last ambassador : August Torma, soldier, diplomat, spy.
Title:
last ambassador : August Torma, soldier, diplomat, spy.
Author:
Tamman, Tina.
ISBN:
9789042033146
Personal Author:
Edition:
1st ed.
Physical Description:
1 online resource (257 pages)
Series:
On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, & Moral Imagination in the Baltics
Contents:
Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of illustrations -- Foreword: August Torma and the importance of small states -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: The making of an "officer-diplomat" (1895-1930) -- First World War and British intervention -- Estonian military representative in Kaunas -- Head of Foreign Ministry's political department -- Estonian relations with Russia -- Estonian-Russian prisoner and spy exchanges -- Chapter 2: Estonia on the fringes of Europe (1931-1939) -- Difficulties in Baltic cooperation -- Estonian minister in London -- Chapter 3: Estonia in crisis (1939-1940) -- Estonian-Russian mutual assistance pact -- Russian-Finnish war and Estonian neutrality -- Soviet occupation begins on 17 June 1940 -- Chapter 4: Keep calm and carry on (1940-1944) -- The question of an Estonian government -- Baltic envoys demoted -- Campaign for a fair deal for small nations -- Chapter 5: Maintaining the London legation (1944-1971) -- Estonian refugees -- Britain accords partial recognition to Soviet annexation -- The London legation's financial problems -- The KGB identifies Torma as a British agent -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.
Abstract:
Estonian ambassador August Torma had a protracted and unconventional relationship with the British Foreign Office. Appointed to the Court of St James's in 1934, Torma lost his government in 1940 when the Soviet Union overran his country, but continued to live at the legation in London and visit the Foreign Office. Gradually, however, his diplomatic standing was eroded because of Soviet demands. For Torma there was the very real fear that Britain might recognise the Soviet occupation of his homeland and he continued to reiterate his faith in international law in the hope that Estonia's stolen independence would be restored one day. He died in 1971, twenty years before the country regained its lost freedom. This book is a biography of Torma who had a remarkable life: he assisted in the creation of the Estonian state in 1918-20, worked for it during the inter-war period and struggled to keep its cause alive during and after the Second World War; it is also a study of the awkward relationship between the ambassador and the Foreign Office that lasted for more than three decades.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
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