Karl Vaino

He was born in May 1923 in the Siberian city of Tomsk. He was born in the family of the communist Genrikh Vaino (born Heinrich Vaino; 1889–1965), who moved from Estonia in 1918, and Lydia Savi, the daughter of Estonian colonists who settled in Siberia at the beginning of the 20th century. Heinrich, after a failed attempt at a Bolshevik revolt in Estonia, fled to Russia.

After graduating from what is now the Omsk State Transport University in 1947, Vaino worked in engineering and technical jobs on the railway in the Estonian SSR. He joined the CPSU in 1947. He served as Secretary of the 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 Estonia. He graduated from the Correspondence Higher Party School in 1957.

Having lived his early life in Russia, Vaino did not speak Estonian very well, and did so with a thick Russian accent. For this, he was considered to be perfect for the role of First Secretary, being a so-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.[3][4]

In early 1988, the CPE split into national communists and internationalists. Vaino was the leader of the latter, while the former was led by then-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 would then move to Moscow, where he had lived ever since. He did not visit Estonia again.[5]

His daughter Eleonora Kochetova[6] 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[7] and Russian Interior Ministry official Andrey Vaino.

On 19 February 2022, it was announced that Vaino had died at some point earlier in the year, at the age of 98. He was buried on 14 February.[8]

• 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)