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Karl Vaino
Vaino in 1987
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Estonia
In office 26 July 1978 – 16 June 1988
Preceded by	Johannes Käbin
Succeeded by	Vaino Väljas
Personal details
Born	(1923-05-28)28 May 1923 Tomsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	12 February 2022(2022-02-12) (aged 98) Moscow, Russia
Resting place	Federal Military Memorial Cemetery
Citizenship	Soviet and Russian
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1940–1989)
Relations	Anton Vaino (grandson)
Alma mater	Omsk State Transport University

Karl Genrikhovich Vaino (Estonian: Karl Vaino; Russian: Карл Генрихович Вайно; alias Kirill Voinov; 28 May 1923 – 12 February 2022) was a Russian-born Soviet politician in Soviet-occupied Estonia. In 1978–1988 he was the formal leader of the Communist Party of the Estonian SSR.

Early life and career

Karl Genrikhovich Vaino was born in 1923 and raised in the city of Tomsk, Siberia, in then Soviet Russia. His father Heinrich Vaino (later russified as Genrikh; 1889–1965) was an active Estonian Bolshevik who had moved to Siberia in 1918 after the Bolshevik Russian invasion into Estonia had failed in the 1918–1920 Estonian War of Independence. His mother, Liidia née Savi, was a daughter of Estonian immigrants who had settled in Siberia at the beginning of the 20th-century. After graduating from what is now the Omsk State Transport University in 1947, Vaino moved to then Soviet-occupied Estonia, and started working in engineering and technical jobs on the railway. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1947. He served as Secretary of the Communist Party's Tallinn Regional Committee from 1948–1953. In the 1960s and 1970s, he also served as Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Estonian SSR. He graduated from the Correspondence Higher Party School in 1957.

Leader of the Estonian SSR

Having lived his early life in Russia, Vaino was a native speaker of Russian language. He was not able to speak Estonian very well, and did so with a thick Russian accent. For this, he was called "Yestonian". On 26 July 1978, the incumbent First Secretary of the past 28 years, Johannes Käbin, who was considered to be too moderate for the ongoing Era of Stagnation Russification, was forced to resign from his post and was replaced by Vaino.

As the First secretary, Vaino acquired a reputation of being an extreme Russificator. With a dismissive attitude towards Estonian language and culture, he was not popular amongst Estonians. He delivered public speeches mostly in Russian, one notable exception being at the 350th anniversary of Tartu State University, where he presented awards to university workers, speaking in Estonian with a thick Russian accent. In 1979, an unsuccessful attempt was made on his life.

Downfall

In early 1988, the CPE split into national communists and internationalists. Vaino was the leader of the latter, while the former was led by the Soviet ambassador to Nicaragua Vaino Väljas. Being considered too conservative by the Moscow elite, after almost 10 years, Vaino was forced to resign from his post on 16 June 1988, and replaced by Väljas. Vaino then moved to Moscow, where he lived from then onward. He did not visit Estonia again.

Personal life and death

His daughter Eleonora Kochetova is the daughter in law of Soviet writer Vsevolod Kochetov, and his son Eduard is the Vice President for External Relations at AvtoVAZ. He has two grandsons, Russian politician Anton Vaino and Russian Interior Ministry official Andrey Vaino.

On 19 February 2022, it was announced that Vaino had died on 12 February, at the age of 98. He was buried on 14 February in the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery.

Awards

• 2 Orders of Lenin (1981 and 1983)
• Order of the October Revolution (1971)
• 3 Orders of the Red Banner of Labour (1959, 1965, and 1973)
• Medal "For Labour Valour" (1950)

References

1. Вайно Карл Генрихович (in Russian)
2. Romuald J. Misuanas ja Rein Taagepera, Years of Dependence. p. 198 ("Käbin's successor Karl Vaino (born in Tomsk, Siberia) initially came to Estonia in 1947, apparently carrying the Russian name Kirill Voinov")
3. "Vaino, Karl". Estonica.org.
4. Eesti Päevaleht = Estniska Dagbladet, August 4, 1979, p. 2 "SUUND", signed by KLA
5. ^ "Estonian Party Chief Replaced". The Miami Herald. Miami, FL. 17 June 1988. p. 66. Retrieved 14 December 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
6. ""Колесо истории не вертелось, оно скатывалось"". Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
7. Эстонское национально-демократическое движение.
8. "A Pedigree of Repression: Putin's New Chief-of-Staff - UpNorth". 23 August 2016.
9. Информационный центр (ОНТИ) Химического факультета МГУ
10. "Latest Kremlin appointment may signal major change". BBC News. 12 August 2016.
11. Suri endine Eesti kommunistliku partei juht Karl Vaino (in Estonian)
12. "Вайно Карл Генрихович" (in Russian). ФВМ ПЗО МО РФ. Retrieved 7 February 2023.

v t e Estonian SSR First Secretaries
Säre Karotamm Käbin Vaino Väljas

• 1923 births
• 2022 deaths
• People from Tomsk
• Russian people of Estonian descent
• Russian emigrants to Estonia
• Soviet emigrants to Estonia
• People from Tomsk Governorate
• Heads of the Communist Party of Estonia
• Members of the Central Committee of the 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Members of the Central Committee of the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1959–1963
• Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1963–1967
• Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1967–1971
• Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1971–1975
• Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1975–1980
• Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1980–1985
• Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1985–1990
• Tenth convocation members of the Soviet of the Union
• Eleventh convocation members of the Soviet of the Union
• Recipients of the Order of Lenin
• Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
• Burials at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery