Mr. President and Members of the Academy,

Dear Chairman of the Riigikogu, Prime Minister, and newly elected foreign members!

You have put me in a somewhat difficult position - on my way here I wondered what I would be able to tell you that you didn't already know, and reached the conclusion that, as I was going to speak to the Assembly of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, the task of saying something new would not prove easy.

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate you on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Academy of Sciences. And also, to pose a question, as I have never enjoyed the dissection of the animate body of history as if on a chopping block. But of course, in history, especially in state history, this is inevitable.

The Estonian Academy of Sciences is one of the traditions of the science that lives and develops in Estonia, and the Academy is probably the appropriate form for it today. I am glad that the Academy, which was founded in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1938, one year before the storm, has restored its continuity and works on.

On my way here, I had inkling of one possible subject - one that you, too, have discussed repeatedly and from several points of view. It is the question of the efficiency of science. What kind of etalon metre from Paris should we use to measure the efficiency of science? Should the different institutes of the Academy tackle this task, each of them would probably proclaim itself to be the most efficient. This is called market economy!

Also, I remembered how offended our publicity has always felt after the publication of the UN Annual Report that is supposed to determine the quality of life of different populations, where we have always found ourselves in the vicinity of Kirghistan - and considering that Kirghistan has already been accepted as a member of the World Trade Organisation, it seems indeed that Estonia's living standards are a little lower than those of Kirghistan. I would like to remind you of another fact that our slightly limited media has failed to bring to your attention - namely, that the Federal Republic of Germany came a respectable 53rd in this tough contest. So cheer up, gentlemen!

And yet, why quality - and what is efficiency of science? It seems to me we could proceed from the fact that science was born with man. And just because of this, the question mark I posed above is justified.

If you look in this direction from your attic, you can see the Dominican Monastery that once sent students to Paris and Oxford - to do their doctor's thesis, as we say today. Those where the sites where chairs and universities grew out of cathedrals, and with which Estonia had academic contact - in form appropriate to the times - already in the 13th century.

I remember, that in 1952, when we celebrated the anniversary of our University, which had undergone a thorough Soviet rejuvenation treatment, I happened to browse a leaflet about the Tartu University Botanical Gardens, saying that the Tartu University Botanical Gardens were the oldest in Estonia, founded by then and then already. This was a painful blow - as if there had been no monasteries with botanical gardens in Estonia. And yet there were botanical gardens. Do not forget where Mendel made his discoveries. In other words, I would like us to see, behind those changing forms, an unaltered call - the call for science.

And I could also tell you of my inspiration as I watched Eskimo children skinning a walrus - their catch from the sea. No doubt they were more professional at it than the scientists from the Institute of Zoology and Botany would have been. This certainly was science. The ability of an Eskimo or a Chukchi to find the way home infallibly by stars or meteorological phenomena also certainly is science. Not everybody, who has tried to find his way home in these difficult conditions these days, has succeeded.

I have reached a most unexpected conclusion that the period which has always fascinated me, the prehistoric era, also tells us that without science, and without accumulation of scientific knowledge, man would have been unable to withstand the pressure of times. There have been enough populations that never reached the level of a civilisation. It would be useful to study the reasons for their extinction. What I want to say is that the further we delve into the past, the more certainly we reach the curious conclusion that science has always been much more democratically and self-extendingly above the members of its population. Maybe this is also the reason for the intrinsic harmony that so finely characterises the populations that we call the primitive civilisations, their intrinsic harmony with each other and nature.

I suppose this is a subject worth studying - science and society. On the background of our great restored freedom, the dialogue between the Estonian science and the Estonian people sounds rather dull. As a matter of fact, this does not worry me overmuch, because I understand that form the historical point of view we are looking at a split second. This is actually just a great vernal spell of the spirit of freedom that has overtaken our society; and in this unlimited freedom, the need for organised freedom is already inherent.

Here, it would be appropriate to quote a Jew who was born in Germany and said that freedom is recognition of necessity. I believe strongly in the efficiency of the Estonian science, because I see in the Estonian people the longing to leave the early spring freedom behind and to reach the recognition of necessity.

The people hope to hear powerful words from you. I am not the one to wish to speak for our people, but in Estonia, a scientist means a schoolmaster squared. This position belongs to you and I wish you magnanimity and diligence. I wonder whether it would be appropriate to wish faith to scientists? If I may, I wish you faith in our future, because the future is in our hands in any case.

back | archive of speeches | main page