Eduard Laaman

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Eduard Laaman (born January 31 . Jul / 12. February  1888 greg. In Samruk , Taurida Gubernia on the peninsula Crimea ; †  1. September 1941 in Kirov , Soviet Union ) was an Estonian journalist, historian and politician. He was a co-founder of the Estonian Labor Party ( Eesti Tööerakond ).

Politics and journalism

Eduard Laaman was born in the Crimea as the son of an emigrated Estonian farming family . From 1894 to 1899 he attended the village school of Samruk, then until 1907 the grammar school in Kerch . In 1908 he moved to the University of the Russian capital Saint Petersburg .

Laaman graduated from law school in 1912 . From 1912 to 1915 he worked as a journalist in Tallinn and Tartu . From 1915 he was employed as a secretary in the city council of the Estonian capital.

In the final phase of the First World War and the Russian revolutionary years, he was also politically active. In 1917/18 Laaman was secretary of the Tallinn Food Committee. Together with Jüri Vilms (1889-1918), Laaman founded the later Estonian Labor Party ( Eesti Tööerakond ) in May 1917, shortly after the February Revolution in the Russian Empire . In the early years, Laaman was regarded as the party's programmer. She advocated democracy and social equality, comprehensive land reform and the separation of church and state. In May / June 1917 the provisional parliament of the Estonia governorate elected by the radical socialists four of the 55 members.

After the October Revolution in Russia , the party was one of the first political groups to demand the full independence of a democratic and constitutional Estonia. On February 24, 1918, the Republic of Estonia declared its detachment from Russia and state sovereignty. In the elections to the Constituent Assembly ( Asutav Kogu ) in April 1919, the Estonian Labor Party received 25.1 percent of the vote. With 30 of 120 MPs, it was the second largest parliamentary group in the Constituent Assembly. The party had a strong influence on the first Estonian constitution and the radical land reform , which largely expropriated the estates of the Baltic Germans .

In 1919 Laaman was a member of the Estonian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference . From 1919 to 1920 he was press attaché at the Estonian legation in London . From 1920 to 1923 Laaman headed the information department of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tallinn. Subsequently, Laaman worked again as a journalist.

From 1923 to 1938 Eduard Laaman was editor-in-chief of the Estonian newspaper Vaba Maa , then in 1938/39 editor-in-chief of the Rahvaleht newspaper . Since 1924 he belonged to the Estonian Association of Journalists ( Eesti Ajakirjanikkude Liit ).

In the second half of the 1930s Laaman approached the authoritarian regime of the Estonian President Konstantin Päts . In 1936 he took part in the preparations for the drafting of the new Estonian constitution . In 1937 he was a member of the Constituent Assembly ( Rahvuskogu ). From December 1939 to June 1940 Laaman went abroad again and worked as a press attaché at the Estonian legation in Moscow .

With the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Laaman was arrested by the NKVD on February 24, 1941 . He was sentenced to death on July 26, 1941 and executed in Kirov Prison in September 1941 .

Private life

Eduard Laaman was married to the daughter of the Estonian politician and Tallinn Mayor Jaan Poska (1866–1920), Tatjana Poska-Laaman (1900–1988). She was one of the first Estonians to graduate from the Sorbonne . Her first marriage was to the Estonian opera singer Alexander Arder (1894-1966).

Tatjana Poska-Laaman fled to Sweden with her children in 1944 from the (second) Soviet occupation of Estonia . There their older daughter Ilona Laaman (* 1934) became one of the most famous Estonian poets in exile .

Contemporary historical writings (selection)

  • Eesti lahkumine Vene riigist: 1917-1920. Tallinn 1920
  • Enamlaste riigipöörde katse Tallinnas 1st detsembril 1924. Tallinn 1925 (under the pseudonym J. Saar)
  • Demokraatia yes dictatuur. Tartu 1933
  • Erakonnad Eestis. Tartu 1934
  • Nõukogude Vene ja communismi teostuskatseid a. 1917-1934. Tartu 1935
  • Jaan Poska : Eesti riigitegelase elukäik. Tartu 1935
  • Eesti ühiskond: selle koostis, areng ja iseloom. Tartu 1936
  • Eesti iseseisvuse sin. Tartu 1936
  • Juhan Luiga: elu ja mõtted. Tartu 1938
  • Tänapäeva Saksamaa: peajooni rahvussotsialistliku "Kolmanda riigi" arengust, alustest ja sisekorrast. Tartu 1938 (together with Leo Kahkra)
  • Konstantin Päts : poliitika- ja riigimees. Tartu 1940
  • Uus Euroopa sõda: kuidas lake puhkes. Tartu 1940
  • Hando Runnel (Ed.): Iseseisvuse tunnid. Tartu 2010 (collection of articles)

literature

  • Eesti elulood . Tallinn: Eesti entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 216
  • Rein Ruutsoo: "Eduard Laaman". In: Looming 1988, No. 2, pp. 252-256

Web links

Individual evidence


personal data
SURNAME Laaman, Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian journalist, contemporary historian and politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Samruk , Tauria Governorate , Crimean Peninsula
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1941
Place of death Kirov , Soviet Union