Chapter 8.2: Political History between 1920-1934

In addition to Russia, Estonia also had to reach an agreement with Latvia over the Estonia-Latvia border. The ethnic border was not distinct, there were rural communities that had mixed populations. In addition there was the strategically important railway city of Valga, which had over seven thousand Estonians, five thousand Latvians and more than a thousand people of other ethnicities living in it. Those rural communities and the city of Valga became the main point of contention between the two governments. The months long talks seemed to stall and there was even the danger of war brewing, but eventually on the 1st of July 1920 the British colonel George Tallents, who was preceding over the talks, managed to find a compromise. Valga was cut in half, Estonians got the majority of the city. Latvia got most of the rural communities, including ones which had a majority of Estonians 
 
As the Constituent Assembly was controlled by leftist parties, the Estonian constitution was also written according to their ideals. Among other things the position of president was not established, as it was seen by socialists as the executor of strong central power. The tasks of a president and a prime minister were merged together into a position called state elder (riigivanem). Both the state elder and the entirety of government were appointed by the Riigikogu, the parliament. Riigikogu was elected once every three years through free and fair elections and was composed of a single chamber. The government had to have the support of the majority of parliament, if that was lost it had to step back. The people also got the right to petition the start or changes of bills, as well as pass bills themselves through referendums. However these options were rarely used in reality.

Riigikogu hoone, built in Toompea Palace in 1922. The only expressionist style parliament in the world.



The original interior in the parliament chamber.



The current interior.

As about 10% of the Estonian population was made up of Germans, Russians, Swedes and other ethnic minorities, Estonia passed the law of Cultural Autonomy in 1925. This gave the largest minority ethnic groups cultural and educational autonomy, ergo the right to establish cultural organisations, schools in their own language, political organisations, religious organisations and so on. Germans and Jews would use these possibilities extensively, the rest did not. The overall way of how Estonia treated its minorities was rather progressive.
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Mini Chapter: Jews during the Republic

Keeping the upcoming worldwide conflict in mind, I thought it would be appropriate to describe how the life of the Estonian Jews was. In 1925 there were 3045 of them living in the country, as well as three synagogues. As mentioned before, they had cultural autonomy. They were able to establish schools that taught in Yiddish and Hebrew, cultural, sport and youth organisations, as well as a cultural government for the Jewish community, that would coordinate and oversee the work of the different Jewish institutions. In 1936, the British-based Jewish newspaper The Jewish Chronicle reported after a visit to the country by one of its journalists:

"Estonia is the only country in Eastern Europe where neither the Government nor the people practice any discrimination against Jews and where Jews are left in peace.... the cultural autonomy granted to Estonian Jews ten years ago still holds good, and Jews are allowed to lead a free and unmolested life and fashion it in accord with their national and cultural principles."

This did not change until the occupations began. I will cover the persecution of Estonian Jews at the appropriate time.



The Great Synagogue of Tallinn, destroyed during WW2.

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Estonian political life was characterised by the abundance of parties. For example in the 1923 parliamentary elections there were 26 different parties. Later the number of parties decreased and 5 main parties appeared. The agrarians were represented by the Põllumeeste Kogud (Farmers´ Assemblies) and Asunike Koondis (Settler´s Party), the social democrats by the Eesti Sotsialistlik Tööliste Partei (Estonian Socialist Workers Party) and the centrists by Rahvaerakond (Peoples Party) and Tööerakond (Labour Party). In addition there were many smaller parties represented in parliament, so governments were generally made up of 4-5 party coalitions. This caused lots of friction in governments and the average age of a government during this era was 11 months. A widely held contemporary belief was that this type of change of government was not normal.


Jaan Teemant (1872-1941), was the longest consecutive State Elder of Estonia. Led 3 governments between 1925-1927.

The main purpose of the foreign policy of Estonia was to defend the country from outside threats, Soviet Russia being seen as the main one. To counter this, Estonia tried to develop good relations with Russia, although the results were rather lacking. For diplomatic and military support they put their hopes on the Western great powers. At first there were some successes, Estonia received a great amount of support during the war and in January 1921 the former Entente nations officially recognized Estonian independence. Later it became apparent however that one could not put all of the eggs in the same basket in case of a direct threat of war.

There was also an attempt to form the so-called Baltic Union, a military defence league that would include Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, a sort of mini-NATO if you please. However it did not come into being. Finland oriented itself towards the Nordic Countries and as such Nordic neutrality early on, Poland and Lithuania were in opposition to each other over the Vilnius (Vilno) region, which Lithuania claimed as its de jure capital, but which was under the control of Poland. The two sides remained enemies throughout the interwar period because of this issue.

Estonia also joined the League of Nations in 1921. There was a naive belief that tight connections and co-operation with the League would be sufficient to provide international security to the nation.

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Mini Chapter: December Uprising of 1924

At the beginning of the 1920s, a large part of the populus still supported leftist ideas. The underground Estonian Communist Party (Eesti Kommunistlik Partei, EKP) noticed that and planned to use it for its own advantage. The communists set as their goal the toppling of government, establishment of a dictatorship and uniting Estonia with the Soviet Union.

For this purpose they asked for help from the Soviet Union. They were provided millions of euros (in modern day currency) of financial support. In addition about 10 thousand Estonians, Latvians and Finns living in the Soviet Union were recruited to aid the “uprising” if needed. The Red Navy took up battle stations near the Bay of Tallinn and the troops near the border were mobilised for “exercises”. The attack plan was also organised in the Soviet Union. About 50 fighters were sent to aid the 120 or so men recruited in Tallinn.

The Estonian government was informed about the coup, but did not know when it was supposed to take place. At first they thought it would be on the 1st of May 1924. Already in January they had arrested more than 200 prominent communists for treason, and on the 27th of November the “Trial of the 149” took place, one was sentenced to death, 39 to life long hard labour, 30 to hard labour for 15 years, 7 were released and the rest were given 3-10 years of prison time.

The “Trial of the 149” hindered the plans of the communists, as many organisers were eliminated. Nevertheless they went onwards with the plan.

In the early morning hours of December 1st, 1924, the coup attempt began. Three armed squads were organised to take over the most strategically important locations in the capital, places like the parliament, railway stations, police stations, War College, Ministry of War, electricity plant and so on. It was hoped that after this the workers and soldiers would join the uprising and together the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic would be declared and a new government formed, which would ask Soviet troops to enter Estonia.

The conspirators did manage to take over control of some of their objectives, including the central railway station where the Minister of Roads Karl Kark, who just happened to be there by chance, was executed. The War Ministry, War College and local army units managed to withstand the surprise attack and the conspirators were forced to retreat. The army units in the capital went on the offensive and recaptured all the important sites and by 10 AM the coup attempt was over.



Troops on the street during the uprising. From a movie.

26 people on the side of the Republic and 13 communists fell. In addition to soldiers and policemen the communists had also killed several civilians, for example two railway workers and a cleaning lady. Several leading communists died in action and the rest were either captured and executed or escaped to the Soviet Union.

The uprising essentially meant an end to any support for socialism in Estonia. The plan of the communists had hinged on the workers and soldiers rising up, but that did not happen. A big portion of them had fought on the side of the Republic just 5 years earlier and had no intention to betray their homeland, the rest had been won over in the years after. The failed coup made the remaining sympathisers also change their views. The remaining Estonian communists, who had managed to escape, were executed during Stalin's purges in the 1930s.



The memorial dedicated to the fallen cadets of the War College. Opened in 1928, demolished in 1941, reopened in 2009.

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The Great Depression hit Estonia in the early 30s. Many enterprises went bankrupt, unemployment increased and living standards fell. As the overton window had moved to the right after the 1924 coup attempt, people started to blame the parties, parliament and unstable governments. Between 1931-1933 Estonia had no more than 6 different governments. The idea that the powers of the parliament should be curbed and the separate position of president be established spread quickly. It was hoped that this would provide more stable governments, which could deal with the crisis. This however would have meant an amendment to the constitution.

The main proponent of that change was the organisation that united the veterans of the War of Independence, the Eesti Vabadussõjalaste Keskliit (Colloquially referred to as the Vapsid). At first it just focused on keeping the war era comrades in touch, protecting their rights (that were promised by the state) and also patriotic education, like going to schools to talk about the need to defend the Republic and whatnot. However, with the worldwide economic crisis, the disgruntlement also reached the veterans. The Vapsid started to demand an amendment to the constitution to create the position of president and curb the influence of the parliament and parties. In this way the organisation became a political force, which was able to criticise political parties without itself being one.



The logo of the Vapsid.

They were seen by the public as the men without whom there would be no independent Estonia. Amongst them were many war heroes and leaders. From 1932 onwards, the Vapsid started to accept everyone who agreed with their political stance, not just veterans. By the end of 1933 there were over 450 veteran organisations, with about 30 thousand members in total.



A meeting of the Vapsid in Pärnu, a speech was given by Artur Sirk, one of the leaders of the movement.



Andres Larka (1879-1943), Estonian military general who was one of the leaders of the Vapsid and their presidential candidate.

In October of 1933, the Vapsid proposed the change to the constitution, which was passed in a public referendum with a 78% turnout and 73% of the votes cast in favour of “for”. The constitution went into effect at the beginning of 1934. An election according to the new constitution was to be held in April. As the Vapsid were very popular amongst the people, they expected an electoral victory and the seat of president for themselves. The parties which were worried about the loss of their support blamed the Vapsid for being anti-democratic and pro-dictatorship.

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