Ministry of Foreign Affairs gives Estonia's London Embassy archive to State Archive
16.08.2010
No. 250-E
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will transfer to the State Archives documents from Estonia's London Embassy from the years 1919 and 1924-1989. The records include political, consular and culture-related correspondence.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet noted the significance of the London archive from the perspective of the history and legal continuity of the Estonian foreign service: "The London embassy archive also spans the years from 1940-1989, when the Embassy in London functioned as a piece of independent Estonia, embodying the fact that the state had not been destroyed completely. Transferring the archive will give historical scholars and the public broader opportunity to access these documents."
Estonia's Ambassador to Great Britain from 1934 was August Torma, who continued in his post after 1940 until his death in 1971. Torma was succeeded by the diplomat Ernst Sarepera, who died a month and a half later. Ernst Jaakson, the Consul General in New York, was then placed in charge of the embassy, while embassy official Anna Toru was in charge of the building and archive. In 1989, the Embassy building was sold off for financial reasons and the archive was moved to New York. In 1994, it was brought back to London. Now, after being preserved in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs archive, the well-travelled documents will take their rightful place in the State Archives, alongside other documents from Estonia's past.
