Brit Løvseth: Mõtisklusi mõnede Eestile oluliste teetähiste üle varastel 1990.ndatel

Ambassador Brit Løvseth

Reflections on some important milestones of the early 1990s in Estonia

As a former ambassador to Estonia, but still active in the foreign service, what will follow will be my personal reflections on this important period for Estonia. It was during this time that was laid the foundation for the sustainibility of the regained independence  - with 20 August 1991 and 31 August 1994 as the most important dates, to my mind.

Norway never recognized the Soviet annexation of Estonia and the two other Baltic states, and on 27 August 1991 the then foreign ministers Thorvald Stoltenberg and Lennart Meri signed in Oslo a mutual declaration on reestablishment of the diplomatic relations between Norway and Estonia.

After 27 August there were discussions if Norway should establish one embassy in the capital of each  of the three Baltic states, or if one common embassy in one of the capitals would be sufficent. The Foreign Minister spoke strongly in favour of 3, and managed to get this proposal through in the parliament. One decisive element was the assumption that it would most likely take many years before Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would be able to establish their embassies in Oslo. This proved wrong, though. In spring 1994 an Estonian embassy in Oslo was opened, headed by a charge d’affaires. In 2000 was accredited the first resident Estonian ambassador to Norway.

As said, the discussions took some time, but on Friday 22 November 1991 I was appointed by HM the King as the first Norwegian ambassador to Estonia after Estonia’s regaining independence, and the first Norwegian ambassador ever residing in Tallinn.

Ambassadors to Latvia and Lithuania were appointed at the same time, and on Monday 24th we left for our new postings, and on Wednesday 26 November we all three presented our credentials to the respective heads of state in a sort of concerted action. My presentation was to H.E. Mr. Arnold Ruutel, in his capacity of Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Estonia, as this was before the reestablished Estonia’s first elections. By my presentation Norway became the 11th country accrediting an ambassador in Tallinn, and I became the 8th among the residents.

The reasoning behind having diplomatic representation in a capital may vary, depending upon if you are the sender state or the receiving state. For Estonia the presence of diplomatic representations was at that time considered as important as armed forces when it comes to protection of the regained independence, in other words, the presence was considered as an important part of Estonia's security policy.

I am grateful as well as proud that I was given the chance to be part of this important chapter of Estonia's history.

I have to say that my arrival in November 1991 was not my first time visiting Estonia, actually I had already been there twice - first time to visit good friends, fellow scholarshipholders in Helsinki. This was in the mid-seventies. Second time was when I served in our embassy in Moscow, in the last part of the eighties. In spite of being in the foreign service, also this last visit was as a private person, as countries that had not recogniced the incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union had restricions on the travelling of diplomatic personel to these soviet republics. The purpose was, of course, to avoid giving legitimacy to the Soviet incorporation.

Friends are always good to have. Thanks to one of them, my stay in hotel Palace became a relatively short one. The then minister of economy, actually he was also the Deputy Prime Minister – was hospitable enough to offer premises for the embassy in his ministry’s building in Suur-Amerika. He also arranged for me and my family a house in the former nomenclatura’s summer resort area Keila Joa. “Suuvila nomper yks” was the Norwegian residence for quite a while, a time from which my family has a lot of good memories  - in spite of the hardship it was to commute from there every day.

The winter 1991/92 was a long and cold one. It was cold not only because of the weather, but because the energy card was used again, as it had been used before. The supply of heating oil was dramatically reduced, in the blocks of flats in Lasnamãe, probably also in Mustamãe and Õismae, was measured less than + 10 degrees. In the office in Suur-Amerika it was freezing cold, and blowing through the building. Wintercoat and warm boots were necessary in order to survive.

For a foreigner without a garden plot – and sufficient storage of agricultural products from the preceeding harvest, life was not too easy. For economic reasons it was deemed necessary to introduce rationing cards for basic products as flour, and sugar – and some others as well. The supply of meat – and fish, of course – was indeed not impressive, as a matter of fact empty shop counters were more a rule than exception – in general. In Keila Joa we were privileged, not only had the house its own heating system, but I also had got a deepfreezer. And we had a shop in the area, a shop in which there was mostly at least something to buy for the day, and even a little extra to keep in the freezer. For me this was like being taken back to post war Norway. To the 50’s when I grew up. (The difference was that we at that time did not have any deepfreezer.)

Life was note easy, and people did not feel safe. Was it really to rely on that independence had come to stay? The former Soviet troops were still in the country, the borders were not agreed, the economy was still strongly interlinked, and the Estonian deposits in the former Soviet foreign trade banks were frozen due to political reasons. More than once during this time it happened that the minister of defence in person made contact to some of the foreign representatives to convey his concerns regarding observed military activity at the Eastern border. In spite of this, it was my impression that people in general were optimists.

One group were, though, utterly concerned, and that was the former Soviet officers that all the sudden found themselves jobless, in a foreign country, faced with a situation of lots of insecurity as regards the future. Norway at that time had made commitments as regards substantial financial contributions for a housing program in Russia for ex-soviet officers, in order to facilitate for the withdrawal of the troops from the three Baltic states. This rumor spread, and I was all the sudden faced with visits from representatives of the different military establishments with the request of assistance for their case, would it not be possible for me to secure for them a flat in these houses planned to be built. My command of Russian language is somewhat limited, but I was in a way able to communicate with these visitors to the embassy, and I think this gave me some credibility within this community, even though I was not in a position to give them anything – except my time, to listen to their stories.

Their case was a part of the minority issue. In my time in Estonia their were a number of visits from among others the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities, a position then held by Max van den Stoehl, today by my former collegue and boss - former minister of foreign affairs Knut Vollebæk. I dare say that this was an issue where I felt that it was difficult to get acceptance in capitals for the description of the situation as seen from Estonia.

One of the bright sides of communism, if I may phrase it that way, was that as shops in general were rather empty and there was not much to buy, people were much less focused on things. It was no idea to put money into the bank, either. So people were, as I see it, much more inclined to share what they had and enjoy. Food and drinks were rather generously shared, and it seemed that there was always a reason for partying. Hospitality, generosity, joy and warm feelings are memories that will always stay with me from these early days of regained independence.

One of the highlights for me from that first winter  - with the rationing - was a piece of homemade applecake – with whipped cream, and hot tea from dried fruits, also homemade, consumed in the very cold Lasnamaeflat of the translator of my favourite Norwegian author. That was close to heaven.

Speaking about books – the bookstore in the house at Harju street, where all the famous authors lived, became for me a symbol of the rapid changes that Estonia so successfully underwent in a relatively short time. The transformation from a centralised command system to a fully market economic oriented system was indeed not an easy one. When I arrived there was still the old system – if you wanted to buy something you had to join no less than 3 lines. First to decide what to buy – that is to point out what you wanted to have, in order to get a piece of paper to present to the cashiere so you could pay. In front of the cassa there was always a long, long line. Not so strange as Estonians are famous for their love for books. I did not come for the books, though, as my Estonian especially at that stage was not too developed. I came for other things like lovely cards and different kind of paper materials. After having paid you had to join the first line once again, to pick up your purchase. I was happy to note that it did not take many months before this system was history. Only the abbacus stayed.

More about money.

The money reform took place already end June 1992 – in spite of all international expert advices favouring a postsponement. From an Estonian point of view it was considered important, not to say absolutely necessary, to get rid of the roubles as soon as possible. For the economic development, for economic reforms, but also as a psycological factor, as the introduction of a national currency was seen as an important part of independency, and a part of the foreign policy. The Estonian crown (pegged to the German mark 8 to 1) was introduced 20 June 1992. As each person was allowed to change only a rather limited amount, the money reform was not without substantial sacrifices for many people. But there were few – if any – that complained.

The time for the money reform was certainly not chosen by random. It was the bright time of the year, when no heating was required and mother earth had already started to bless people’s gardenplots with new products. It was easy to survive, and people were full of optimism. Then came the economic reforms, the introduction of a flat tax of 25 % was considered as dramatically progressive, also in an international context. The farmers faced a pretty hard time, as markets disappeared, subsidies dropped – or were completely abolished, together with import.-/exportrestrictions.

Also socially disadvantaged groups payd a tough price when budgets had to be balanced due to the requirements of international monetary institutions in connection with their support schemes necessary for the economic reforms.

More and more foreign investors came. The Norwegian company Statoil was early in focusing on the Estonian (and Baltic) market, and opened the first fuel station already some months before the money reform. I was utterly proud when their first fuel station in Tallinn was refered to by Statoil people as mine.

When Juri Luik became the foreign minister he draw up the goals of the Estonian foreign policy as follows: “to establish a situation that will make an attack on Estonia as unlikely as an attack towards Austria or Sweden and to have Russia to consider/look upon Estonia as a normal country, where Russia has no special rights”.

Estonia has since then worked for a strongest possible integration in the international community. As I remember it,  EU-membership was at that time considered first and foremost a tool for NATO-membership, as membership in NATO was considered crucial, not to say the only realistic guarantee  for Estonia’s security. (This was in a time when we Norwegians for the second time in a referendum rejected EU-membership.) I must confess that I at that time was a bit too overoptimistic on Estonia’s behalf regarding when Estonia would be accepted as member of these two organisations. It is always so that when you look back, things look differently compared with what they did in a past that at that time was the present.

Speaking about defence:

I had the fortune that my embassy was assigned to be the NATO lead embassy in Tallinn, or NATO- contact point on the spot, if you like. This function made me very closely involved in a lot of NATO-related activities in Estonia, as the many visits that took place, from the Secretary General himself, and downwards. With my background from our National Defence College and a person with a strong interest for securitity policy issues, this was indeed a rewarding duty that I performed with great pleasure, and hopefully to the satisfaction of NATO and my NATO-collegues as well as the Estonians. The interest from NATO’s side was great, but not always impressively coordinated. I remember that at the same day as the agreement on Partnership for Peace for Estonia was signed in Brussels, there was a high level mission from Brussels visiting, and we had a dinner with quite lively discussions around my table in Sihi 31where the permanent Norwegian residence had been established after an extensive reconstruction.

Today I think Estonia consider EU and NATO-membership as having the same importance?

Tallinn in the period of my stay had a very small, but very close and extremely nice diplomatic community. As mentioned, it was not evident that Norway should have one embeassy in each of the 3 Baltic capitals, and this was the consideration in many other countries, too. Others, even, did not establish any at all, but covered all three countries through side accreditation from bigger capitals. As Helsinki was so close, Estonia got, to my mind, fewer embassies than would be normal for a capital of Tallinn’s size. Also within the business community, many were commuting from Helsinki, leaving their families there. In my opinion this was influencing the developing of Tallin’s international community in a somewhat negative way.

An international school is a prerequisite to attract foreigners. Tallinn did not have such a school, and it was a tough and long process to get one. I had 2 children, and was a little bit in despair when I found out that school no. 7 was really no alternative. Due to the fact that there were very few children at that time with the need for an international education, we – the parents, who took the initiative for establishing one, had to be pragmatic. But, I dare say, the result was good, and a combination of the best in the Estonian and the international education system. And we were very proud that we managed to attract the interest of the then foreign minister for our project to such an extent that he agreed to be the chairman of the bord of the IST. There may have been many reasons for our difficulties - from few children available, to rivalry between different english speaking educational systems.

I understand that our project was not sustainable, but I am happy to note there is an international school in Tallinn. Our project by the way, also included an element of support for cultural heritage, as we got a building that we took upon ourselves to restore as the school building.

I cannot conclude without mentioning 24 February  - a special day for Estonia, as well as for me – as it was my father’s birthday. 24 February 1992 was something extraordinary. It was a cold and very early morning at Tompea when the Estonian flag was hoisted at Pikk Hermann, at the first national day after regaining independence. There were people all along the road up there, a big crowd, showing their enthusiasm. Singing, shouting. My children consider this as one of their strongest memories.

In 1994, on February 24, I had the honour to be the special guest of the Estonian Olympic Team at Lillehammer, when Norway last time hosted the Olympic winter games. It was nothing but absolutely great when the Estonian Nordic combined team almost managed to get a medal and many of the young Estonian winter athletes started their Olympic carreer, bringing fame to their country.

Some months later the Estonia accident brought the name Estonia into the headlines of the international news agencies. It was hard to believe that what had happened really could happen. And even everybody could understand that this was a terrible tragedy very few outside Estonia could understand what it meant for such a small nation, where everybody knew each other, and everybody had a relative or aquaintance that lost his or her life. Also Norwegian lives were lost, even though in a much smaller number as was the case for Estonia, Sweden and Finland.

As culture is playing an important part in any country’s foreign policy my very last words will be devoted to all the great cultural events that were taking place in Estonia those years – in Tallinn and all around the country. So many highlights that time does not allow me to mention any of them specially – except one: the song festival in Tartu. I am extremely happy to have been present at the first after regaining independence. So many people, so many colours, so much joy. It was impressing, it was touching, it was great in a way that it is impossible to describe.