Chapter 7.3.5: The February Revolution

At the beginning of February 1917, the Russian Empire was on the verge of a crash. Inflation skyrocketed, there was an acute shortage of fuel, food and consumer goods. The army was losing its will to fight, tiredness from the war and hatred for the government spread like wildfire amongst the people. The mass protests in St. Petersburg developed into the February revolution. The army which had been sent to pacify the situation went over to the side of the people. The government was toppled, emperor Nicholas II abdicated and the power transferred over to the Provisional Government. All privileges were abolished and the same civil rights and freedoms were established for all. Russia became a republic.

By the end of February the situation in Estonia was quiet. There were only rumours about the extraordinary events in the capital. The official notice about the fall of the old regime arrived in Tallinn on the 1st of March, and immediately strikes were declared in several factories, which on the next day became citywide riots. There was a huge public meeting, prisons, police stations and courts were looted, officers and policemen were murdered. There were fires around the city, drunk gangs roamed the streets and shots could be heard from time to time.



The burnt down Fat Margareth tower, which was used as a prison at the time.


Similar events took place in other towns with a sufficient number of workers and/or soldiers. The countryside remained peaceful however, as the people there were sceptical about the news of a successful revolution. The main bulk of the rioters tended to be Russian speaking, either the soldiers stationed in the cities or the workers who had moved to Estonia in recent years. By this point there were about 100 thousand of them in Tallinn alone. From the example of St. Petersburg, the police was replaced with a voluntary people's militia and local workers and soldiers councils were established.



A protest on Town Hall Square in Tallinn during March 1917.

On the 5th of March the government declared the mayor of Tallinn, Jaan Poska, as the new governor for the governorate of Estonia. To push the Baltic-Germans away from ruling the cities, the members of Estonian societies were incorporated to the city councils. The quick establishment of parties began.



Jaan Poska (1866-1920). Worked as a lawyer in Tallinn, was elected to the city council in 1904 and became the mayor in 1913.

Already in 1905 the idea of establishing a gouvernante which was based on the ethnic borders of Estonians and achieving autonomy for it started to spread. The opportunity to realise this dream came with the February revolution.

A meeting between nationalists organised by Tõnisson was held in Tartu where the bill for an autonomy law was written and proposed to the government. This proposal did not achieve a lot of support in the government, as it believed that such an important matter should be decided by the future Constituent Assembly. As the election of said assembly was far off, Estonians decided to apply pressure to the government.

On the 26th of March there were many protests in support of autonomy all across Estonia, predominantly in Southern Estonian cities. The largest of them was in St. Petersburg. More than 40 thousand Estonians, including 15 thousand soldiers, marched under the national tricolours and revolutionary red flags through the entire city centre, from the St. John's church of the Estonian congregation to the residence of the government at Tauria palace. There they gave the government the wishes of Estonians, including an autonomous national Estonian governorate. The procession was over 2 kms long and made an impression on the onlookers for its disciplined and organised nature.









The pro-autonomy march in St. Petersburg.

On the 30th of March the government passed the autonomy law. The Northern portion of the governorate of Livonia was united with the governorate of Estonia into a united national governorate. This meant that for the first time in history the territories inhabited by Estonians (excluding the city of Narva and Setumaa) were united into a single administrative territory. It was given great autonomy. Jaan Poska also became the governor of this new governorate.

On the first of July the Estonian Provincial Assembly started work. It was made up of the representatives of cities and rural communities and had been elected democratically by the various local councils. For every 20 thousand people there was one representative, so in total there were 62 members. About half of the members were social-democrats and socialists and the other half were liberal nationalists. The council would elect the Estonian Provincial Government.

These two bodies, the legislative Estonian Provincial Assembly and the executive Estonian Provincial Government would take over the institutions and property of the old governorate governments and the knighthoods, as well as start passing bills.

From here on out life in Estonia started to change rapidly. Although Estonia remained part of Russia and general orders came from St. Petersburg, all important local matters went under the control of Estonians themselves. Over the summer there were elections for the local councils, many Russian civil servants were replaced by Estonians, all institutions and schools went over to using Estonian. A national Estonian Lutheran church was established, which would have a “bottom up” power structure. Estonian soldiers and officers from all across Russia made their way to their homeland where they were organised into national army units.


The officers of the 1st Estonian Battalion in Haapsalu.

For now the national autonomy was enough for the majority of the population and the leading liberal figures. There were also discussions about a possible sovereign Estonian state within a federative Russia, but the creation of a federation was not a local decision, it had to wait for a nationwide approval in the Constituent Assembly.