| |
 | Speeches | | |
President of the Republic Academia Gustaviana 370 and Keiserliche Universität Dorpat 200 3 May 2002 in Tartu03.05.2002
Otsekui valguse allikas (''As a source of light'' Kristjan Jaak Peterson)
Rector of the University of Tartu,
Professors, students, academic community,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Nii kui valguse allikas
Seisab austatud laulja
Oma vendade keske'ella.
(As a source of light
The honourable poet
Stands amidst its fellows.)
These were the words Kristjan Jaak Peterson addressed to his people in 1819, being freshly enrolled in the Faculty of Theology of the University of Tartu. A hundred years later he was considered the first Estonian poet. A source of light is a poet, says Peterson but a source of light has also been the University of Tartu, which celebrates its foundation and reopening today. We bow to the mind, to our nation yearning for education and to the education as an inevitable prerequisite for Estonians and Estonia to survive.
The birth and life of the University of Tartu reflect like a drop of water the diversified history of our nation: incessant striving for self-awakening, a will to survive, use of favourable chances, implementation of knowledge to expand experience. In the last decades of the sixteenth century when the oldest universities in Europe had left behind hundreds of years of history, Tartu became one of the centres of counterreformation. As anticipated, the Kingdom of Sweden having won the Swedish-Polish war and re-established Protestantism in Livonia attempted to reinforce itself also ideologically. Historians say that an impetus to open new universities in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries lies in the spread of Protestantism against Catholicism. As the result of Reformation, the Estonians, still nameless but soon starting to evolve as a nation, gained schools network, printed press and literacy in the mother tongue. The University of Tartu was established within the Swedish national education policy. Governor General Johann Skytte of Livonia, the real organiser of the university, promised that university would open its doors to everybody, the rich and the poor, Germans and non-Germans. On 15 October 1632 in his inauguration speech at the opening of the University he wished the University to become a shrine of wisdom, centre of skills, home of virtues, fortress of arts and an open forum of various knowledge for future generations.
It took about two centuries before the Estonians could visualise the University of Tartu as an alma mater of its people and Tartu as Athens on the River Emajõgi.
While the opening of the University marks victory of Humanism in European modern history, the reopening in 1802 should be grateful to the spread of Enlightenment to Russia. Peter the Great's reforms had intertwined Russia with Europe. The boom in science in Germany and relocation of research centres in the world had a direct impact on Russia's research and science policy. As often before in Estonia's history also now a coincidence of various happenings played a significant role. Upon accession to the throne Alexander I, wanting to be an enlightened Keiser, decided immediately to maintain the university in Tartu, which had become questionable. As the result of skilful diplomacy and rhetoric of Prorector Georg Friedrich Parrot, the university gained significant internal autonomy. We should be grateful to Parrot also for being one of the most radical champions to improve the conditions of Livonian peasants and abolish serfdom. Parrot stressed that in order to achieve overall progress also the peasants should have access through education to public offices, to become a judge, pastor, doctor, lawyer or scientist.
The first generation top intellectuals in Estonia - Friedrich Robert Faehlmann and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald - who paved way to national awakening were doctors-graduates of the University of Tartu. One of the leading figures of the national awakening Jakob Hurt graduated the university as a theologian.
The share of Estonians in the history of the university remained modest in the first half of the nineteenth century. As late as in 1860s there were still only about ten Estonians studying at a time at the university. In late 1880s it is estimated to have reached 27. Mostly because education lacked a vertical dimension. There was a network of elementary schools but the idea outlined by village teachers Jaan Adamson and Hans Wühner in 1871 to establish an Estonian-language secondary school - Alexander School - failed primarily because of internal conflicts between the Estonians and the start of severe Russification.
The attempt to establish Alexander School is informative even today. If the Estonians cannot reach consensus in organising education, if each person looks for personal gain, it is easy to end up under foreign power. We have seen it today in issues related to public universities and private universities, determining the ratio of general and vocational education, financing higher education, integrating our higher education system with European Education Area, in the content of education. We have to admit that in a sense we face the same problem as in 1870 when Carl Robert Jakobnson said: the young Estonians have to go to work abroad as they find no employment at home. Also Jakob Hurt pointed that out and so did Jaan Tõnisson who called the departure of the educated people Estonia's "national bleeding". Author Eduard Vilde encouraged to set up a competitive "Estonian national economy" and develop Estonia-orientated society.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
The key issue of the University of Tartu and the entire Estonian higher education system seems to be the issue of identities: to what extent to be a carrier of national ideas and reproducer of Estonian viability, to what extent to be a component in the European Education Area.
As expected the significance of the University of Tartu is measured from the position of development of national, i.e. Estonian-speaking and Estonian-minded intellectuals, be it in the field of natural and social sciences or the humanities. The mission of the University of Tartu has been and hopefully will be in future as well - to bring up intellectuals, competitive in the global research and education area but simultaneously implementing their knowledge and competencies to ensure Estonia's sustainability. The history of the University of Tartu has shown that the grandeur of the University lies in being an Estonian University. If this priority were to be abandoned it would be just another university among tens and hundreds of similar universities.
This was the understanding reached to in the last decades of the nineteenth century when Riga and St.Petersburg were still competing in the Estonians' aspirations for education. Maybe the national orientation of the village teachers - the Estonian "salt of the earth" helped to make the choice. We cannot overlook their role in being the main driving force in the first wave of Estonian national awakening. Their mission-awareness turned even parish school graduates into learned men. They encouraged at least one child per farm to be educated in the highest level. Estonian literary classics Anton Hansen Tammsaare, Oskar Luts and many others have described this in a very touching way. It was understood that the educated people should both create and consume Estonian culture, educating others in the spirit of Estonian culture.
However despite the rapid growth of the number of people with higher education at the turn of the nineteenth-twentieth centuries there were few tops to mention in professional culture and academic research. While in 1851-1875 there were only five Estonian teachers at the university, in 1901-1917 - as many as 22. We should mention professors of medicine Aleksander Paldrock and Heinrick Koppel, professor of theology Johan Kõpp, teachers of the Estonian language Karl August Hermann and Jaan Jõgever, professor of chemistry Gustav Tammann. In many other universities and research institutes in Russia there were also quite a few Estonian professors employed (e.g. Friedrich Martens, Johan Vilip, Gerhard Johannes Rägo, Ludvig Puusepp, Aleksander Rammul, Bernhard Schmidt). Estonian intellectuals themselves have also stressed their alienation from the University of Tartu. In 1912 Johan Kõpp wrote that the University of Tartu had no such meaning for the Estonian nation as the University of Helsinki had for Finns. "Our university", writes Kõpp,"is really like a stranger among the people of Estonia". Let this quotation remind us once more how long it has taken and how difficult it has been for the University of Tartu to become an Estonian university.
The breakthrough came together with the first Russian revolution and primarily due to setting up the Estonian professorship at the University of Tartu. The idea itself, like many other ideas, originates from the national awakening period. In 1878 there was an interest to use Estonian professorship for researching and teaching Finno-Ugric languages and Estonian. In 1890 the professorship issue was raised in practical theology. It was only in 1916 that the law provided two full professorships for the university and Johan Kõpp was appointed one of the professors to teach theology in Estonian.
The idea of the Estonian professorship led to an idea of the Estonian University. Gustav Suits talked about the idea as an ideal as early as in April 1917 whereas it was implemented only when the Republic of Estonia was proclaimed. The position and status of an Estonian intellectual was central in the speeches held by the Noor-Eesti (Young Estonia) Movement in 1914-1915. The members of the movement considered themselves the elite of the intellectuals. 95 percent of them had academic background. However the members had still studied at the Keiserliche Universität Dorpat. In 1919 the University of Tartu was reopened as an Estonian University, serving the interests of Estonia. The highlight of the University of Tartu came in 1920s-1930s with the boom of research. The university became a cradle of Estonian technical sciences leading to the opening of Tallinn Technical University and a cradle of agricultural sciences as well as studies culminating in the foundation of Estonian Agricultural Academy, today known as Agricultural University. We can firmly say that the intellectual backbone of Estonia was set up in 1920s-1930s, never to be broken even by the half-century Soviet occupation. The other part of the intellectual elite continued in exile, the other attempted to realise itself in the research world adjusting to the reality. However, it is most important that the University of Tartu maintained both the Estonian language and covertly also its Estonian mind. We could experience it in the democratic endeavours of the students of Tartu in late 1960s and early 1970s. The entire country perceived the sacred significance of the University of Tartu when the Assembly Hall was destroyed in fire in December 1965. This was a heart attack for Estonia. I still shiver recalling tens and hundreds of people standing in tears looking at the smoking ashes of what was left of the Assembly Hall. Just like 29 years later the catastrophe with the ferry Estonia brought people closer, at that time esprit de corps with the university was complete.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
In modern Estonia of today, the University of Tartu is still the flagship in Estonia's education landscape. It continues to be the intellectual heart of Estonia and concept of Estonia. It is inseparable from our Athens on the River Emajõgi. Nowhere else in Estonia is there such a high density of professors and students. Here are all prerequisites of synergy. Achievements of the university from space research to gene technology, from medicine to language studies, from psychology and semiotics to studies of national heritage are significant in itself.
I would like to use the opportunity to thank university professors and researchers for the tremendous contribution to maintain Estonia's education and science on the world level. The role of the Council of the University, University Government and rectors is not less significant. They are responsible for sustaining the university as a uniform system. I would like to express our special gratitude to the former rectors of the university Jüri Kärner, Peeter Tulviste and the rector in office Jaak Aaviksoo. Under Academician Jaak Aaviksoo the University of Tartu has expanded its impact on Estonia's education landscape. This is to be expected, as Academician Aaviksoo is both a recognised physicist and a well-known education theoretic.
The distinguished history and exemplary position of the university make it look for new developments. The University of Tartu is for Estonians just one of several options to acquire education. Market economy has brought along the concept of education market, supply and demand mechanism. The university has to adjust to the situation in which education is not a national or pragmatic objective any more but rather a tool, merely an interim stage in lifelong and career-long learning. This brings along a question of identity: how does the university see itself in Estonia's intellectual space, in the education system, what are the relations with other, often competitive universities, what is the contribution of the University of Tartu to Estonia's national identity, societal thinking and research world, what are the priorities of education and research. These are not only the questions the University of Tartu asks from itself. These are also the questions addressed to Estonia as a whole. The founding of the University in Tartu in 1632 meant involving Estonia in the European academic area. The University of Tartu has been a sign of the Estonians as a learned nation. Ultimately the fate of the Estonians as a learned nation will depend on the fate of the university. We have to take care that the "source of light" glorified by Kristjan Jaak Peterson would never fade.
Vivat Academia!
|
| |
|
vpk.ee
