Heinrich Laretei

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Heinrich Laretei (* December 23, 1891 July / January 4,  1892 greg. In Õisu , Livonia Governorate ; † April 3, 1973 in Stockholm ) was an Estonian politician and diplomat.

Early years

Heinrich Laretei was born into the family of a shoemaker . He attended school in Pärnu , where he graduated from high school in 1913. He then began his studies at the University of Saint Petersburg .

Laretei took 1914-1917 as a volunteer in the tsarist army at the First World War in part.

1917/18 Laretei was secretary of the Estonian Committee in Petrograd and chairman of the Central Committee of Estonian Soldiers ( Eesti Sõjaväelaste Keskkomitee ) in the Russian capital.

From 1918 to 1920 he served in the Estonian War of Independence against Soviet Russia , most recently as a division commander. His brother Oskar (1894–1920) died in the war.

politics

From 1921 Laretei worked for two years in the economic editorial department of the Tartu newspaper Postimees , and in 1923/24 for the newspaper Vaba Eesti . Laretei graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tartu in 1923 .

Then he went into active politics. From 1923 he was a member of the Estonian Parliament ( Riigikogu ) for two terms . Laretei initially belonged to the small party "Union of Demobilized Soldiers of Estonia" ( Eesti Demobiliseeritud Sõjaväelaste Liit ), then from 1924 to the " Settlers ' Union ". The Agrarian Party mainly represented the interests of small farmers. From December 1925 to July 1926 he was Agriculture Minister in the cabinet of Head of State and Government Jaan Teemant . He was a member of the successor cabinet until November 1926 as Estonian interior minister.

diplomacy

After leaving the government, Laretei went into the diplomatic service of his country. From November 1926 to 1928 he was the Estonian envoy in Moscow, after his predecessor Aadu Birk had fallen victim to a Soviet plot .

From May 1928 to 1931 Laretei represented the Republic of Estonia in Kaunas, Lithuania . He then returned to Tallinn . There he was head of the political department of the Estonian Foreign Ministry until 1936. In August 1936 he went to Stockholm as envoy . He was also in Denmark and Norway accredited .

After the Soviet occupation of Estonia in the summer of 1940, Laretei refused to obey the call of the new rulers to return. He remained in exile in Sweden until the end of his life. He was sentenced to death in absentia in the Estonian SSR . The parents of Heinrich Laretei, Hans (1864-1942) and Anna (born Tikko, 1872-?), Were inside Russia in June 1941 deported . They died shortly afterwards in Siberia .

exile

Laretei ran a gardening business in Södertälje, Sweden . He was also active in the Estonian exile community. From 1964 he was the managing editor of the Estonian exile magazine Välis-Eesti , which appeared in Stockholm from 1944 to 1995.

In 1970 Heinrich Laretei published his memoirs in Lund under the title Saatuse mängukanniks. Mällu jäänud märkmeid . They appeared in 1991 in Swedish as Ödets leksak. Memoarer. Heinrich Laretei is buried in the forest cemetery ( Skogskyrkogården ) in Stockholm.

Private life

Heinrich Laretei was married to Alma Kollist (1895–1974). The couple had two daughters: the fashion designer Maimu Evéquoz-Laretei (1920–2012) and the concert pianist Alma Käbi Laretei (1922–2014).

literature

  • Eesti elulood. Tallinn: Eesti entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 224

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Laretei ( Estonian ) nommevalitsus.org. Archived from the original on February 20, 2014. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  2. ↑ http://register.muinas.ee/?menuID=burialplace&action=view&id=45
personal data
SURNAME Laretei, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian politician, member of the Riigikogu and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Õisu , Livonia Governorate
DATE OF DEATH 3rd April 1973
Place of death Stockholm