NAFO in occupied Estonia, 1982. Yes. Before there was an internet - or any brain-damaged cartoon dogs - there were activists subverting russian propaganda and helping push back russian imperialism with the same spirit of NAFO (and remarkably similar jokes). Let me explain. ⏪ In the early 1980s, a third generation of occupied Estonians entered university. Their parents had been brutalised by soviet rule, but they had new energy, new confidence, and new ideas to overthrow the empire. The students began to organise. Anti-occupation protests spread like never before. It started through semi-official networks. One example was EÜE, which were construction summer camps for students organised by the youth wing of the communist party. Each group was sent to the countryside with an official task - like to build a barn - in order to learn “Soviet work ethics”. But, while there unsupervised, the students instead bonded over how to defeat the occupation and found creative ways to relentlessly mock their occupiers. The camps turned into cells of resistance. In 1981, one such camp called itself Persostrat. The name was typically soviet - an abbreviation of a clunky, pompous phrase. (And it sounded like “ass sphere” in Estonian.) The group spent the summer writing their own parody soviet songs. The next summer, in 1982, a new camp formed out of most of the same members and was sent down to south Estonia. They called themselves Euromais with a plan to parody soviet corn growing campaigns. After arriving, they came up with a better idea. “Enough of this Soviet shit,” said their camp leader, Mati Laur. They decided instead to declare their camp as a NATO base. Specifically, a British NATO base, because the British had a key role in supporting Estonia during its war of independence and they knew that reference would annoy the occupiers even more. They put up signs in English and organised a strict schedule that included afternoon tea and picnics. They imitated and exaggerated British culture, manners, and fashion while ridiculing the unsophisticated russian occupiers. They wrote and enthusiastically sung their own anthem about how NATO would free Estonia from the russians. It was sung to the tune of Yankee Doddle, an iconic tune among Estonian youth as it was the opening to Voice of America’s Estonian broadcasts, which usually got through before the soviet jammers could interrupt it. Incredibly, this “NATO base” was near an actual soviet base, which we now know had nuclear warheads. Yet, to the students, the location was Satterfield, an English-sounding name invented for their imagined secure utopia. Satterfield became a pre-internet kind of meme, enduring for years to come through networks across Estonia. An invitation to Satterfield was code for resistance organising. Members of this “British NATO base” later formed part of the core of the student resistance to soviet occupation. They had a leading role in campaigning to anull the nazi-soviet pact and helped get the Singing Revolution started. A decade after establishing their mock base, they achieved their goal. Estonia and its Baltic neighbours were free and the soviet union was no more. The members of that original group are now well respected men and women in free Estonia. One who helped write that song even became Ambassador to NATO (the real one). Estonia is now NATO with real NATO bases - and where the British really are based. “We’ve been waiting for you since 1949,” explained @EerikNKross, former director of Estonian intelligence, who shared the story with them. Eerik is now also part of NAFO, doing his bit to deliver supplies to Ukraine as part of @69thSB. To him, Satterfield and NAFO are part of one story. And proof that mocking russia can indeed make a real difference. The spirit of Satterfield lives on. It is thanks to Eerik that this story has been documented. You can read it from him in more detail here: upnorth.eu/how-the-estonian-…