Arnold Meri
| Arnold Meri | |
|---|---|
Arnold Meri in the Red Army
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| Born |
1 July 1919 Tallinn, Estonia |
| Died | 27 March 2009 (aged 89) Tallinn, Estonia |
| Allegiance |
 USSR
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| Service/branch | Red Army |
| Years of service | 1940–1945 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards |
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Arnold Meri (1 July 1919 – 27 March 2009) was a Soviet Red Army veteran of World War II and Hero of the Soviet Union who was charged with genocide for his role in the deportation of Estonians to the inhospitable regions of the USSR. He was the cousin of former President of Estonia, Lennart Meri. At the time of his death, Meri was an honorary chairman of the Estonian Anti-Fascist Committee.
In 1926 Meri's family emigrated to Yugoslavia where the young Arnold was baptised into the Russian Orthodox church. He completed Russian primary school in Skopje and the Russian-Serbian Gymnasium in Belgrade in 1938. After returning to Estonia Meri was soon drafted into the Estonian Army. After the Soviet occupation in 1940, he was elected to the City Komsomol Committee in Tallinn and was instructed to create a Komsomol organization in his Estonian army unit. After the absorption of his unit into the Red Army 22nd Estonian corps, he was appointed deputy political officer in 415th radio battalion.
Meri voluntarily joined the Red Army in 1940 while the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was still in force. After Nazi Germany attacked in June 1941, he was wounded in battle while serving as a platoon commander in north-west Russia in 1941. In August 1941 he was awarded a Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union for organizing the defense of the headquarters of the Estonian Territorial Corps when the German army broke through the lines near Dno in July 1941. In reality the defense was commanded by captain Georg Loog, but he was not deemed to be suitable for the decoration, as he was not a member of the Communist Party and had been an officer of the Estonian Army. Meri was specifically commended for remaining on the battlefield despite being wounded four times. Meri retired from the Red Army as a colonel. The building that housed the headquarters of the 22nd Estonian Rifle Corps in July 1941 is currently occupied by a secondary school. In 2008 the school was renamed in honour of Arnold Meri.
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