Talk:Lennart Meri

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Red links[edit]

Umh. Should some of the internal links to non-existant pages be removed, or is there a plan to create pages for them? I mean, the huge amounts of red links look pretty ugly on the page. --HJV 22:03, 14 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've fixed a couple of the explorer links. I haven't done all of them, though... some links actually pointed to articles that weren't even about people (for example, Sauer points to a river in Belgium), so I removed the square brackets where I wasn't sure what to link it to. It looks like somebody just linked the surnames in the text, which was pretty shoddy. And somebody (who knows more about the subject) should check my new links to make sure they're right.

Bird of paradox 00:05, 15 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Photograph[edit]

I have uploaded a couple of photographs to Commons that might be of use for the article. On the one hand, they are less noisy than the Pentagon photo currently used, and they are not as oversaturated. On the other hand, they were taken after Meri's presidency (in 2004), so I am not sure whether to substitute the current one or to add to it (or do nothing at all). What are your thoughts? --LX 12:42, 28 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The article is long enough, so you better add one to some section in the article (the image right hand side looks fine).--Constanz - Talk 13:00, 28 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your input. I added it right before the paragraph about the last years of Mr Meri's life, where I believe it makes most sense to have it from a chronological point of view. --LX 13:27, 28 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you need more pictures for the article, then http://www.riik.ee/lennartmeri/?id=32283 has alot of them, altough most seem to be about his funeral. I think you can use them if you credit "Government Communication Office" (At least that's what the bottom of the page says) Curgny 11:27, 15 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It is not a problem that they were taken after the term ended. It's customary to consider somebody who once was a President of Estonia a president until he dies, even if he no longer takes active part in the presidency. Digwuren 20:43, 22 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Presidential Period[edit]

Much more could be contributed about the period in which Lennart Meri held his highest office. Rossmay 00:55, 29 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Arnold Meri[edit]

I have added a sentence on Arnold Meri, a cousin of Lennart and a Hero of the Soviet Union. His position is said the have been significant in allowing Lennart, an fierce anti-communist, to achieve a successful career in the Soviet Union. I am restoring the sentence afted a deletion. -- Petri Krohn 20:23, 18 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The Meri family survived and found their way back to Estonia, possibly because of his cousin Arnold - Most of deported families came back to Estonia and I think it had nothing to do with Arnold Meri. He may have had role in Lennart's later career though.--84.50.22.34 (talk) 10:29, 5 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Rüütel[edit]

Petri Krohn has twice ([1], [2]) attempted to claim Arnold Rüütel as a predecessor of Lennart Meri in the office of President of Estonia. This is incorrect.

The second time, he placed a question into the awkward location of a diff message, and I quote:

“

Are you saying that Estonia was not independet and Rüütel not president in January 1991?

”

Yes, when asked, I say that, because that's the case. Estonia was not properly independent until August 20, 1991 when the independence was affirmed (and when it became clear that Moscow was in no position to deny the independence to Estonia), and until June 28, 1992, when the Constitution of Estonia was adopted there wasn't even the office of president.

Arnold Rüütel was, at that time, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Estonia, and that lasted until in October 1992, Riigikogu, elected according to the new constitution, was sworn in and replaced the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Estonia. Digwuren 20:18, 22 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Declaring Arnold Rüütel a predecessor of Meri in the rôle of head of state is not accurate, either, but this is fuzzier. Specifically, SSRs did not have foreign relations in the usual sense, so they did not need separate heads of state, and there weren't proper well-recognised offices for them; for all practical purposes, the head of state would have been Mikhail Gorbachev. He obviously doesn't fit here.

If a head of state is to be assigned at all, it would probably have been Vaino Väljas who was the leader of the Communist Party of Estonia.

As for activities between affirming the independence (which brought with it the necessity to do foreign policy) and between swearing in the first president, it was a time when pretty much everybody did some foreign policy. I would assess that in most of the cases calling for head of state, Edgar Savisaar, the prime minister, stepped up. Digwuren 21:40, 23 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Pertri has done it again, this time pointing to the bio of Arnold Rüütel. I read that said bio head to toe, it nowhere says that he was a president in 91...--Alexia Death 08:06, 15 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There's another funnyism in [3]: it declares Päts "Last President before; in 1940". Before what? It turns out Petri Krohn is trying to enforce a taboo of mentioning the Soviet occupation; under guise of "restoring Rüütel", he has deleted the occupation, and left the phrase that contained it into a bad shape. Digwuren 10:09, 15 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]