Lennart Meri. Statesman and prophet

Choosing the transatlantic path, Lennart Meri knew that the future of Estonia must be associated with close allies from its region. Photo: Jaan Künnap (CC) commons.wikimedia.org

Meri was born on March 29th 1929 in Tallinn in the family of Estonian diplomat and Shakespeare translator, Georg Meri. With his family, Lennart Meri left Estonia at an early age and studied in nine different schools and in four different languages. The Second World War brought with it a traumatic period, the end of independence of Estonia and for Meri and his family, imprisonment in a Siberian camp. They came back to the Soviet Republic, where young Meri had graduated cum laude from the Faculty of History and Languages of Tartu University in 1953 and completed history studies at Tartu University in 1953. He soon faced a life-transforming experience while he was travelling to the deserts and mountains of Central Asia, about which he later wrote several books, including Hot Waterfalls (orig. Tulemägede maale), which was also published in Poland in 1971 and can be found (in Polish) on the shelves of the VIP lounge at the Lennart Meri airport in Tallinn.

From culture to politics

Meri’s literary works, films and translations meaningfully contributed to the preservation of Estonian national identity and by the time he was permitted by the Soviet authorities to travel beyond the iron curtain in the 1980s, Meri was already known as a champion of Estonian culture and freedom. He soon shifted his focus from literary to political activities and was the first Estonian to disseminate information abroad about the protest against the Soviet plan to mine phosphate in Estonia which would have caused enormous environmental damage. The protests grew and were subsumed “into the winds of freedom that began to stir through Eastern Europe in the late 80s and which found their Baltic expression in the singing revolutions in Tallinn”.

In April 1990 Lennart Meri began his political career by taking a position as minister of foreign affairs of Estonia at a time when the state had not yet been restored. While the term “Estonian Socialistic Soviet Republic” was only abandoned in May 1990 and the term “Republic of Estonia” was reinstituted as the official name of the state, a month earlier Estonian authorities prepared a memorandum to approach the governments of all European countries, the United States and Canada with an appeal that the issue of the restoration of independence of the Republic of Estonia be added to the agenda of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1990 as a subject of international law. This was a document prepared formally by the Estonian authorities before regaining independence in 1991 which directed the foreign ministry to re-establish its activities as coordinator of the state’s foreign policy.

During two short years as foreign minister, Meri preserved and defended the non-recognition policy as to achieve full restoration of Estonia through state restitution. As Juri Luik wrote “Lennart mastered the difficult art for a politician: converging ideals and real life in a way that none suffers. At that, the greatest sensitivity was needed in the USA, the bastion for the non-recognition policy. The joining of the two branches of independence culminated with Ernst Jaakson, born in 1905, as Estonia’s first ambassador in the USA and at UN.” Jaakson embodied the continuity of the Estonian state being an active diplomat before 1940 (as a member of Estonian Consulate General), between 1940 and 1991 (as a consul in charge of the legation) and after 1991.

Enormous challenges

Meri’s success was visible not only in the political sphere. He is remembered to this day as the politician who laid the foundation of the ministry of foreign affairs in the direct sense of the expression – he built up a network of Estonian information offices in several European capitals which became the first network of Estonian embassies and consulates. In addition, which is even more important, he built the foreign service in Estonia composed of young, patriotic, extraordinary talented and workaholic young professionals who had everything but diplomatic experience. This brave decision was soon to be proved effective. Then Juri Luik, Kalev Stoicescu and others, just in their 20s, were instrumental in succeeding the most difficult tasks of the Estonian foreign and security policy, including paving the way towards the pro-transatlantic policy and stabilising the relationship with the Soviet Union.

After a brief period as ambassador to Finland (April-October 1992), Meri was elected president of Estonia and sworn into the office on October 6th 1992. He was re-elected on September 20th 1996 for a second two year term. While the position of Meri as president was limited in the Estonian constitutional system he effectively faced enormous challenges in foreign and domestic politics.

Meri vigorously continued what he had started as foreign minister. Estonia was actively engaging in international relations anchoring its sovereignty in international organisations and treaties focusing on a pro-western course. Meri was a decisive personality in paving Estonia towards the transatlantic way. At the beginning of the 1990s he was one of the very few who predicted Estonia’s membership in the transatlantic family. It was difficult to imagine since there was a strong inclination among some politicians to choose a safer, neutral, Finnish-like policy. But Meri knew what kind of future to seek for Estonia.

Already on November 25th 1992, he began to convince NATO members and partners that the North Atlantic Alliance is indispensable in the post-Cold War era. Meri emphasised: “If you don’t know what to do now with NATO, read Sakharov. If it is being suggested to you, that with the disintegration of the Warsaw pact, NATO must inevitably disintegrate, read him. Academician Sakharov and the Baltic states are also ready to answer those questions, which you are as yet unable to formulate”. Many years had to come to materialise this dream. It was possible only after Meri’s second term, when in November 2002 at the NATO Summit in Prague, Estonia, along with Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, was invited to begin accession talks to join NATO.

Unique sense of humour

One of the biggest tasks of the newly reinstituted Republic of Estonia was the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Estonian soil. The Estonian Socialist Soviet Republic was one of the most militarised areas in the Soviet Union with two per cent of its territory being administered by military authorities. The number of Soviet troops stationed in Estonia ranged from 100,000-135,000. The process of negotiations between the two sides already started in October 1991, but took several years to define all the parameters since Russia was trying to introduce many complicated terms, including a ten-year withdrawal period. President Meri’s active engagement on the international arena was one of the decisive elements in getting Estonia strong diplomatic support from western states as well as international organisations. The negotiations ended on July 26th 1994 when President Meri and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the agreement on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Estonia and on the conditions of their temporary presence on its territory. The deadline for the withdrawal of Russian troops was set as August 31st 1994.

Choosing the transatlantic path, Lennart Meri knew that the future of Estonia must be associated with close allies from its region. He emphasised the value and meaning of the Polish-Estonian relationship based on a similar threat perception as well as historical and geopolitical determinants. Already in 1998 Meri appealed that “besides successfully developed political ties … we must seriously think how to overcome the really un-European obstacles in our relations. And I am not talking about the infrastructure of road and rail transport … the non-existent common energy circle round the Baltic Sea”. After 23 years, these arguments are still valid.

While Meri was effective in leading Estonia through the challenging years of the newly restored state, he is mostly remembered as a man of meaty humour. As British journalist Edward Lucas mentioned, a witty remark with a deeper meaning was a characteristic “Lennartism”. These witty remarks, punch lines or famous sayings with a deeper meaning also contributed to the heritage of Estonia’s foreign and security policy. Meri was ready to offer them on different occasions and areas, including history (“the notion that the time of Stalin’s and Hitler’s is over is dangerous”), and contemporary challenges (“the situation is sh*t. That’s our fertilizer for the future”). He did not keep it only for the purpose of his public life. When Meri found out about the death of Stalin on March 5th 1953, he proposed to his wife on that day saying “let us remember this happy day forever”.

Legacy

Today, Estonia is a secure and prosperous European country in part due to the legacy of President Lennart Meri, who successfully put his beloved state on the fast track of reform, knowing that independence should not be taken for granted. Meri knew of the importance of international law and organisations, especially vital for such a small state like Estonia. His testament is being fulfilled these days as Estonia is now a successful member of NATO, the EU and the United Nations.

First, Tallinn effectively presents its interests on the international arena, understanding the importance of membership in the key international organisations, including the UN, NATO and the EU. Already in October 1995, Meri emphasised in a speech before the UN General Assembly that “small states are, by definition, more easily wounded, which means that in a security vacuum, small states are more sensitive to barometric changes than large ones. Besides common ideals, we also have common concerns”. To strengthen the voice of small states, Meri proposed the need to create a rotating seat for such countries in the UN Security Council and declared the preparation of the “Tallinn Declaration of Small States”. While Estonia’s efforts in this area were unsuccessful, Meri’s legacy effectively influenced Estonia’s decision to run for a seat on the UN Security Council in 2020-2021. The current president, Kersti Kalulaid, stressed in 2018 that “small countries do not have time for small goals”.

Second, Meri used to say that “international law is the nuclear weapon of small states”. The reconstruction of the free Estonian state in 1991 without bloodshed was possible thanks to the legal instruments which allowed some western countries not to recognise the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states. Estonia very well understands that it can effectively protect its sovereignty mostly within the international regime, where the rights and obligations of all states are equally protected. It is no coincidence that Estonia raises issues of international law as one of the priorities of its membership of the UN Security Council.

Third, the success of Estonia can also be associated with its ability to bring a reality check to discussions on European foreign and security policy. Meri used to say that “compared to Russia, Estonia is like an Inuit kayak. A super tanker takes 16 nautical miles to turn around, but Inuit can do a 180 degree turn on a dime”. While Estonia, being a stable and efficient member of NATO and the EU, is able to run a relatively flexible policy, it also knew that the strategic objectives of such a neighbour like Russia cannot easily be changed, which we should not forget about especially during times of political thaw.

As Estonian politician and ambassador Juri Luik wrote in 2016, ten years after the passing of Meri: “Of Estonia’s statehood, many aspects though far from all lean on ideas of Mr Meri. Again and again, in the heat of the political battles, people have attempted to step into his shoes but, alas, they do not fit. Perhaps we’d better stop trying and get reconciled to President Meri having been unique and us not ever having another just like him”. Five years later, we can only repeat what Luik wrote.

Grzegorz Kozłowski is a Polish diplomat and current Polish ambassador to the Republic of Estonia.

Bibliography of works cited in this article and for further reading

Meri, L. A European Mind, Lennart Meri European Foundation, Tallinn, 2009

Nutt, M. The establishment and restoration of Estonian independence and the development of Estonian foreign relations, Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yearbook, Tallinn, 2007

Kozlowski, G and Selart, A. 100 Years of Diplomatic Relations Between the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Estonia: Common Traces in a Difficult History, University of Tartu Press, Tartu, 2020.

Estonia, Lennart Meri, transformation