Eerik-Niiles Kross recently made public in Eesti Ekspress a Soviet secret document revealing the obsession of the Soviet occupying power in Estonia with the activities of Estonians in the West demanding freedom for their homeland.

Arnold Green’s secret report to Karl Vaino (translated from Estonian)

Arnold Green, the “foreign minister” of Soviet Estonia, in a report to the head of the [Estonian] communist party, Karl Vaino, labeled efforts to gain Estonian independence as anti-Soviet provocations.   

This following document is so substantive, it nearly speaks for itself. But just a few words. The report contains several important messages. First – the leadership of the Estonian Communist Party had a very clear understanding of the significance of the legal continuity of the Republic of Estonia and of the vital importance of the substance, meaning and dangers inherent  in the prevailing principle of de jure non-recognition [of the Soviet occupation] to the status of Soviet Estonia. Considerably clearer than to at least part of the Peoples’ Front [a Soviet sanctioned movement, led by communists, created in the late 1980’s to initially promote change within the communist system and a renewed relationship for Estonia with the rest of the USSR]. One can easily deduce why Estonian communists in 1989-1991 wanted to strike a federation treaty with the USSR. This treaty would have ended the principle of the legal continuity of the Republic of Estonia and placed Estonia into the Commonwealth of Independent States [a loosely-bound successor to the USSR]. If the Peoples’ Front didn’t understand that connection and a new federation treaty was viewed as their key to freedom, then the Estonian Communist Party’s comprehension was accurate and its obvious aim was to perpetuate Estonia’s belonging within the Soviet Union.

The report’s second message is the importance of the activities of exiled Estonians in relation to the Baltic question. That is keeping the demand for the freedom of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania alive and on the agenda of western politicians until 1991 [when the three Baltic republics regained their independence]. We must take into consideration, that the initiatives that Green describes were undertaken on peoples’ personal time and own money without any state or bureaucratic support. In fact these efforts [to promote Baltic freedom] were always accompanied by the threats and protests of Soviet authorities. And in those days threats were not to be taken lightly.

Estonian communists held Estonia to be a conquered nation and fought to keep it as part of the USSR. That’s the third message or perhaps naked truth in the report. It’s sad that the original recipients of Green’s secret report are being mixed up with those about whom the report was prepared. It’s sad that state decoration and orders have been bestowed on the report’s recipients and not on those who perpetrated the “anti-Soviet provocations”.                       
EERIK-NIILES KROSS
***

SECRET (Copy no. 1) The “Baltic question” in Western politics. Central Committee, Estonian Communist Party  (Information) 

In 1986 and 1987 the theme of the non-recognition of the Soviet Baltic states was occasionally in the political arsenal of various western politicians, members of parliament and government, and President Ronald Reagan of the USA himself. During this time reactionary Baltic émigré organizations were noticeably successful in their anti-Soviet initiatives, especially in the USA, Canada, Switzerland and Austria. With the help of American politicians they expanded their contacts with many heads of missions accredited to the UN, members of the European parliament and the European Council in Strasbourg. During the UN General Assembly’s 41st session, they generated “special interest in the Baltic question” amongst the delegations of Caribbean islands, by promoting the recognition of “the right to self-determination for the Baltic states”.

(To be continued.)

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