Johan Bäckman

Who is Johan Bäckman?

Erkki Johan Bäckman is a Finnish political author, legal sociologist and criminologist. In Russia he is also considered a human rights activist, defending especially rights of Russian citizens abroad. In his home country Finland he is considered merely a dissident, and persona non grata in Estonia.

He received his training in sociology at the University of Helsinki, where he defended his Ph.D. in 2006, and has a title of a docent of the sociology of law. He also has a title of a docent in criminology at the University of Turku and the University of Eastern Finland. He has previously taught courses on the sociology of law, criminology, and Russian studies in several Finnish universities.

Bäckman has written books, some of which controversial, 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 the history of Estonia. As a spokesman for the Finnish Anti-Fascist Committee he is against the integration policies of Estonia and Latvia, claiming they are "apartheid policies". On the whole, he does not recognize them as states.