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Johan Bäckman

Born	1971
Nationality	Finnish
Alma mater	University of Helsinki
Known for	Controversial views

Johan Bäckman (born in 1971) is a Finnish controversial political author, legal sociologist and criminologist, holding adjunct professorship and temporary teaching positions in several Finnish universities.

He received his training in sociology and political history in the University of Helsinki, where he defended his Ph.D. in 2006 and is now adjunct professor in the sociology of law. He is also adjunct professor in criminology at the University of Turku and the University of Joensuu. He has taught courses on the sociology of law, criminology and Russian studies in several Finnish universities.

Bäckman has written about Finnish-Soviet relations during the Cold War, war history of Finland and the Soviet Union, organized crime in Russia and Estonia, the Russian Mafia, terrorism and history of Estonia. Bäckman's writings, published in Finland and Estonia, have been regarded as pro-Putin and anti-Estonian.

Bäckman has lived and worked in St. Petersburg Russia 1993-2004 and is fluent in Russian. He opened a scientific research centre there called Johan Beckman Institute, specialised in publishing books about Finnish-Russian was history in several languages. Bäckman has been popular commentator in Russian national television, radio and press, often underlining Finnish and Estonian Russophobia and their re-writing of history. Bäckman is stronly against the position of the Finnish president Tarja Halonen that Finland waged separate Continuation War against the aggression of the USSR. Bäckman claims Finns participated in the Siege of Leningrad actively and asked Hitler to destroy the city, planning to create Greater Finland consisting of Finland, Karelia, Leningrad, Northern Sweden and Norway, and Estonia. Bäckman has strongly critisised Finnish nationalists’ attempts to return the territories lost in the Paris Peace Treaty.

File:Saatana Helsinkiin.jpg

In 2007 Bäckman published a book in Finnis title "Satan Arrives in Helsinki" (Template:Lang-fi), claming the American citizen Anna Politkovskaya assassination was organized by circles who wanted to smear Russian president Vladimir Putin and accusing Finnish politicians and PEN-club of Russiphobia. Bäc kman stronlgy admires Vladimir Putin and compares him to Cold War-era Finnish president Urho Kekkonen and claimed that he wish Putin likewise ruled Russia for 26 years. He stated that Finland also needs such organizations as pro-Kremlin Nashi. According to Bäckman, the freedom of the press in Russia is considerably higher than in Finland, and Estonia is not free at all. Bäckman has written and argued against what he calls "apartheid policies" of Estonia and Latvia and given several controversial interviews e.g. claming Estonia will join Russian within a decade. In his opinion, Estonian integration policies are "apartheid" and represents a "criminal discrimination of Russians". Bäckman also claims the "destruction" of the Bronze Soldier grave site and monument in April 2007 by the Estonian government was "the end of history of Estonia". Bäckman has noted Russian youth hates Estonia and Latvia and will act accordingly when reach political power. In "Bronze Soldier" he dismissed the Soviet occupation of Estonia as a "Nazi myth". Bäckman has gained wide publicity in Estonia for denying the Soviet occupation during 1940-1941 and 1944-1991:

In my opinion speaking or writing of Soviet "occupation" should be criminalised as a form of racist propaganda. I demand five years prison sentence to everyone who dears to say Estonia was "occupied" by Soviet Union.

After Bäckman published a highly controversial book about the Estonian Bronze Soldier issue in September 2008, a number of Finnish and Estonian cultural figures, scholars, journalists and politicians, including Henrik Lax, Lasse Lehtinen and Sofi Oksanen, addressed the University of Helsinki with an open letter of protest, partly in relation Bäckman teaching a course on "specialities of Estonian legal policy" in Spring 2009. The former minister of foreign affairs of Finland Dr. Erkki Tuomioja reacted by saying the letter was "censorship letter" violating principles of freedom of speech. The University of Helsinki made a distancing statement holding that Bäckman's political views are his own and not representing the University's.

==Nashi protest in Helsinki In March 2009 Bäckman arranged a protest held by activists of Nashi, Night Watch and the Finnish Anti-Fascist Committee in Helsinki against (in his words) opening a new anti-Russian front on information warfare on the territory of Finland by Estonian embassy. The protests were aimed aganst seminars, a book about the Soviet occupation of Estonia and films presented by the Estonian embassy. Bäckman claimed that the Soviet Union did not occupy Estonia and belittled the significance of the Soviet deportations from Estonia.

Estonian security police on Bäckman

The Estonian security police Kaitsepolitseiamet officer Andres Kahar has strongly commented Bäckman in the Estonian press. In his opinion Bäckman is a Russian propagandist spreading disinformation which is similar to the claims Moscow is making. In March 2009 Kaitsepolitseiamet said that Bäckman is a communist who maintains close friendship with well-known Finnish neo-nazi Risto Teinonen, both of whom know the former KGB agent residing in Estonia Vladimir Ilyashevich, all of them being linked with the young Muscovite historian Alexander Dyukov. In the assessment by Kaitsepolitseiamet, both Bäckman and Teinonen are likely to be part of a FSB operation directed from Moscow through Ilyashevich. Bäckman has denied he is a communist but at the same time he has said he admires the pro-Soviet Taistoist movement of the 1970s. Bäckman has seriously stated that Estonia does not exist. Following publication of the final report of the Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity, Bäckman claimed that its chairman, the Finnish diplomat and one-time UN Secretary-General candidate Max Jakobson, is the "ideological father of the criminal apartheid regime of Estonia" and that this ideology being maintained by official Estonia is Nazism, according to Bäckman.

Bäckman arranged the "Nashi-protest" in March 23, 2009. The handful of demonstrators were the focus of attention for about 40 representatives of the media.

Bäckman has denied him being an agent of the FSB. He has successfully sued individuals claiming so.

Awards

The Saint Petersburg legislature awarded Bäckman Marshal Govorov Literature Prize (2004) for publishing the book Finland and the Siege of Leningrad 1941-1944 by Russian historian Nikolai Baryshnikov. The Finnish historian Timo Vihavainen commented the book was "built on Stalinist propaganda stereotypes" and the author had misundestood some sources

Works

Bäckman, Johan (1996). Venäjän organisoitu rikollisuus. Helsinki: Oikeuspoliittinen tutkimuslaitos. ISBN 951-704-191-8.
Bäckman, Johan (1997). Liikkeenjohto Venäjän muutoksessa. Helsinki: WSOY. ISBN 951-0-21672-0.
Bäckman, Johan (1998). The inflation of crime in Russia: The social danger of the emerging markets. Helsinki: National Research Institute of Legal Policy. ISBN 951-704-211-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |Kieli= ignored (help)
Bäckman, Johan (1999). ”Sudella on sata tietä...”: Pietarin organisoitu rikollisuus Venäjän rikosoikeuskulttuurin kehyksessä. Helsinki: Oikeuspoliittinen tutkimuslaitos. ISBN 951-704-240-X.
Bäckman, Johan (2001). Entäs kun tulee se yhdestoista? Suomettumisen uusi historia. Helsinki: WSOY. ISBN 951-0-25654-4.
Bäckman, Johan (2006). Itämafia: Uhkakuvapolitiikka, rikosilmiöt ja kulttuuriset merkitykset. Espoo: Poliisiammattikorkeakoulu. ISBN 951-815-112. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
Bäckman, Johan (2007). Saatana saapuu Helsinkiin: Anna Politkovskajan murha ja Suomi. Helsinki: Russia Advisory Group. ISBN 978-952-99785-1-9.
Bäckman, Johan (2008). Pronssisoturi: Viron patsaskiistan tausta ja sisältö. Tallinn: Tarbeinfo. ISBN 978-9985-9721-7-5.

References

External links

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