Karl Vaino, 1987
His death notice was published on the website of a Russian Orthodox church in Borodino.
Vaino was buried on February 14 near a Soviet-era war memorial.
He was born in May 1923 in the Siberian city of Tomsk in the family of the communist Genrikh Vaino (1889–1965), who moved from Estonia in 1918, and Lydia Savi, the daughter of Estonian colonists who settled in Siberia at the beginning of the 20th century. Heinrich, after a failed attempt at a Bolshevik revolt in Estonia, fled to Russia.
After graduating from what is now the Omsk State Transport University in 1947, Vaino worked in engineering and technical jobs on the railway in the Estonian SSR. He joined the CPSU in 1947. He served as Secretary of the Tallinn Regional Committee from 1948–1953. In the 1960s and 1970s, he also served as Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia. He graduated from the Correspondence Higher Party School in 1957.
He was First Secretary of the Communist Party of Estonia from 1978 through to 1988. As the First secretary, Vaino acquired a reputation of being an extreme Russificator. With a dismissive attitude towards Estonian language and culture, he was not popular amongst Estonians. Vaino was forced to resign from his post by Moscow on 16 June 1988, and replaced by Väljas. Vaino would then move to Moscow, where he had lived ever since. He did not visit Estonia again.
Vaino's grandson, Anton Vaino, is current Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office.