Jump to content

Draft:Finnish Embassy in Talinn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • Comment: Unfortunately the sources do not cover GNG properly. There needs to be independent and reliable sourcing to justify the notability point, where primary sources cannot be used for that. I suspect that by looking at press coverage in 1993 it should be possible to get that notability, given the chequered history. So a little more work is needed here. ChrysGalley (talk) 08:59, 9 November 2025 (UTC)
  • Comment: The city of Tallinn is misspelled in the title of the article. ExRat (talk) 04:39, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

The Embassy of Finland in Tallinn is the embassy of the Republic of Finland in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It is located on Toompea Hill near the Riigikogu at Kohtu 4. The current ambassador is Vesa Vasara, who submitted his credentials on 5 September 2022.[1]

History

[edit]

The Finnish Embassy in Tallinn is a complex of five buildings. The oldest building dates back to the 1770s . The complex was completed in the 1850s, when the main building was completed. It was built by the nobleman Otto Jakob von Uexküll and designed by the architect Georg Winterhalter.[2]

Von Uexküll left the city after Estonia gained independence in 1918. After that, the building was taken over by Konstantin Päts in 1922. He converted part of the building into his own apartment, and rented out part of it. The tenants were the Finnish and Hungarian statesmen, who located their embassies there. However, Päts later had to sell the building due to financial difficulties. Finland bought it for 25 million Estonian marks.[3]

During the German occupation from 1941 to 1944, the embassy buildings were used by the German military tribunal and the SS, and at the end of the occupation, the German law enforcement police were stationed there. After lengthy negotiations, Germany finally agreed to pay Finland the rent for this period in arrears.[4]

After the war, Finland gave up the former embassy building. The Soviet Union bought the building in a joint transaction with the Bank of Finland building in St. Petersburg in the spring of 1947. The price of the property, 60 million marks, was paid with former German funds confiscated in Finland under the peace treaty.[1]

The building housed the Tallinn University of Technology dormitory and the premises of the Estonian National Library. They remained in the building until 1991, when Estonia gained independence from the Soviet Union.[3] After this, the Finnish state had the opportunity to take over the building again and place its Tallinn embassy there, in 1993. The building was meticulously restored, and the process was led by architects Käpy and Simo Paavilainen. By 1996, the restoration process had progressed to the point that the embassy was able to move back into the building. The official opening was held on 12 November 1996.

Ambassadors

[edit]
Representative Years Station
AO Kairamo 1919 representative
Erkki Reijonen 1919–1920 representative
Erkki Reijonen 1920–1921 va. case manager
Erkki Reijonen 1921–1923 envoy
Rudolf Holsti 1923–1927
AO Wuorimaa 1928–1933
PJ Hynninen 1933–1940
Jaakko Kaurinkoski 1991–1996
Pekka Oinonen 1996–2001
Jaakko Blomberg 2001–2005
Jaakko Kalela 2005–2010
Aleksi Harkonen 2010–2014
Kirsti Narinen 2014–2018
Timo Kantola 2018–2022
Vesa Hammer 2022–
  1. ^ a b "Embassy of Finland, Tallinn". Suomi ulkomailla: Viro. Retrieved 2025-08-28.
  2. ^ "History of Diplomatic Relations – Helsinki". helsinki.mfa.ee. Retrieved 2025-08-28.
  3. ^ a b Erkki Tuomioja. Finland Abroad.
  4. ^ "Diplomatic relations between Estonia and Finland celebrated in Tallinn and Helsinki today | Välisministeerium". www.vm.ee. Retrieved 2025-08-28.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Draft:Finnish_Embassy_in_Talinn&oldid=1321209972"