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{{Short description|Estonian writer and politician (1890–1946)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}

{{Infobox officeholder
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| honorific-prefix =
| name =
| name = Johannes Vares
| honorific-suffix =
| honorific-suffix =
| image =
| image = Johannes Vares portrait.jpg
| smallimage =
| smallimage =
| caption =
| caption = Vares in 1931
| office = [[Prime Minister of Estonia]]
| office1 = Prime Minister in the duties of the President
| term_start = 20 June 1940
| term_start1 = 23 July 1940
| term_end = 25 August 1940
| term_end1 = 25 August 1940
| predecessor =
| office2 = [[Prime Minister of Estonia]]
| successor = ''Position abolished'' (de facto)
| term_start2 = 21 June 1940
| term_end2 = 25 August 1940
⚫
| office1 = [[List of Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic|Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonia SSR]]
| term_start1 = 25 August 1940
| predecessor2 = [[Jüri Uluots]]
| term_end1 = 10 March 1952
| successor2 = ''Position abolished'' (de facto)
⚫
| office = [[List of Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic|Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR]]
| predecessor1 = ''Position established''
| successor1 = Kārlis Ozoliņš
| term_start = 25 August 1940
| birth_date = {{birth date|1872|9|18|mf=y}}
| term_end = 29 November 1946
| birth_place = [[Mazsalaca]], [[Vidzeme]] (now [[Latvia]])
| predecessor = ''Position established''
| death_date = {{death date and age|1963|11|3|1872|9|18|mf=y}}
| successor = [[Eduard Päll]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|1890|01|12|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Riga]], [[Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic|Latvian SSR]], [[Soviet Union]] (now [[Latvia]]
| birth_place = [[Kiisa, Viljandi County|Kiisa]], [[Viljandi County|Kreis Fellin]], [[Governorate of Livonia]], Russian Empire
| death_date = {{death date and age|1946|11|29|1890|01|12|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Tallinn]], Estonia
| restingplacecoordinates =
| restingplacecoordinates =
| birthname =
| birthname =
| nationality = Estonian
| nationality = Estonian
| party = [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]]
| party = [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]]
| otherparty = <!--For additional political affiliations -->
| otherparty = [[Communist Party of Estonia]]
| spouse =
| spouse =
| alma_mater =
| alma_mater = [[Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv|University of Kyiv]]
| profession = Poet, writer
| profession = Poet, writer, doctor, gynecologist
| signature =
| signature =
| president = [[Konstantin Päts]]
| awards =
| image_size = 200
}}
}}
⚫
'''Johannes Vares''' (pen name '''Barbarus''' or '''Vares-Barbarus''' {{OldStyleDateDY|12 January|1890|31 December 1889}} – 29 November 1946) was an [[Estonia]]n and [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] poet, medical doctor, and politician.
[[File:Johannes ja Emilie Barbarus 1931.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Vares and his wife Emilie, 1931]]
⚫
'''Johannes Vares''' ({{OldStyleDateDY|12 January|1890|31 December 1889}} – 29 November 1946), commonly known as '''Johannes Vares Barbarus''', was an [[Estonia]]n poet, medical doctor, and politician.


Vares was born in [[Kiisa, Viljandi County|Kiisa]] Heimtali Parish (now in [[Pärsti Parish]]), [[Viljandi County]], and educated at [[Pärnu]] Gymnasium. He later studied medicine at the [[University of Kiev]], in present-day [[Ukraine]].
Vares was born in a farmer family in the village of [[Kiisa, Viljandi County|Kiisa]], near [[Viljandi]], [[Estonia]]. He received secondary education at [[Pärnu]] Gymnasium, and in 1910–1914 studied medicine at the [[University of Kyiv]].


Vares served as a military physician in [[World War I]], and after that as a military physician for the Estonian army during the [[Estonian Liberation War]] (1918–1920), he was awarded the Estonian [[Cross of Liberty (Estonia)|Cross of Liberty]] for the participation, but Vares denied the offer.
Vares served as a military physician in [[World War I]], and after that as a military physician for the [[Estonian Land Forces|Estonian Army]] during the [[Estonian War of Independence]] (1918–1920). He was awarded the Estonian [[Cross of Liberty (Estonia)|Cross of Liberty]] for the participation.


Vares later worked as a doctor in [[Pärnu]], and became a well known Estonian poet as well as radical socialist, using the pen name Johannes Barbarus.
In the 1920s, Vares started working as a medical doctor in Pärnu. He subsequently became a well-known poet as well as a radical socialist, using the pen name Johannes Barbarus.


When [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] troops [[Occupation of Baltic Republics|occupied]] Estonia in June 1940, [[Andrei Zhdanov]] forced President [[Konstantin Päts]] to appoint Vares as prime minister of a communist-dominated puppet government. Päts resigned in July, and Vares took over most presidential duties under the title of "Prime Minister in duties of the President," thus giving a stamp of legality to the final stages of Estonia's annexation by the Soviet Union. Vares headed the delegation to Moscow on August 6th that petitioned the Soviet authorities to incorporate Estonia into the Soviet Union, an act that has tainted him forever as a traitor to the Estonian people.{{sfn|Miljan|2004|p=486}} When the annexation became final, Vares remained nominal head of state as chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Estonia. He became a Central Committee member of the restructured [[Communist Party of Estonia|Estonian Communist (Bolshevik) Party]] on 12 September 1940.
During [[World War II]], after the [[Stalin]]ist [[Soviet Union]] invaded and [[Occupation of the Baltic states|occupied]] Estonia in June 1940, [[Andrei Zhdanov]], leader of the Soviet aggression, forced the Estonian president [[Konstantin Päts]] to appoint Vares as prime minister of a communist-dominated [[puppet government]]. Päts resigned in July 1940, and Vares formally took over most presidential duties. The puppet government declared Estonia a "[[Soviet Socialist Republic]]" (SSR), and Vares remained nominal head of state for a few weeks more as chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR. He headed the delegation to Moscow on 6 August 1940 that petitioned to [[Stalin]] and the Soviet central government to incorporate Estonia into the Soviet Union — an act that has tainted Vares as a traitor to the majority of Estonian people.{{sfn|Miljan|2004|p=486}} On 12 September 1940, Vares became member of the Central Committee of the [[Communist Party of Estonia]], soon after the party had been merged into the [[All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks)|All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) of the USSR]].


Following the German invasion of Estonia in 1941, Vares fled to [[Russia]], where he lived in exile<ref>{{cite book|last=Pettibone|first=Charles D.|title=THE ORGANIZATION AND ORDER OF BATTLE OF MILITARIES IN WORLD WAR II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kwTQAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA101|volume=VOLUME IX - THE OVERRUN & NEUTRAL NATIONS OF EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICAN ALLIES|year=2014|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=978-1490733876|page=101}}</ref> from 1941 to 1944, until the Soviets reconquered Estonia.
Following the German invasion of Estonia in 1941, Vares fled to [[Russian SFSR|Soviet Russia]], where he lived in exile<ref>{{cite book|last=Pettibone|first=Charles D.|title=THE ORGANIZATION AND ORDER OF BATTLE OF MILITARIES IN WORLD WAR II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kwTQAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA101|volume=IX - THE OVERRUN & NEUTRAL NATIONS OF EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICAN ALLIES|year=2014|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=978-1490733876|page=101}}</ref> from 1941 to 1944, until the Soviets reconquered Estonia.


On 20 April 1944, the Electoral Committee of the Republic of Estonia (the institution specified in the Constitution for electing the Acting President of the Republic) held a clandestine meeting in Tallinn. The participants included [[Jüri Uluots]], the last Prime Minister of Estonia before the Soviet occupation, the substitute for Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces [[Johan Holberg]], the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies [[Otto Pukk]], the second deputy vice-chairman of the National Council [[Alfred Maurer (politician)|Alfred Maurer]], and State judge [[Mihkel Klaassen]]. The Committee declared Päts' appointment of Vares as Prime Minister had been illegal. Accordingly, it held that Uluots had assumed the President's duties from 21 June 1940 onwards.<ref>L. Mälksoo, ''Professor Uluots, the Estonian Government in Exile and the Continuity of the Republic of Estonia in International Law'', Nordic Journal of International Law, Volume 69, Number 3 / March, 2000</ref>
On 20 April 1944, the Electoral Committee of the Republic of Estonia (the institution specified in the Constitution for electing the Acting President of the Republic) held a clandestine meeting in Tallinn. The participants included [[Jüri Uluots]], the last Prime Minister of Estonia before the Soviet occupation, the substitute for Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces [[Johan Holberg]], the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies [[Otto Pukk]], the second deputy vice-chairman of the National Council [[Alfred Maurer (politician)|Alfred Maurer]], and State judge [[Mihkel Klaassen]]. The Committee declared Päts' appointment of Vares as Prime Minister had been illegal. Accordingly, it held that Uluots had assumed the President's duties from 21 June 1940 onwards.<ref>L. Mälksoo, ''Professor Uluots, the Estonian Government in Exile and the Continuity of the Republic of Estonia in International Law'', Nordic Journal of International Law, Volume 69, Number 3 / March, 2000</ref>


Since the end of the Soviet Union, Estonia has maintained that all laws passed by the Vares government were void, since the upper house of Parliament had been dissolved soon after the Soviet occupation and was never reconvened. The 1938 constitution required that all laws pass both chambers before being promulgated. This included the electoral law under which the blatantly rigged [[1940 Estonian parliamentary election|elections of 14–15 July]] were conducted. It was this election that produced the so-called "[[People's Parliament|People's Riigikogu]]" which declared Estonia a Soviet republic and "requested" to join the Soviet Union.
The Estonian government has maintained that all laws, decrees and treaties made in 1940–1941 in Soviet-occupied Estonia, including those of Vares' puppet government, illegal, null and void from their start. The [[upper house]] of Parliament had been dissolved soon after the 16–17 June 1940 Soviet invasion and was never reconvened, nor re-elected. According to the then [[Constitution of Estonia]], all laws had to pass both houses of parliament before being promulgated. This applies also to the new pro-Soviet 1940 "electoral law" under which the blatantly rigged [[1940 Estonian parliamentary election|elections of 14–15 July 1940]] were conducted. It was this [[Election#Sham election|sham election]] that produced the so-called "[[People's Parliament]]" which then declared Estonia a "Soviet republic" and "requested" to join the Soviet Union.


After returning to Estonia, Vares came under investigation by the Soviet [[NKVD]] for his activities in the [[Estonian War of Independence]]. He committed suicide in [[Presidential Palace (Tallinn)|Presidential Palace]] in [[Tallinn]], in November 1946.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://catalog.osaarchivum.org/catalog/osa:a63ba20c-b06f-44bb-9486-8697389a9a89 |title=Estonian Party Journal Reverts to "Un-Marxist" Terminology on Stalin's "Personality Cult" |last=Duevel |first=Christian |publisher=[[Blinken Open Society Archives]]|date=28 June 1971 |access-date=8 September 2021 }}</ref>
After returning to Estonia in 1944, Vares came under investigation by the Soviet [[NKVD]] for his activities in the [[Estonian War of Independence]] (1918–1920). He committed suicide in [[Presidential Palace (Tallinn)|presidential residence]] in [[Kadriorg]], Tallinn, in November 1946.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://catalog.osaarchivum.org/catalog/osa:a63ba20c-b06f-44bb-9486-8697389a9a89 |title=Estonian Party Journal Reverts to "Un-Marxist" Terminology on Stalin's "Personality Cult" |last=Duevel |first=Christian |publisher=[[Blinken Open Society Archives]]|date=28 June 1971 |access-date=8 September 2021 }}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
*[[Johannes Vares' cabinet]]
*[[Johannes Vares' cabinet]]


⚫
==Citations and references==
==References==

⚫
===Citations===
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}


===Bibliography===
===Cited sources===
{{Refbegin}}
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite book
* {{Cite book
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{{Refend}}
{{Refend}}


==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://sisu.ut.ee/ewod/b/barbarus Johannes Vares at Estonian Writers' Online Dictionary]


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{{succession box|before=Office created|title=Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the [[Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic|Estonian SSR]]|years=1940–1946|after=[[Nigol Andresen]]}}
{{succession box|before=Office created|title=Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the [[Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic|Estonian SSR]]|years=1940–1946|after=[[Nigol Andresen]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Vares, Johannes}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vares, Johannes}}
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1946 deaths]]
[[Category:1946 suicides]]
[[Category:1946 suicides]]
[[Category:People from Viljandi Parish]]
[[Category:People from Viljandi Parish]]
[[Category:People from the Governorate of Livonia]]
[[Category:People from Kreis Fellin]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Estonia politicians]]
[[Category:Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia]]
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[[Category:Prime Ministers of Estonia]]
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[[Category:First convocation members of the Soviet of the Union]]
[[Category:Heads of state of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic]]
[[Category:Heads of state of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic]]
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[[Category:Prime ministers of Estonia]]
[[Category:Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1940–1947]]
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[[Category:First convocation members of the Soviet of the Union]]
[[Category:Estonian male poets]]
[[Category:Estonian male poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Estonian poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Estonian poets]]
[[Category:Estonian military doctors]]
[[Category:Estonian military doctors]]
[[Category:Soviet physicians]]
[[Category:Soviet military doctors]]
[[Category:Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni]]
[[Category:Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni]]
[[Category:Russian military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Russian military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Estonian military personnel of the Estonian War of Independence]]
[[Category:Honoured Writers of the Estonian SSR]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 4th class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 4th class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 3rd class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 3rd class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Cross of Liberty (Estonia)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin]]
[[Category:Suicides by firearm in Estonia]]
[[Category:Suicides by firearm in Estonia]]
[[Category:Estonian politicians who committed suicide]]
[[Category:Estonian politicians who died by suicide]]
[[Category:Soviet politicians who committed suicide]]
[[Category:Soviet politicians who died by suicide]]

Latest revision as of 21:19, 2 May 2024

Johannes Vares
Vares in 1931
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR
In office
25 August 1940 – 29 November 1946
PresidentKonstantin Päts
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byEduard Päll
Prime Minister in the duties of the President
In office
23 July 1940 – 25 August 1940
Prime Minister of Estonia
In office
21 June 1940 – 25 August 1940
Preceded byJüri Uluots
Succeeded byPosition abolished (de facto)
Personal details
Born(1890-01-12)12 January 1890
Kiisa, Kreis Fellin, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire
Died29 November 1946(1946-11-29) (aged 56)
Tallinn, Estonia
NationalityEstonian
Political partyCPSU
Other political
affiliations		Communist Party of Estonia
Alma materUniversity of Kyiv
ProfessionPoet, writer, doctor, gynecologist

Johannes Vares (pen name Barbarus or Vares-Barbarus 12 January 1890 [O.S. 31 December 1889] – 29 November 1946) was an Estonian and Soviet poet, medical doctor, and politician.

Vares was born in a farmer family in the village of Kiisa, near Viljandi, Estonia. He received secondary education at Pärnu Gymnasium, and in 1910–1914 studied medicine at the University of Kyiv.

Vares served as a military physician in World War I, and after that as a military physician for the Estonian Army during the Estonian War of Independence (1918–1920). He was awarded the Estonian Cross of Liberty for the participation.

In the 1920s, Vares started working as a medical doctor in Pärnu. He subsequently became a well-known poet as well as a radical socialist, using the pen name Johannes Barbarus.

During World War II, after the Stalinist Soviet Union invaded and occupied Estonia in June 1940, Andrei Zhdanov, leader of the Soviet aggression, forced the Estonian president Konstantin Päts to appoint Vares as prime minister of a communist-dominated puppet government. Päts resigned in July 1940, and Vares formally took over most presidential duties. The puppet government declared Estonia a "Soviet Socialist Republic" (SSR), and Vares remained nominal head of state for a few weeks more as chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR. He headed the delegation to Moscow on 6 August 1940 that petitioned to Stalin and the Soviet central government to incorporate Estonia into the Soviet Union — an act that has tainted Vares as a traitor to the majority of Estonian people.[1] On 12 September 1940, Vares became member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia, soon after the party had been merged into the All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) of the USSR.

Following the German invasion of Estonia in 1941, Vares fled to Soviet Russia, where he lived in exile[2] from 1941 to 1944, until the Soviets reconquered Estonia.

On 20 April 1944, the Electoral Committee of the Republic of Estonia (the institution specified in the Constitution for electing the Acting President of the Republic) held a clandestine meeting in Tallinn. The participants included Jüri Uluots, the last Prime Minister of Estonia before the Soviet occupation, the substitute for Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Johan Holberg, the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies Otto Pukk, the second deputy vice-chairman of the National Council Alfred Maurer, and State judge Mihkel Klaassen. The Committee declared Päts' appointment of Vares as Prime Minister had been illegal. Accordingly, it held that Uluots had assumed the President's duties from 21 June 1940 onwards.[3]

The Estonian government has maintained that all laws, decrees and treaties made in 1940–1941 in Soviet-occupied Estonia, including those of Vares' puppet government, illegal, null and void from their start. The upper house of Parliament had been dissolved soon after the 16–17 June 1940 Soviet invasion and was never reconvened, nor re-elected. According to the then Constitution of Estonia, all laws had to pass both houses of parliament before being promulgated. This applies also to the new pro-Soviet 1940 "electoral law" under which the blatantly rigged elections of 14–15 July 1940 were conducted. It was this sham election that produced the so-called "People's Parliament" which then declared Estonia a "Soviet republic" and "requested" to join the Soviet Union.

After returning to Estonia in 1944, Vares came under investigation by the Soviet NKVD for his activities in the Estonian War of Independence (1918–1920). He committed suicide in presidential residence in Kadriorg, Tallinn, in November 1946.[4]

See also[edit]

Citations and references[edit]

  1. ^ Miljan 2004, p. 486.
  2. ^ Pettibone, Charles D. (2014). THE ORGANIZATION AND ORDER OF BATTLE OF MILITARIES IN WORLD WAR II. Vol. IX - THE OVERRUN & NEUTRAL NATIONS OF EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICAN ALLIES. Trafford Publishing. p. 101. ISBN 978-1490733876.
  3. ^ L. Mälksoo, Professor Uluots, the Estonian Government in Exile and the Continuity of the Republic of Estonia in International Law, Nordic Journal of International Law, Volume 69, Number 3 / March, 2000
  4. ^ Duevel, Christian (28 June 1971). "Estonian Party Journal Reverts to "Un-Marxist" Terminology on Stalin's "Personality Cult"". Blinken Open Society Archives. Retrieved 8 September 2021.

Cited sources[edit]

  • Miljan, Toivo (2004). Historical Dictionary of Estonia. Maryland, USA: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-4904-6.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Johannes Vares.
Political offices
Preceded by
Office created
 Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR
1940–1946 		Succeeded by
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