Vodka Sea. The Illicit Alcohol Trade in the Baltic Sea Region Between the World Wars

The mare nostrum of the 1920s and 1930s can reasonably be called the Vodka Sea. The work of Raimo and Risto Pullat creates a general picture of alcohol smuggling between Estonia and Finland at that time, reflecting the phenomenon and its accompanying cultural influences in the Baltic Sea countries in greater depth than ever before. This is a substantially updated text of the Vodka Sea series published in Estonian, Finnish, Polish and Latvian. The iconography and memories of the work are also significantly richer.

Liquor smuggling is treated in this work as just one manifestation of international organized crime. Alcohol kingpins’ relationships with politicians and law enforcement agencies led to the spread of corruption during Prohibition. Organized crime manifests itself today in the form of drug trafficking, but it had already been established by these so-called alcohol kings. The pre-World War II Vodka Sea has become a mare narcoticum.