Selter, Karl

He graduated from the Law Faculty of the University of Tartu in 1925, and from 1922 began working at the Ministry of Defense of Estonia.

In 1933 he was appointed Minister of Commerce. With his participation in 1934, a trade agreement was signed with the USSR. Since May 8, 1938, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

After Germany seized the Memel region of Lithuania on April 28, 1939, Germany proposed to conclude non-aggression treaties between Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which Sweden, Norway and Finland refused. Karl Selter led the delegation to negotiate the non-aggression treaty between Germany and Estonia , which marked the de facto protectorate of Germany over Estonia, and the secret clause stipulated an obligation to assist Germany on the basis of recognition that “the danger of attack existed only from Soviet Russia and that a sensible implementation of the policy of neutrality requires the deployment of all defensive forces against this danger ” ^[2] . Germany pledged to provide assistance to the Allies "to the extent that they themselves are not able to do this," which in essence was a hidden military protectorate.

At the same time, Selter led the Estonian delegation on a trade agreement with the Soviet Union. On the eve of their next round, an incident occurred with the Polish submarine Orel , which was interned in the port of Tallinn on the eve of the surrender of the Polish government, and when the surrender was completed on September 17 and the Soviet Union began to deploy troops to Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, the Polish submarine was able to leave the port Tallinn and go to England.

September 24, 1939 Selter arrived in Moscow at the invitation of the government of the USSR. In the evening he was received in the Kremlin by the chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars and the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs V. Molotov . Noting that the new trade agreement was ready, he indicated that the political relations between the Soviet Union and Estonia were unsatisfactory. “The escape of the interned Polish submarine from Tallinn shows that the Estonian government either does not want or cannot maintain order in its country and thereby jeopardizes the security of the Soviet Union,” said Molotov. - The submarine was repaired in Tallinn, supplied with fuel, 6 torpedoes were left to it and given the opportunity to leave. The Soviet Union, which has significant interests on the Baltic Sea: a large port in Leningrad, large military and merchant fleets, is not protected from such surprises in the future. It is necessary to give the Soviet Union effective guarantees to strengthen its security ... and conclude a military alliance or mutual assistance agreement, which would at the same time provide the Soviet Union with the right to have strongholds or bases for the fleet and aviation in Estonia. ”

Selter left for negotiations with the president and parliament in Tallinn, after which on September 26, an agreement with the USSR was signed, and in October 1939 it was ratified.

On October 4, the government resigned, and along with the resignation of the post of Minister, Selter also resigned, becoming the Ambassador of Estonia to Switzerland, Italy and the Vatican, as well as a permanent representative in the League of Nations .

After Estonia joined the USSR, he remained in Switzerland.

In 1952, he became the Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to Germany, which did not recognize the inclusion of the Baltic states in the USSR.

• Estonian Biographical Dictionary . Tallinn, 2002.