Magnus Ilmjärv is an Estonian historian. He graduated from the University of Tartu

University of Tartu

The University of Tartu is a classical university in the city of Tartu, Estonia. University of Tartu is the national university of Estonia; it is the biggest and highest-ranked university in Estonia...

 cum laude in 1988 and defended his MA thesis in 1997, in June 2004 defended his PhD at the University of Helsinki

University of Helsinki

The University of Helsinki is a university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but was founded in the city of Turku in 1640 as The Royal Academy of Turku, at that time part of the Swedish Empire. It is the oldest and largest university in Finland with the widest range of disciplines available...

. From 2006 on, Ilmjärv has been the director of the Estonian Institute of History (Ajaloo Instituut). He specializes in Baltic history and international relations between two World Wars. His most notable work is arguably the Silent Submission, which covers the loss of independence of the three Baltic states

Baltic states

The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...

. In Estonia, he is probably best known for his harsh criticism on the Estonian leadership in 1940, incl. Konstantin Päts

Konstantin Päts

Konstantin Päts VR I/1 and III/1 was the most influential politician of interwar Estonia. He was one of the first Estonians to become active in politics and started an almost 40-year political rivalry with Jaan Tõnisson, first through journalism with his newspaper Teataja, later through politics...

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Sources

• http://www.horisont.ee/arhiiv_2003_2006/artikkel791_786.html