The Forest Brothers were organized groups of resistance fighters in Estonia, formed soon after the end of World War Two, not only to carry out guerrilla operations against occupying Soviet forces but also, as the manifesto makes clear, as the vanguard of a planned, later and larger uprising.

The manifesto is in three parts, and the find consisted of the first two of these, likely as original manuscripts.

Martin Andreller, a historian at the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory (Eesti Mälu Instituut) said: "I would venture say this is indeed the first draft of 'Metsavendluse ideoloogilised alused,' which later copies were made from.

"This is undoubtedly the earliest version," he went on, citing details such as edits and additions in pencil which had already been incorporated into previously found printed texts, as evidence of its authenticity.

The finalized version consists of three parts, with the first written in the summer of 1947, followed by the second in the spring of 1948 and the third just before the mass deportations of Estonians by the occupying Soviet forces, which happened in March 1949.

The notebooks discovered during the farmhouse renovation end in 1948, meaning the third section was not present

One of the main driving forces behind the manifesto was Erich Jerlet, one of Estonia's most well-known Forest Brothers and the orchestrator of the famous September 5, 1951, train robbery, in which around 200,000 Soviet Rubles were appropriated.

Jerlet in turn received guidance from another Forest Brother, Richard Saaliste.

Saaliste fled to Sweden in 1944 with the arrival of Soviet forces, but returned to Estonia in 1946, likely initially to gather information and establish connections with the resistance movements.

He expanded his activities from then on, but was killed in a Soviet raid in December 1949.

Another key figure involved in the drafting of the manifesto was Vambola Oras.

Oras authored the introduction, and edited, expanded on and corrected other aspects, but was arrested in March 1949.

In a subsequent interrogation, Oras noted: "In the work in hand, the author has generally outlined the essence of the sole possible – albeit illegal – opposition operating under the current conditions, and has briefly touched on the international situation and democratic goals that underpin this opposition."

"The author has comprehensively and objectively examined the life and goals of the local resistance, the 'Forest Brothers,' and outlined the aims and principles that should guide this political movement," the introduction went on.

One of the manifesto's central points, according to all three of the aforementioned, was the acknowledgment that liberating Estonia from Soviet rule via internal processes alone would not be viable.

This could only happen in a subsequent "great war."

During his interrogation, Oras said: "The Forest Brothers, including myself, considered a war against the Soviet Union inevitable, as well as the Soviet Union's defeat in that war".

"For this reason we drafted 'instructions' to prepare the Forest Brothers for the upcoming confrontation, so they could be quickly mobilized to fight the Soviet Union when the time came," he added.

Former Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) Gen. Commander Martin Herem said he found enough material in his 2012 master's thesis to develop more practical guidelines from the manifesto.

Among other things, it suggested avoiding unnecessary and dangerous actions which could threaten the Forest Brothers' efforts, while also providing military training to those lacking such skills.

The directives, however, were more as a guideline rather than explicit instructions.

According to Martin Andreller, the content of "Metsavendluse ideoloogilised alused," primarily came into the hands of present-day historians via declassified Soviet files.

"It can be found here and there in investigation files, translated into Russian," he said.

"Since thousands of captured Forest Brothers and their supporters were arrested, I am convinced that parts or complete texts of this manifesto may still be found in someone's file," Andreller went on.

At the same time, he would not rule out the possibility that copies of the document might emerge from other hiding places in the future too.

For instance, the notebooks currently gripping historians were found in 2022, during the renovation of a farmhouse, discovered between wallpaper and the log-built wall once the wallpaper had been removed.

The timeliness of the find went beyond mere home improvement, as well.

Andreller said: "The people who found the notebooks had viewed a series about the Forest Brothers on ETV that same evening and realized they had stumbled upon something highly significant."

"Today, they also believe that these notebooks should be accessible and visible to the public," he continued.

The historian related that, despite the manifesto's broad reach, it is impossible to say how many people might have read it at the time.

Thanks to the lack of a centralized organization uniting the Forest Brothers across Estonia, copies of the manifesto and the ideas contained in it were propagated only via direct contact between different Forest Brothers cadres.

Nonetheless, Andreller said its impact should not be underestimated. By the time the manifesto was published, thousands of men had already left the forests thanks to the 1945 amnesty and the 1946 "legalization campaign," a largely un-kept amnesty.

Added to this was the effect of the Soviet Union's harsher means of control.

"There was an absolute need to strengthen the ideological base," Andreller said.

"While armed actions by the Forest Brothers may not have been mass or everyday occurrences, articulating resistance and maintaining it were very important," the historian explained.

The Forest Brothers' legacy can also be directly traced down to the ultimately successful independence movements of the late 1980s.

By the early 1950s, ideas of the Forest Brotherhood movement had been passed on to student resistance organizations, and later to dissident movements in the 1970s and 1980s.

With that in mind, Andreller added: "Good colleagues have already called this the 'holy grail' of the Forest Brotherhood. While I wouldn't go quite that far just yet, certainly in artistic terms these two notebooks are comparable to the [first] Estonian flag, in the context of the Forest Brothers movement."

The notebooks are due to be put on display from 2026, in the Forest Brotherhood section of the International Museum for the Victims of Communism at the Paterei bastion in Tallinn.

Before that, the National Archives and the Institute of Historical Memory will be working on their conservation and digitization.

Martin Andreller called for all those who come across curiosities in the course of renovating a building, for instance, or even working in the forest, to always contact the experts, as you never know.

Past experiences have demonstrated that such discoveries can lead to new and fascinating information about the Forest Brothers, and there is likely more out there.

The last Forest Brother was August Sabbe, born in 1909, who died just over 36 years ago to the day, trying to evade a KGB encirclement.

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