USSR Interview with Estonian Front leader A REPORTER for
International Viewpoint #155 • January 23, 1989
People's Front leaders Marju Lauristin and Mart Tarmak. Photo: Goran Jacobsson
Internationalen, the paper
of the Swedish section of the Fourth International, Goran Jacobsson, did a series of interviews with representative figures in Estonia at the end of 1988. The following is from the December 22 issue.
### NTERNATIONAL contacts important for us. We want to exchange information, and would like to meet with delegations from other countries. It is important to clarify to people outside what is going on here in Estonia," Mart Tarmak said.
Mart Tarmak is a leader of the Estonian People's Front. He is responsible for its international relations. He was elected to the People's Front's "parliament," which consists of 107 members. I met him at his workplace, the editorial offices of the magazine Sirp ja Vasar ("'Hammer and
"I am a member of the Communist Party, but that is not so important in this context," he explained.
A relatively large part of the activists in the People's Front are members of the Communist Party. In the top leadership, five out of six are party members. At the Front's conference, 20% of the delegates were members of the Communist Party, while the figure for the Estonian people as a whole is 10%
The People's Front's most important relations outside Estonia are with the People's Fronts in Latvia and Lithuania [Sajudis]. Contacts have just been established with the Finnish left. In Czechoslovakia, the Estonian People's Front has contact with the National Front and in Poland with PRON, the Polish regime's 14 attempt to set up a broader consultative 'body'
"Solidarnose is a trade-union organization. It is illegal, and therefore still unapproachable for us. Maybe that is stupid," Mart Tarmak said with a trace of doubt.
"We know that the Polish PRON is organized from above and that the organization is not so popular. But one of our aims is to see the trade-union organizations in Estonia transformed into real trade unions."
The People's Front has given economic help to Nicaragua, as well as various forms of help to Armenia.
"The objective for us is for the Soviet Union to become a union of self-governed republics, as the country's name in fact
Mart Tarmak explained that Lenin's view of the national question was distorted by Stalin. In the Soviet Union, nationalism is a dirty word. But for Estonians, it is a different matter. The nationalism of small nations is different from that of large nations, which is often aggressive. For the People's Front, Lenin's ideas are acceptable. But they do not want to call themselves Leninists, because this term has been misrepresented here, and no longer means very much. Opponents of the People's Front often use quotations from Lenin taken out of context in order to foster anti-Soviet
"Democratization in all areas"
"We want to decide ourselves about conditions in the country. We do not want to be ruled from Moscow. We call for democratization in all areas
"For us, education is very important. We want to defend and to preserve the Estonian language."
The People's Front is also calling for a reorganization and democratization of the economy. Somewhat reflectively, Mart Tarmak said: "The self-managed economy we are talking about is applicable in all of the Soviet Union, and in all of Europe as well."
Tarmak explained that the Russians in Estonia are a problem. He thought that it was unfortunate that many among the Estonian population identified the Russians with the Soviet system.
300,000 at People's Front founding rally
The People's Front does not itself have members, but is made up of various base organizations. They may be neighborhood groups, families, groups of friends, or groups in factories. There is freedom of organization, and that is is totally different from Moscow's vertical model of
Mart does not know how many people are participating in the People's Front. What he does know is that there were 2,000 elected delegates from base groups, and that 300,000 people [equal to a third of the entire Estonian people] participated in the Front's founding rally - in a city of 500,000 inhabitants
So the People's Front is a mass organization. What can stop that? That brought us to the question of the threat of a Soviet invasion. Mart Tarmak thought that there was such a threat, but on the other hand the army was already stationed in Estonia.
"We may be able to avoid violence, if we remain cool and take one step at a time There may be some violence in the north and south, where the temperament is
"If we achieve our goals, then the People's Front will not be needed. Then there will be democratic institutions, and all sorts of organizations and parties will be able to operate." * 1. In a number of East European countries, the one-party systems are complemented by "fronts" made up of non-Communist parties that have supposedly agreed to collaborate. These recognized groupings are in a sense the legal precedent for the establishment of non-Party organizations in the Soviet Union, such as the People's Fronts in the Baltic republics.
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