Opening remarks at Baltic exhibition „Lessons of World War II. The Baltic Way to UN Membership“
Delivered by H.E. Rein Tammsaar, Permanent Representative of Estonia
New York UNHQ, 12 May 2025
Dear Excellencies,
Colleagues,
Thank you for coming to witness the undistorted Baltic perspective on the end of World War II. For us, its shadow lingered for nearly 50 years after Nazism was defeated. Sovereign states and members of the League of Nations before the war, the Baltic States were occupied by the Soviets and regained independence only in 1991. That same year, we reclaimed our rightful place among sovereign nations by joining the UN. Yet it took quite a few more years before the last Russian soldier left our territory – only then did the war truly end for us.
This exhibition reminds us that the war began when two totalitarian regimes – Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union – carved up Europe into spheres of influence with a secret protocol (MRP). As a result, the Baltic States were ripped away from the free world for almost 50 years. Our people suffered executions, repressions, mass deportation and forced russification. Nearly a fifth of our population was lost during the II WW. We pay tribute to all the victims of totalitarian regimes and regret there was never a Nuremberg process for Soviet crimes. As we see today in Ukraine, impunity and appeasement only lead to new atrocities.
Throughout the dark decades of Soviet occupation, our desire for freedom never faded. This exhibition honours those who bravely stood up for our independence, in a collective effort at home and abroad. Here at the UN, the Baltic community marched and petitioned for years. In 1979, a Baltic Appeal calling for the annulment of the Hitler-Stalin Pact and restoration of independence was presented to the SG. Meanwhile our diplomats around the world, New York in particular, carried on the legal continuity of the Baltic States, backed by the US´s Welles Declaration.
By the late 1980s, popular movements for sovereignty gained momentum. In 1989, on the 50th anniversary of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, remarkably two million Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians formed a 600-kilometer human chain – the Baltic Way – calling for independence. After the peaceful Singing Revolution, and with the support of many friendly nations, Estonia restored its independence on 20th August 1991. We joined the UN less than a month later alongside our Baltic friends.
Today we are democratic members of the global community, fearlessly defending the principles of the Charter and showing solidarity with our partners around the world, so that no one is left behind. We are grateful for your most valuable support at the UN and beyond.
Thank you!
