Asunike Koondis
The so-called Asunike Koondis ("Settlers Association") was a party in Estonia during the interwar period . It saw itself as a party to the interests of the Estonian smallholders.
Surname
The party is usually called “Siedlverband” in its short form (literally “Association of Settlers”; Estonian Asunike Koondis or, in the interwar period, the more common genetic form Asunikkude Koondis ).
Her official name was initially Ülemaaline Asunikkudeja Riigirentnikkude Liit - "All Estonian Association of Settlers and State Tenants", from the formal founding of the party in 1925 Asunikkude, Riigirentnikkude ja Väikepõllupidajate Koondis - "Association of settlers, state tenants and small farmers from 1931 Asunikemaude " "Association of Farmers, Settlers and Small Farm Owners". The name also describes the three main target groups within the Estonian electorate.
background
In 1918 the Republic of Estonia proclaimed its detachment from Russia and state sovereignty. The Constituent Assembly ( Asutav Kogu ) created a democratic constitutional state based on the Western model in 1919/20. In October 1919 it also decided on a comprehensive land reform . The large estates, which were mainly in the hands of Baltic German nobles, were expropriated.
The agricultural land was distributed among previously landless Estonian smallholders ("settlers") who created 56,000 new farms. In addition, there were 23,000 “state tenants” who leased their farms from the state (and were later able to acquire them through long-term leases).
Estonia was still largely an agricultural state in the interwar period . Outside the cities of Tallinn and Narva , the country was only slightly industrialized. The radical land reform of 1919 created a new social class of Estonian small farmers. Their political influence in the parliamentary system of the young republic grew accordingly.
founding
The large farmers, some of whom lived in the cities (and a large part of the Estonian industrialists) were for the most part politically organized in the right-wing conservative "Estonian Rural People's Union " ( Eesti Maarahva Liit ), which was founded in 1920 in the " Association of Farmers " ( Põllumeeste Kogud ) renamed.
At the beginning of the 1920s, the new smallholders in the countryside mainly voted for the Estonian Labor Party ( Eesti Tööerakond ), which was oriented towards social democracy . The demands of the Labor Party in the constituent assembly election for comprehensive land reform and social justice for all Estonian residents found fertile ground among the rural population. After the land reform was implemented in 1919, however, the Labor Party's ideas lost some of their traction among the new farmers.
The newly founded settlers' association, which organized itself better and better politically, found itself in this gap. At first he saw himself as a non-partisan representation of the interests of the new small farmers. For the elections for the second legislative period of the Estonian parliament ( Riigikogu ) in 1923, the settlers' association decided on its own list of candidates. It immediately achieved 3.8% of the vote and entered the 100-member parliament with four members. The Settlers Association was officially launched as a political party in 1925, one year before the next parliamentary elections .
Election results
In the next parliamentary elections in 1926, the party was able to increase its election result by over ten percentage points. It remained a major political factor in the Estonian party landscape throughout the interwar period.
| choice | Legislative period | be right | MPs (Riigikogu = 100 seats) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1923 | 2. Riigikogu | 3.4% | 4th |
| 1926 | 3. Riigikogu | 13.5% | 14th |
| 1929 | 4. Riigikogu | 13.7% | 14th |
| 1932 | 5. Riigikogu | 39.8% | 42 / twenty seats after the split in May 1933 |
Government holdings
The party played a stabilizing role in Estonian parliamentarism in the interwar period. From December 1925 until the end of Estonian democracy in 1934, she was represented in every coalition government - with the exception of the period between February 1931 and February 1932 ( Päts III cabinet ). In principle, it was capable of forming a coalition with all other Estonian parties.
Program and personalities
The party did not have a comprehensive ideological program. Their work was based on the principle that Estonia's only wealth is agriculture and that it should be promoted by the state accordingly. At the same time, the party demanded legal and economic equality between small and large farmers. It remained a party of the center and of balance. The Settlers' Union often claimed the office of Minister of Agriculture for itself in the coalition governments.
Leading politicians of the party were the (repeated) ministers Oskar Köster , Johannes-Friedrich Zimmermann , Otto Tief and Karl-Johannes Soonberg , the last president of the Riigikogu before the Second World War Rudolf Penno and the diplomat Heinrich Laratei .
The party's mouthpiece from 1926 to 1929 was the Maa newspaper (“Das Land”). Editor-in-chief from 1927 was the influential journalist and long-time MP Jaagup Loosalu . In 1929 the newspaper was renamed Maaleht ("Landzeitung"). The party was also the agricultural monthly magazine Uus Talu ("The New Court"), which appeared from 1925 to 1940.
Unification project with the great agrarians
At the end of the 1920s, the interests of the large-scale agricultural “Federation of Farmers” and the smallholder settlers' association became more and more similar. The demands to unite both political groups into a single agrarian party became stronger. The challenges of the global economic crisis intensified the trend towards mergers among all Estonian parties in order to counteract the strong fragmentation of the party landscape and parliament.
On January 26, 1932, a few weeks before the parliamentary elections in 1932 , the two agrarian factions were united. The official party merger to form the " Party of United Farmers " ( Ühinenud Põllumeeste Erakond ) was decided at a unification congress on February 29, 1932. In the elections, the party was by far the strongest parliamentary group in the Estonian parliament with almost 40% of the vote and 42 of the 100 seats; however, it clearly missed the desired absolute majority.
The party union did not last long. It was a unification project of the party leaders, without the base was taken. The common party and the parliamentary faction broke up a year after the parliamentary elections on May 18, 1933. The main reason was the dispute over a devaluation of the Estonian krona in order to make the export economy competitive again. The “Federation of Farmers” decidedly refused.
1934 presidential election
In the early 1930s, Estonian parliamentarism came under increasing pressure from the far-right extra-parliamentary opposition. The " Union of Freedom Fighters " made the front against the unstable political system with its frequently changing governments. Instead, he called for a leadership state .
In a referendum, the “Union of Freedom Fighters” succeeded in implementing a new constitution that came into force on January 24, 1934. It placed the newly created office of President at the center of the political system; Parliament and government should only play a weak role.
In April 1934 elections for the president and the new parliament were to take place. The Siederverband managed to win the popular, non-party ex-general Johan Laidoner for a candidacy. He competed against the likely election winner Andres Larka from the "Union of Freedom Fighters" as well as against Konstantin Päts from the "Union of Farmers" and the Social Democrat August Rei .
End of parliamentary democracy
The elections did not take place at the last moment. On March 12, 1934, the incumbent head of state and government, Konstantin Päts, seized power in a bloodless coup . He made Laidoner commander in chief of the armed forces. The leadership of the settler association was most likely not privy to the coup plans.
With the subsequent approval of parliament, Päts had the state of defense declared for six months and the leadership of the "Bund der Freiheitskampf" arrested. The upcoming elections have been postponed.
On September 7, 1934, Pats surprisingly extended the state of defense by one year. A week later, Interior Minister Kaarel Eenpalu announced that parliament would only meet for extraordinary sessions; the agenda must be approved by the government. On September 22, 1934, the parties were prohibited from operating. The road to the police state began.
On September 28, 1934, parliament met again for the first time since the summer recess. The government demanded that the former military man Jaan Soots be elected President of Parliament, which the vast majority of MPs rejected. Instead, parliament elected Rudolf Penno from the Siedlerbund as its new chairman. Penno was thus effectively elected opposition leader against the authoritarian regime of Päts and Laidoner. In another parliamentary debate on October 2, 1934, the settlers' association in particular sharply criticized the government and accused it of breaching the constitution. The resistance, however, was in vain. On October 3, 1934, the government banned further parliamentary sessions. The party disbanded in the following months.
literature
- Sulev Vahtre (Ed.): Eesti Ajalugu. Volume 6: Vabadussõjast Taasiseseisvumiseni. Ilmamaa, Tartu 2005, ISBN 9985-77-142-7 , p. 66.
Web links
- Founding of the party (histrodamus.ee)
Individual evidence
- ^ Mati Laur et al .: History of Estonia. 2nd edition. Avita, Tallinn 2002, ISBN 9985-2-0606-1 , p. 225.
- ↑ after the union with the "Federation of Farmers"
- ↑ as Ühinenud Põllumeeste Erakond - "Party of United Farmers"; The party and parliamentary group broke up in May 1933
- ↑ entsyklopeedia.ee ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ histrodamus.ee ( Memento of the original dated February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ official name: Põllumeestekogude ja Põllumeeste, Asunikkude ning Väikemaapidajate Koondis - "Association of farmers' unions and farmers, settlers and small farm owners"
- ↑ Sulev Vahtre (ed.): Eesti Ajalugu. Volume 6: Vabadussõjast Taasiseseisvumiseni. Ilmamaa, Tartu 2005, ISBN 9985-77-142-7 , p. 94.
