Toomas Hiio

Toomas Hiio
Hiio in 2011
Born	(1965-06-01) 1 June 1965 (age 60)
Citizenship	Estonian
Alma mater	University of Tartu
Occupation	Historian
Awards	Order of the White Star, 4th Class Vabaduse Tammepärja aumärk

Toomas Hiio (born 1 June 1965) is an Estonian historian whose work has focused on 19th- and 20th-century Estonian history, especially World War II in Estonia, the Nazi and Soviet occupations, crimes against humanity, and the history of the University of Tartu.^[1][2][3] He is deputy director for research at the Estonian War Museum – General Laidoner Museum and research director of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory.^[4][5] He previously served as executive secretary and head of research of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity.^[3]

Hiio studied history at the University of Tartu and graduated in 1991.^[2] He served as executive secretary and head of research of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity from 1998 to 2008.^[3] He has worked at the Estonian War Museum – General Laidoner Museum since 2005, and the museum's current staff page identifies him as its deputy director for research.^[2][4] Since 2017 he has also been research director of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory.^[3][5]

Hiio is also a reserve officer. In 1998 he was granted the rank of junior lieutenant by presidential decree.^[6]

Hiio's research interests include the history of the University of Tartu, 19th- and 20th-century Estonian history, and the history of the Second World War.^[2][3] He has edited or co-edited major documentary and scholarly volumes on occupation, state violence, and memory in Estonia, including Estonia 1940–1945: Reports of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity (2006), Estonia since 1944: Reports of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity (2009), and Sovietisation and Violence: The Case of Estonia (2018).^[7][8]

Outside specialist publishing, he co-authored the two-volume Eesti riigi 100 aastat with historian and former prime minister Mart Laar for the Estonia 100 book series.^[9][10][11] In 2020 he contributed to Toimik "Priboi": Artikleid ja dokumente 1949. aasta märtsiküüditamisest, a source-based collection on the March 1949 deportations from Estonia.^[12][13]

The scholarly reception of his edited volumes extended beyond Estonia. Estonia 1940–1945 was reviewed in Slavic Review and discussed in the Journal of Baltic Studies and the Journal of Genocide Research, while Sovietisation and Violence was later reviewed in Poland's Institute of National Remembrance Review.^{[14][15][16][8]}

In 2002 Hiio was awarded the Order of the White Star, 4th Class.^[17] In 2018 he received the Vabaduse Tammepärja aumärk for recording the history of Estonia's freedom struggle and resistance movement.^[18]

• Album Academicum Universitatis Tartuensis 1918–1944 (with Lauri Lindström and others, 1994).^[19]
• Estonia 1940–1945: Reports of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity (co-editor with Meelis Maripuu and Indrek Paavle, 2006).^[7]
• Estonia since 1944: Reports of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity (co-editor with Meelis Maripuu and Indrek Paavle, 2009).^[7]
• Sovietisation and Violence: The Case of Estonia (co-editor with Meelis Saueauk, 2018).^[8]
• Eesti riigi 100 aastat (with Mart Laar, 2 vols., 2018).^[10][11]