Artur Sirk

[4] Both of these groups had little ambition beyond being ex-servicemen's associations however Sirk desired a more centralised structure and to this end he established the Eesti Vabadussõjalaste Keskliit, or Vaps Movement as it became known, in 1929.

Whilst the chairman of the new group was General Ernst Põdder it was Sirk who drafted its statutes, including an enshrined duty of leadership of the country's youth for the movement, and he also secured a seat on the eight member executive chosen at the first Vaps national congress on 26 January 1930 in Tallinn.

[5] Sirk's speech at their 1932 conference gave the impetus for a change in direction as he called for a party that could take advantage of citizen's initiative to ensure the transfer to authoritarianism.

[6] The government had claimed that Andres Larka, Sirk and other leading Vaps figures had been preparing to launch a coup although in this instance there was little evidence that the allegations were true.

[6] Estonian historians including Pusta[12] and Tomingas[13] have argued that the death was an act of defenestration by agents of Päts, although local police in Luxembourg stated that it was a suicide.

120 years since the birth of Artur Sirk. Commemorative stamp. Estonia. Oma Mark 2020.