{"id":1503,"date":"2024-04-03T23:41:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/merits\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T23:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:26:22","slug":"merits","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/m\/merits\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuido Merits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\">Kuido Merits (pseudonym Wido Moritz, born 25 July 1962) is a writer and former diplomat.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\">Merits was born in V\u00f5ru. He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1994 in the speciality of history and occupied different posts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1992\u20132013), being a diplomat at Estonian representations in Riga, New York and Kiev, was media adviser of the electoral alliance Free Tallinn Citizen (2013) and an observer of the OSCE Special Observation Mission in South Ukraine (2014). He has been communications manager at Valga municipal executive board and worked as a schoolteacher. A member of the Estonian Writers\u2019 Union from 2018.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\">Under the pseudonym of Wido Moritz, Kuido Merits published a book on the backstage of Estonian foreign policy, <em>Mullivabalt. Eesti meesametnike salaelust<\/em> (\u2018No Bubbles. On the Secret Life of Estonian Male Officials\u2019, 2015). Under the name of Kuido Merits, he wrote a book on the life and activities of international observers, <em>V\u00f5imalik missioon. M\u00e4rkmeid Ukrainast<\/em> (\u2018Mission Possible. Notes from Ukraine\u2019, 2016). Merits\u2019 book <em>Kas saab vaikust!? Minu aasta mees\u00f5petajana<\/em> (\u2018Could I Have Some Silence!? My Year as a Male Teacher\u2019, 2018) speaks about his year-long experience of working as a teacher.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\">In 2022 Merits published the novel <em>Tsaari ulaan<\/em> (\u2018Czar\u2019s Uhlan\u2019), which describes the author\u2019s grandfather\u2019s Karl Merits\u2019 (1885-1979)<\/span><\/span><\/span> <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\">time as a member of the prestigious uhlan regiment of the Russian czarist army at the beginning of the 20th century. As a contrast, the author gives a picture of his own preposterous service in Soviet army in 1980s.<\/span><\/span><\/span> <em>Tsaari ulaan<\/em> received the <a href=\"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/v\/viirlaid\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"1947\">Arved Viirlaid<\/a> Literary Award. Grandfather Karl Merits is also one of the main characters in Kuido Merits\u2019 play <em>Kadunud alguste aegu<\/em> (\u2018The Times of Lost Beginnings\u2019, 2025), which tells the story of the birth of the Rakvere professional theatre in the difficult 1940s, during the German and Soviet occupations. Karl Merits was the director of the theatre from 1942 to 1944. The author used his grandfather\u2019s memories and letters when writing the play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kuido Merits has also published a book about his experience living and working in Valga, titled <em>Minu Valga<\/em> (\u2018My Valga\u2019, 2024), in the popular My-series published by Petrone Print<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\"><em>L. P. (Translated by I. A.)<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\">Books in Estonian<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;\"><em><strong>Prose<\/strong><\/em><br>Wido Moritz, <strong>Mullivabalt. Eesti meesametnike salaelust<\/strong>. Tallinn: Ajakirjade Kirjastus, 2015, 142 lk.<br><strong>V\u00f5imalik missioon. M\u00e4rkmeid Ukrainast<\/strong>. Tallinn: Go Group, 2016, 114 lk.<br><strong>Kas saab vaikust!?. Minu aasta mees\u00f5petajana<\/strong>. Tallinn: Ema &amp; Isa, 2018, 112 lk.<br><strong>Tsaari ulaan<\/strong>. Tallinn: Argo, 2022, 237 lk.<\/span><\/span><\/span><br><strong>Minu Valga : linn, mis ei mahu \u00fchte riiki<\/strong>. Tartu: Petrone Print, 2024, 288 lk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Plays<\/strong><\/em><br><strong>Kadunud alguste aegu. <\/strong>N\u00e4idend kahes vaatuses. Rakvere: MK Meedia, 2025, 93 lk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kuido Merits (pseudonym Wido Moritz, born 25 July 1962) is a writer and former diplomat. Merits was born in V\u00f5ru. He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1994 in the speciality of history and occupied different posts in the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"parent":642,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1503","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1503"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10314,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1503\/revisions\/10314"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}