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The Vodka Sea: Comparative History ofSpirits Smuggling in the Baltic SeaRaimo Pullat a & Risto Pullat ba Tallinn University , Tallinn , Estoniab Estonian Police and Border Guard Board , Tallinn , EstoniaPublished online: 16 May 2012.

To cite this article: Raimo Pullat & Risto Pullat (2012) The Vodka Sea: Comparative History of SpiritsSmuggling in the Baltic Sea, Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention,13:1, 64-73, DOI: 10.1080/14043858.2012.670471

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The Vodka Sea: ComparativeHistory of Spirits Smuggling in theBaltic SeaRAIMO PULLAT1 AND RISTO PULLAT2

1Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia2Estonian Police and Border Guard Board, Tallinn, Estonia

Abstract

Introduction

James Finckenauer argues that the nature of

organized crime means that it is not studied

from a close range. ‘They are dangerous

people. And you can’t just send out a self-

report questionnaire’ (Finckenauer 2009).

Analysing smuggling of spirits during

Prohibition we can rely on archives, on

memoirs of smugglers or bystanders, or on

illustrative material published in the press.

Considering the alcohol policy, the

countries of the Baltic Sea belong to the

vodka countries. Hence, the Baltic Sea could

also be called the Vodka Sea, just as the

modern Baltic Sea has been referred to as

Mare Narcoticum (Blomberg 2009:71). The

historical-criminological issue of spirits

smuggling in the countries of the Baltic Sea

is still topical, since it is directly linked with

organized crime, which is, as we know, one of

the most complicated global problems in

today’s human society. Drug smuggling is

especially distressing and destructive, and its

roots go no doubtback to the relatively recent

past of the countries troubled by alcohol

prohibition laws. We know that Estonian

police persistently fought with cocaine and

morphine dealers already since the beginning

of the 1920s (Krikk 2007:109). It has to be

underlined that former treatments of Esto-

nian–Finnish spirits smuggling had certain

limitations and a national romantic under-

tone. The authors and several other research-

ers (e.g. Johansen 1985; Kula 1999;

Andersson 2001:144; Filpus 2001; Ylikangas

2001:55–57) claim that smugglingof alcohol

hasbeen theprincipal typeoforganizedcrime

in the Baltic Sea region during Prohibition.

To this day, no state has ever been able to

win the war against smugglers, except for

when the state has been able to meet the

demands of the market-place for a scarce

commodity or has been able to seal off its

borders completely. This is also true of the

This paper examines the spirits

smuggling in the Baltic Sea region

in the inter-war period. On 1 June

1919 the Finnish Parliament

passed the Prohibition Act for-

bidding the production, transpor-

tation, sale, and storage of

alcohol which activated spirits

smuggling to Finland. Large-scale

spirits smuggling was arranged

during Prohibition by criminal

organizations through inter-

national networks. Mostly

cheap German liquor was deliv-

ered to Nordic countries and to

the United States. The represen-

tatives of organized crime in the

Baltic Sea region became rich fast

during Prohibition thanks to

limits set by countries. Contem-

porary drug smuggling and spirits

smuggling are comparable due to

similar organizational structure

and modus operandi.

KEY WORDS: Corruption, Nordic

countries, Organized crime, Pro-

hibition, Smuggling

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illicit tradebetween Estonia andFinland and

other Scandinavian countries. Thanks to

Per-Ole Johansen we know that the chief of

police in Southern Varanger wrote in letter

dated 14 December 1919 to the regional

commissioner in Finnmark wittily: ‘While

other fluids follow the force of gravity and

sink vertically, alcohol has a magical ability

to spread horizontally and find invisible

ways into society’s inner corners.’

The trade relations between the inhabi-

tants of the southern and northern coasts of

the Gulf of Finland go a long way back in

history. Illicit trade on the coast-line has

always been widespread, and no laws have

ever been able to stop it completely. Barter

and ‘friendly trade’ have, of course, been

widespread since the Middle Ages. Accord-

ing to Kustaa Vilkuna, ‘friendly trade’

(sepralaitos) between Estonians and Finns

had already begun in the 13th century

(Vilkuna 1964a:140–163; Vilkuna 1964b:

6–19).YakovGilinskiy stressed thataban on

selling alcohol is a criminogenic factor which

gives birth to smuggling and fosters

the spread of organized crime. In the 1920s

the trade of smuggled spirits overshadowed

all other commerce in the region. Sub-

sequently, it is difficult to determine what

amounts of spirits from Estonia—and later

also fromPoland,Germany, theNetherlands,

Hungary, Memel, Free City of Danzig

(Gdansk), and Czechoslovakia—were

smuggled into Finland and other Nordic

countries during Prohibition.

The Estonian community on the north-

ern coast of the Gulf of Finland took an

active part in spirits smuggling, e.g.

inhabitants of Kabbole village near

Loviisa. Nowadays examples of such

groups are the networks of drug trafficking

that rely on alien communities in Nordic

countries. On the one hand, the criminals

take advantage of the relative isolation of

an ethnic minority for hiding their criminal

activity, while, on the other hand, they

have knowledge of the local infrastructure

(Pullat 2009:111).

Smuggling of the ‘Baltic pestilence’

On 1 June 1919 the Finnish Parliament

passed the Prohibition Act forbidding the

production, transportation, sale, and sto-

rage of alcohol. In Sweden, alcohol con-

sumption had been limited by the so-called

Bratt system. In Norway, the Prohibition

Act, which had taken effect at the beginning

of the century, remained law until 1927.

In 1927 the Prohibition Act was abolished

under the economic pressure of the wine

countries (France, Spain, and Portugal).

In Denmark, Germany, and Poland, the

governmental policies regarding alcohol

regulated its consumption through heavy

taxation; these policies were obviously

made ineffective by, among other things,

the free ports in Hamburg, Danzig, and

Copenhagen. In short, that was the inter-

national political situation at the time of

the Finnish Prohibition.

Inhabitants on the coast-line reacted

quickly and decisively at the onset of

Prohibition. In the autumn of the 1921,

there was a revival in spirits smuggling.

This was an observation made by Finnish

customs (Harjunpaa; TA. Kertomus [Tale]

1929, s. 1. Finnish Customs Museum

Archives). Even before Prohibition there

had been active spirits smuggling, although

to a much smaller extent. Now Finns and

Estonians began to smuggle spirits pro-

duced in Estonian distilleries into Finland

in small boats along the coast-line.

One could ask if the Estonian spirits were

alone to be blamed for the ‘Baltic pestilence’.

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The facts refute this assertion. Estonian

spirits were in comparison to Central

European spirits—in particular German

and Polish—considerably more expensive.

German liquor was delivered not only to the

United States and Norway, but also, in part,

to Sweden and Finland. During the Prohibi-

tion it reached Rum Row beyond the

maritime limit of the United States, from

where it was smuggled ashore by organized

criminal groups. German liquor firms in

Hamburg and Lubeck were famous in the

Scandinavian countries. This same German

liquor had been brought in large quantities

into Estonia as well. Moreover, it was well

known that the whisky, cognac, liqueurs,

champagnes, red and white wines, as well as

mulled clarets, which the Finnish intelligen-

tsia consumed in large quantities, did not

originate from Estonia. In particular, very

little of Estonian spirits reached the coast of

the Gulf of Bothnia. At the same time

German liquor was very widespread. In

Tallinn it was possible to order cognac and

other sorts of liquor from Germany by

telephone (KA, Ulkoasiainministerion

arkisto. [Archive of Foreign Ministry]

Tallinnan lahetyston poliittiset raportit

[Political Reports of Embassy in Tallinn],

r. 5C 12, k. 20, rap. 61, 5.02.1930. Finnish

National Archives).

The trade of liquor smuggling had caused

increasing dissatisfaction among certain

groups in Germany. In a letter from the

Hamburg Association of the German Order

of the Templars to the German Reich-

skanzler from 15 March 1923 it was

demanded that the smuggling of spirits

into Scandinavia be stopped (KA, Sosiaali-

ministerion raittiusosaston arkisto [Archive

of Temperance Department of Ministry of

Social Affairs]. Ha 1. Finnish National

Archives). It was clear from the context that

Polish spirits, which were exported from

Danzig, were also being referred to. In the

port of the Free City of Danzig there was a

large spirits factory, the ‘Baltische Sprit-

werke AG’. German spirits were also

shipped by a German syndicate, which

employed the female Russian emigrant

Wulfsohn as a middleman. The firm was

called ‘Holm Export und Handelsge-

sellschaft mbH’ and was managed by Th.

Schultheiss and Anton Klemm. There was

nothing known about the owners of the

firm. Nonetheless, it was considered to be

the centre of spirits export in Danzig.

Besides German spirits the firm arranged

the sale of Czech, Dutch, and Hungarian

alcohol. The main office of the firm was in

the Lange Str. 19 (Paevaleht [Daily News-

paper] 13 December 1929).

It may be the case that the large group of

German smugglers operating until 1924 is

directly related to the inflation in Germany

at the time. The value of the German mark

dropped, and German goods seemed stun-

ningly inexpensive. This activated the

export of spirits. A Finnish archival

document states that most of the spirits

smuggled into Finland came from Germany

and that the Estonian share of the total illicit

trade was only 15% (KA, Ulkoasiainminis-

terion arkisto [Archive of Foreign Minis-

try]. Tallinnan lahetyston poliittiset raportit

[Political Reports of Embassy in Tallinn],

r. 5C 12, k. 13. rap. n:o 9, 2.01.1924:

Suomen ja Viron kauppasopimus [Finnish

and Estonian Trade Agreement]: Eraita

nakokohtia [Some Standpoints]. Finnish

National Archives). Another document

states precisely that Germany was the

country from where most of the spirits

smuggled into Finland originated. Per-Ole

Johansen confirms that German smugglers

shipped German inexpensive spirits from

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Hamburg and other northern German

harbours also to meeting-points in inter-

national waters off the Norwegian coast

from where the Norwegians undertook the

task of bringing the cargo ashore (Johansen

2005:190–191).

Political background of the spirits smuggling

It is important to remember that Finnish

foreign policy towards Germany was

cautious. In general, the smuggling of

spirits by Germans into Finland was not

discussed (Paasivirta 1968:84). The Fin-

nish government did not want to spoil their

good relations with Germany. For this

reason they sacrificed their Estonian neigh-

bour. This, of course, does not lessen the

negative influence of Estonian spirits on

Finnish society during Prohibition. How-

ever, Finnish decision-makers could have

been somewhat more objective and could

have refrained from making Estonia

responsible for the entire problem.

The real reason for this posture by the

Finnish government was that the heads of

the Finnish Farmers’ Union did not like the

import of the inexpensive Estonian agricul-

tural products. It was supposed to have

interfered with the agricultural develop-

ment in Finland. In light of the fact that the

population was forced to buy these inex-

pensive products, it was inappropriate

publicly to attack the import of Estonian

potatoes and meat. Special cellars for

export of potatoes were built on the

Estonian northern coast. While agricultural

imports were also a topic for discussion, the

smuggling of Estonian spirits became the

focal point instead. The Farmers’ Union did

not attack German spirits. It was as if Finns

had never been intoxicated by German

spirits, just by Estonian (EAA, f 2389, n 2,

s 387, l 1. Estonian Historical Archives). By

1923 Estonian newspapers had reported

quite intensively on the German ships

smuggling spirits in the gulfs of Finland

and Bothnia. For the most part, smaller

steamboats, weighing between 500 and 600

tons, were involved in smuggling (Paevaleht

[Daily Newspaper] 27 July 1923).

International factors fostering the illicit tradeof liquor

It is also necessary to remember that

Estonians often bought spirits on the

German ships and then brought it into

Finland themselves. It is, therefore, quite

easy to confuse matters and think that the

Estonians smuggled their own spirits into

Finland (Vaba Maa [Free Country] 29 July

1924). It is possible that Central European

spirits were sold as Estonian. In addition,

the ‘Water of Viru’ had a particular aura

for the Finns. Their fathers and grand-

fathers had consumed it, and, while it was

more expensive, it was of much higher

quality than German or Polish spirits.

At this point it is possible to add that the

crews on the spirits boats were mostly

international. In December 1933, for

example, the crew of the motor-boat ‘Mai’

were arrested on the northern coast of the

island Vestero in the Maksamaa archipe-

lago. Among the crew members were:

a Finnish businessman Isak VilhelmAhlskog

from the county of Maalahti, a German

First Officer Walter Christian Wilhelm

Einfeldt from Kiel, a motorist Helmut

Albert Ferdinand Pech from Kiel, an

Estonian farmer Juhan Suik-Keller from

Keila, and a mechanic Artur Visso from

Tallinn (SA, MVL, T/17220: Kuulustelu-

poytakirjat [Records of Interrogation]

1932–1936. 1939. S-A. Finnish Military

Archives).

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Most of the coastal inhabitants did not

feel that engaging in smuggling was a crime

or a disgrace. Instead, it was seen as a

means to earn money and help make ends

meet. There were socio-economic reasons

for the illicit trade of spirits as well. First of

all, the economic situation of the coastal

inhabitants, not only in the Baltic

countries, but also in Finland and other

Nordic countries, was quite difficult. The

Prohibition Act complicated their situation

even more. In addition, the following

international factors contributed to the

illicit trade of liquor in the region: the large

amount of alcohol produced in the Baltic

countries; the large international alcohol

warehouses in the free ports on the North

Sea and the Baltic Sea; the powerful and

highly active wholesale dealers of alcoholic

beverages; the ship suppliers; the island and

coastal inhabitants who acted as middle-

men in the sale of alcohol; and the habit of

consuming large quantities of hard liquor.

Above all, the countries which suffered the

most from this illicit trade were those

which had forbidden or limited the sale of

alcohol (Voionmaa 1924:9–13). For Esto-

nia and Latvia this meant the loss of their

traditional liquor market in Russia.

A referendum at the end of 1931

abolished the Prohibition Act in Finland.

On 5 April 1932 at 10 a.m. the first liquor

stores were reopened.

Corruption and violence related to spiritssmuggling

Prohibition and spirits smuggling caused

corruption in Finland and in other countries

of the Baltic Sea region at different social

levels. According to Per-Ole Johansen, in

Norway smugglers supported covertly also

the temperance movement, which stood

for the sustained enforcement of the

Prohibition Act (Johansen 2005:193). On

the basis of gathered data it can be

concluded that the attitude of Estonian

authorities to ‘spirits king’ Arnold Eerik1

was a lot more benevolent than to Eduard

Kronstrom,2 also known as the ‘Count of

Kolga’. Apparently that sort of ‘friendship’

had its price. The egg export company

‘OVO’ was a front for politicians who used

the business of spirits smuggling in order to

find finance for achieving their political

goals, and in return they supported Eerik in

his competition with the ‘Count of Kolga’.

In the small and transparent Estonian

society Eerik’s suddenly accumulated riches

should have attracted attention. The scope

of illegal business is considered a substantial

risk factor in theoretical literature on

organized crime. The war of spirits claimed

victims both among uniformed men and

spirits smugglers. The history of the

Prohibition Act includes armed conflicts in

Ava and Loksa. The battle of spirits that was

held in Brando archipelago in Ava in 1931

was extraordinary and dramatic. When the

customs officers approached the island, the

men in the village opened fire. In the

exchange of fire one customs officer was

fatally wounded and the other died immedi-

ately. Subsequently Pori regiment was

summoned for help, and they restored

order. In addition to lesser punishments,

one man in Ava was sentenced to 8 years in

prison. Armed conflicts took place between

uniformed men and spirits smugglers also

in other Nordic countries. It is known

that smugglers were often ambushed by

1 Arnold Eerik was born in Vyborg in 1884. According toother sources Arnold-Hugo Eerik was born in 1892 inTallinn and died in Gorki district in the Soviet Union in1943.2 Eduard Kronstrom was born in 1890 in Kolga-Aabla inHarju county and died in a car accident in 1932 nearViljandi.

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smuggling rivals dressed up as police

officers who robbed the illegal spirits

cargo by holding the smugglers at gun

point or by other means (Johansen, n.d.). In

their greed for profit criminals not only had

no concern for uniformed men, but some-

times even bystanders who did not partici-

pate in criminal business became victims as

well. Spirits smugglers Johannes Lilleberg,

Albert Viliberg, and Joosep Viliberg decided

to rob Jaan Einberg, the king of spirits

smugglers and parish chief living on Prangli

island. In the course of the robbery the

whole family was killed, and the house was

set on fire. Thus the parish chief who had

mixed criminal business and parish admin-

istration sacrificed his family (Mik

2009:209).

Tallinn and Helsinki were built on spirits

Obviously, the coastal inhabitants profited

from the smuggling of spirits. The seaside

villages flourished, and the standard of living

increased. Beautiful homes and representa-

tive buildings were built. It used to be said

that the Hansa town Tallinn was ‘built on

salt’ in the Middle Ages. Now it could be said

that the great stone mansions in Tallinn and

Helsinki were built on spirits. Thanks to the

spirits smuggling, a number of firms in

Estonia and Finland laid the economic

foundation for their future success. It is not

our intent to judge them. Thus a famous

spirits smuggler Meistermann had a six-

storey stone building in Faehlmann Street in

Tallinn. Several Estonian and Finnish indus-

trial, transport, and trading companies were

established thanks to spirits smuggling.

A former smuggler Toomas Kain was the

owner of steamboats and a director of a

shipping company. Smuggler Johannes Link-

ruus was a joint owner of nine ships in a

Tallinn shipping company.

The organizational structure of internationalspirits smuggling

A new socio-professional stratum in society

emerged—black marketeers. These were

mostly young or middle-aged men engaged

in the shipment and procurement of

smuggled liquor. This new class of people

had a broad societal basis. For the most part,

they were fishermen or sailors. In addition,

there were farmers, truck-drivers, train

conductors, traders, foresters, and people

from other lines of work among them. For a

time they represented a marginal social

group divided into different income classes.

They were somewhat similar to the ‘metal

businessmen’3 who operated during the

early years of newly independent Estonia.

With the abolition of the Prohibition Act this

societal group gradually dispersed. The great

army of smugglers was without work at the

beginning of the 1930s. For this not only the

abolition of the Prohibition Act but also the

world economic crisis was to be blamed.

A number of the liquor smugglers changed

their specialization and began transporting

political refugees from Finland into the

Soviet Union (Kostiainen 1988:87–88).

Different levels developed gradually in

smuggling. First, there were large investors

in criminal business who belonged to the

political and economic elite but stayed in the

shadows as a rule. Today’s drug business is

usually also financed by investors who do

not have direct contact with the illegal

business and by big suppliers, as was the case

with Eerik, Kronstrom, and Finnish king of

spirits smugglers Algoth Niska, who were

the owners of smuggling boats. Let it be said

that the first smuggling mother ships were

3 ‘Metal businessmen’ were people engaged in thesmuggling of metals out of the Russian Federation inthe early 1990s.

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launched already in 1923. Second, there

were the importers belonging to the middle

class who bought spirits from the smuggling

boats anchored in neutral waters. At the

lowest level of the market of smuggled spirits

were the delivery men, buyers, and small-

scale dealers representing marginal layers.

Organized crime-related organizations deal-

ing in smuggled spirits during Prohibition in

the Baltic Sea region and elsewhere cannot

be compared to the so-called bureaucratic

model of organized crime described by

Donald Cressey (1997:14).

Like nowadays in drug distribution in the

Nordic countries, and so in Finland and

elsewhere during Prohibition, Estonians

themselves did not deal with spirits distri-

bution, the Finns and Swedes handled it

(Pullat 2009:92). According to Antti Hak-

kinen the international criminal network of

spirits smuggling ended with the Finns, i.e.

the smuggler who had brought spirits from a

smuggling boat; the driver who had

transported spirits by car or horse or by

other means from one location to another;

the owner of the means of transport (cars

were expensive and in order to avoid

vehicles being confiscated the owners were

supposedly not aware that their property

was used for smuggling); the person in

whose possession were small or large

amounts of spirits; the seller of spirits and

the buyer (Hakkinen 2003:196, 201–202).

Finnish police once found 400,000 marks

in thepocketofone smuggleralone.Estonian

spirits kings had trouble storing the heaps of

cash, so herring barrels were used as savings

boxes (Pullat and Pullat 2010:336).

The Finnish population was filled with

indignation, because the black marketeers

bought up not only houses in the cities, but

also the homes of respectable farmers who

were infinancial trouble.TheProhibitionwas

a difficult time for the Finns to survive. The

Prohibition Act proved to be a ‘crazy law’. In

termsofpracticalpolitics, theProhibitionhad

a deeply negative effect on the relations

between these two neighbouring countries.

The legendary spirits smuggler Emel

Vaarmann from Viinistu, whom we were

fortunate to meet, took his last cargo of

smuggled spirits (40,000 litres) from Vii-

nistu to the Loviisa Isles still on 1 September

1939. On the same day the Kriegsmarine

battleship the ‘Schleswig-Holstein’, which

had been anchored in the port of the Free

City of Danzig for a friendly visit, opened

direct fire at the Polish fortress of Wester-

platte, and World War Two began (Pullat

and Pullat 2010:205). In war conditions

people tried to take advantage of the

criminal network that had been established

for spirits smuggling. It was after all

Estonian and Finnish spirits-smuggling fish-

ermen who helped Estonians to escape to

Sweden and Finland. Moreover, in early

spring of 1944 they took Polish soldiers

who had been interned in the Baltic

countries to Finland. After the war the

Forest Brothers4 of Viru county allegedly

turned to the former spirits smugglers

asking them to transport them from Letipea

to Finland. Unfortunately there are no data

whether anyone managed to slip through

the tight net of the Soviet border guard.

Conclusion

The representatives of organized crime in the

Baltic Sea region became rich fast during

Prohibition thanks to limits set by countries,

laying at the same time the groundwork for

future legal activities. Organized crime as it

4 The Forest Brothers were anti-Soviet resistance groupsin three Baltic states fighting against Soviet rule during theSoviet occupation.

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emerged in the 1990s and related smuggling,

especially drug smuggling, could very well be

rooted in the Prohibition period. The

connecting link is the common criminal

background of smugglers. Despite the time

gap of almost a century both phenomena are

actually comparable. Large-scale spirits

smuggling was arranged during Prohibition

by criminal organizations through inter-

national networks. Moving up the social

ladder increased possibilities for criminal

actions. The authors point out that Kron-

strom started his illegal international business

knowing only two words in German—‘zwei

mark’. Smuggling entailed violence, corrup-

tion, complicatedmodus operandi, and other

related issues.A ‘codeof silence’wasenforced

with violence. Also nowadays smugglers are

urged by big profits despite severe punish-

ments which in some cases can result in a life-

sentence. In research of organized crime, the

truthfulness of judgment depends on the

distance of the data source to the location

‘where everything is actually happening’

(Aimre 2005:73). The authors are convinced

that archival material and other processed

data give a rather truthful picture of

organized crime during Prohibition in the

Baltic Sea region; however, it is clear that the

authorsdidnot coverabsolutely everythingas

the object of research is located on the

borderline of public and non-public infor-

mation, andseveral years separateus fromthe

time of events.

References

Aimre I (2005). Sotsioloogia [Sociology]. 2nd

revised ed. Tallinn. Sisekaitseakadeemia

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RAIMO PULLAT

Professor Emeritus, Dr.hab., Dr.h.c.,

Tallinn University

Tina 21a-1

10126 Tallinn

ESTONIA

Email: raimopullat@hot.ee

RISTO PULLAT

Police Lt Col

Police and Border Guard Board

Parnu mnt 139

15060 Tallinn

ESTONIA

Email: risto.pullat@politsei.ee

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