|
ROTARY IN ESTONIA
Also see:
-
Post War
Revival in Estonia
-
Estonia in 1940
and 1941
The earliest club in ESTONIA was Tallinn and this was the first
of a handful of clubs in the three Balkan states. Its inaugural
meeting was held on August 2, 1930, and it was followed by two
other clubs, Tartu, organised first in April 1932, had its
inaugural meeting on January 19, 1934, and Nomme on January 21,
1938. The sponsoring club was the Rotary Club of Helsinki-
Helsingfors, Finland. The first meetings to start the club had
taken place already in December 12 1927, with General Johan
Laidoner presiding.
It took time to get everything in order so that the official
acceptance came much later. The first official president was
General John Laidoner, Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces
and meetings were held at Restorani Kuldane Lovi (Restaurant
Gold Lion) in Tallinn. The most prominent members of the first
Rotary Club of Estonia included: Konsatntint Paets, President of
The Republic of Estonia, Johan Kukk, a cabinet minister and
former speaker of the Estonian Parliament, Juri Jaakson, a
cabinet minister and former speaker of the Estonian Parliament,
Metropolitan Aleksander Paulus, the leader of the Orthodox
Church in Estonia, Joakim Puhk, Owner and CEO of the largest
trading house in Estonia, J.Puhk and Son, Claus Scheel, CEO of
the largest private bank in Estonia, G. Scheel & Co, and Heirich
Gutkin, CEO of The Jewish Bank in Estonia and leader of the
Jewish cultural community in Estonia.
 Paul
Harris and members of the Rotary Club of Tallinn
planted a "Friendship
Tree" in 1932.
In 1932 the Rotary Club of Tartu was chartered with Tallin
being the sponsoring Club, and four years later In 1938 a third
club, the Rotary Club of Nomme, a suburb of Tallinn, was
chartered, Tallinn RC again being the sponsor.
As happened elsewhere in the Russian controlled Balkan states,
Rotary clubs were forced to close in 1940 and their membership
was terminated on October 10 of that year. In the files of RI
Archives, there is some correspondence dated 1944 which relates
to the fate of some of the members of the Nomme Club. It was
sent by a former club member from a refugee camp in Sweden.
In 1991, Rotary returned to Estonia, with the resurrection of
the Tallinn Club, followed soon afterwards by Tartu. Nomme took
a little longer but is now back in the Rotary fold. The clubs in
Estonia are now in District 1420 with Finland. Present day
members include: Mr. Andres Ansip, PM (Previously Major of the
City of Tartu), Dr. Toomas Savi, former speaker of Parliament,
Euro Parliamentarian, Professor Dr. Peter Tulviste, Euro
Parliamentarian. The President of Estonia Mr. Arnold Rüütel is a
Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of Saaremaa, his home island
in the western part of Estonia.
This account of Rotary in Estonia has been compiled from RI
Records and with information from Rotary Global History Fellowship Historian
PDG Kari Tallberg
of D1420.
|
