Until the end of February, the NOORA archive in Tartu is hosting an exhibition devoted to Polish-Estonian relations in the interwar period. The opening of the exhibition was accompanied by the seminar entitled “Ars Diplomatica”, dedicated to the centenary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and Estonia.
The exhibition represents an expanded version of the exhibition presented in 2018 on the occasion of the centenary of Polish and Estonian independence, created in cooperation between the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tallinn and the National Archives of Estonia. Display panels dedicated to diplomatic relations in the interwar period have been added, as this year marks the anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. It is worth mentioning that Poland was the third country to recognise Estonia’s independence after the First World War.
Along with the opening of the exhibition on 15 February this year, a seminar entitled “Ars Diplomatica”, dedicated to the centenary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, was held at the archives’ headquarters in Tartu. Due to the pandemic, the seminar was conducted in a hybrid manner; some guests attended on site and participation online was also possible. The seminar participants listened to a message delivered by Eva-Maria Liimets, the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who emphasised the strategic importance of the alliance between Poland and Estonia. Ambassador Grzegorz Kozłowski presented aspects of bilateral cooperation in foreign policy and security. Priit Pirsko, the Director of the National Archives of Estonia, spoke about Polish-Estonian relations over the centuries, and underlined, among others, the role of prominent Poles studying at Dorpat (now Tartus) University in the 19th and 20th centuries. Toomas Hiio, a historian of the Estonian War Museum, described the Polish-Estonian military cooperation in the interwar period, and the Estonian diplomat Silver Loit presented the course of state visits in 1930: that of Chief Otto Strandmann in Warsaw and that of President Ignacy Mościcki in Tallinn.
The presented papers were published in a commemorative publication titled “100 Years of Diplomatic Relations Between the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Estonia: Common Traces in a Difficult History”, published by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tallinn in cooperation with the University of Tartu.
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