History  

The story of the present Tallinn University dates from 15 May 2002, when the representatives of four universities and research institutions in Tallinn signed agreements, one among themselves to establish a new university in Tallinn, and one with the Ministry of Education as well as the City of Tallinn, who both promised to support the new venture.

Since 1631, when the magistrates of Tallinn declined the offer of the Swedish King Gustav Adolf II to found a university in the city (an offer their colleagues in Tartu were astute enough to accept), Tallinn had without a university bearing its name and, until 2005, the last capital city in Europe with such a lack. Of course, there was the Tallinn University of Technology (founded in 1918) as well as many other speicalised universities, while the most venerable site of learning, Tartu University, had historically provided for the academic needs of the country in many fields. During the whole process of the creation of the new university, indeed, heated debates continued with regard to its necessity, given the small size of the country. Finally, however, the opinion came to prevail that the spiritual and material resources of the scattered units in Tallinn would be put to much better use if they were united into one whole, and that this would enhance the quality of both the education and the research carried out in the capital of Estonia.

The founding members of the University were the Academic Library of Estonia, the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Estonian Institute of Humanities, the Institute of History of the Estonian Academy of Sciences and the Tallinn Pedagogical University. In the process, the Estonian Academy of Arts decided to withdraw from the venture, and for a certain period, the Viljandi Academy of Culture was also involved in the talks. Even before the initiating act of Tallinn University, Tallinn Pedagogical University had signed deeds by which several research institutes – the Institute of Ecology, the Institute of Educational Research, the Institute of Estonian Demography and the Institute of International and Social Studies – came under its aegis. All in all, Tallinn University was born with many different heritages and as the heir to many different traditions.

The Academic Library of Estonia, now called the Academic Library of Tallinn University, traces its origins to the year 1552, when a library was created by St. Olaf’s Church in Tallinn, which consisted mainly of donated books. A catalogue from the year 1684 notes 1777 volumes, but after the Northern War (1700–1721) the library started to lose its leading position in the city. After a series of movements, the collection was finally given in 1950 to the Central Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR, established in 1946. Currently, the collection of the library numbers around 2.5 million items.

The Estonian Institute of Humanities was established by a group of intellectuals in 1988 as the first independent university in the Eastern bloc countries, a counterweight to the state-controlled Estonian universities, which then were dominated by communist ideology and administrated according to rigid, Soviet-style schemes. Very soon it became one of the centres of intellectual activity through which currents of contemporary thought came to the country – faculty members and former students of the institute have been responsible for the introduction of Beck, Bourdieu, Deleuze, Derrida, Eco, Foucault, Kristeva, Lyotard and many other figures of Western thought, as well as applying their ideas to their own research. They have also proposed critical reinterpretations of history, introduced new paradigms of cultural analysis and developed academic programs in fields such as Asian studies and anthropology, which are not to be found anywhere else in the country.

The Institute of History was established in 1947 and, until the founding of Tallinn University, was a research institute working under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences. Since 1990, the Institute has collaborated closely with the Estonian Institute of Humanities and, later, with Tallinn Pedagogical University in organising the teaching of history in Tallinn, while continuing its research work in the fields of archeology, history, ethnology and art history. Most research projects of the Institute have been related to the Middle Ages, but significant research is also carried out on various problems of the 20th century, where the researchers of the Institute have led the way in promoting a de-ideologicised and de-romanticised view of the country’s history. In the course of the establishment of the university, all history programs have been transferred to the Institute.

Alphabetically last, but certainly not least, Tallinn Pedagogical University has carried on the traditions of teacher training that go back to 1919, when a Teachers’ Seminar was established in Tallinn under the guidance of leading specialists in educational sciences. Through a series of reorganisations this seminar was turned into a higher educational establishment in 1952 and finally obtained the status of a public university in 1992. Since then, it has been the fastest-growing university in Estonia, and has also expanded the scope of its academic activities, moving away from its traditional teacher training profile. So, in 1993, the faculty of social sciences was established, with departments of sociology, government, psychology etc.; in 1998, a program of computer science was opened; in 2002, the interpreter and translator training centre was established. The Tallinn Pedagogical University has been notable for its social conscience and for promoting an active, participatory approach to social, political and intercultural debate in Estonia.