Voldemar Smetanin and the history of the Tallinn Statistics Bureau

A few days ago World Statistics Day took place. The day went by fairly unnoticed by most people, but in Estonia, there is an interesting history behind the beginning of the Tallinn City Statistics Bureau. Voldemar Smetanin was the first head of the Tallinn City Statistics Bureau and the Tallinn Family Status Board. In March 1920 he had the honour of signing the first historic non-church marriage in the Republic of Estonia between Hugo Reimann and Hilda Eichenbaum. Later that same day he also signed the marriage document of Estonian writer Anton Hansen Tammsaare and his wife Käthe.

 

Voldemar Smetanin with his wife Valesca Smetanin (Eichfuss) and children.

Valesca is the daughter of my great-grandmother's cousin.

Voldemar Smetanin was a man with many interests. During his lifetime he was a member of the State Statistical Council, manager of the Bureau of the Estonian Cities Association, a member of a committee between the associations of cities of the Baltic States, the editor of the magazine Linnad ja Alevid, the editor-in-charge of the magazine Estonian Cities, the chairman of the board of the garden city construction association Uus Tare and a member of the Tallinn Men's Song Society.

Sadly, Voldemar Smetanin was another victim of communism. When the Soviets invaded Estonia he was arrested like so many other public figures and sent to a prison camp. He was killed in Karaganda prison camp in Kazakhstan. Most of Smetanin's descendants today live in Germany.