Callas
With this background, it is no wonder that Russian channels are spreading disinformation about Kaya Kalas. Among other things, it is alleged that she wanted to kill Russian citizens living in the EU. In fact, she said something quite different – that, from her point of view, it is right that Russian citizens in the EU should be checked whether they are fit to live in a democratic country, since the acquisition of Russian citizenship was a clear signal of support for terrorism and Russia's actions.
„It is not surprising that after being nominated for the post of EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, she became even more the focus of Russian disinformation,”, Lang tells ARD. Because the solidarity of Estonians with Ukraine is extremely strong.
Regarding Soviet times, however, both Estonian and Russian perspectives are often oversimplified, Brueggemann points out. “Soviet times were much more complex than the usual narratives make them out to be.“