The Erik Heine story, a mystery remaining unsolved

The involvement of the KGB, the CIA, an Estonian anti-Soviet partisan, Siberian labour camps, two prolonged court cases, and the credibility of major community personalities all in one captivating story would be plenty for a Hollywood mystery.

But the most intriguing events of the recent past within the community of Estonians abroad have still not reached full closure even with the declassification of millions of pages of CIA documents formerly kept from public view.

Eerik Heine, an anti-Soviet partisan (Metsavend), a soldier in German forces, arrested by the Soviets, sentenced to the Gulag, released during Kruschev’s amnesty, active as a hard-line anti-Communist in Canada, depicted as the central character in a movie about Estonian anti-Communist partisans, accused of being covertly KGB, whose claims were studied by Alfons Rebane, who filed a libel suit against the CIA, had passionate defenders as well as those who were totally convinced that the CIA’s accusations were justified.
Rather than Erik Heine’s own account or the CIA’s version of his background, a KGB-commissioned summary of Heine’s ‘legend’ opens the first article of this series. (Read more: Estonian Life No. 50 2017Estonian Life No. 50 2017).