Jaan Anvelt

Jaan Anvelt (1925)

Jaan Anvelt ( Russian Ян Янович Анвельт ; born April 18, 1884 in Orgu, then Võisiku municipality , Viljandi district / Estonia ; † December 11, 1937 in Moscow / Soviet Union ) was an Estonian communist and writer.

education

Jaan Anvelt was born the son of a farmer. He first went to the local parish school and graduated from the teachers' college in Tartu in 1905 . He then taught in Toila from 1905 to 1907 . From 1907 to 1912 he studied at the University of Saint Petersburg Law . Jaan Anvelt was also active as a writer and publicist under the pseudonym Eessaare Aadu .

Revolutionary activity

In 1907 he joined the Bolsheviks and became involved in left-wing circles that called for the abolition of tsarism. Around the same time he became one of the Bolshevik party leaders in the Estonian governorate. In 1911 Anvelt was arrested for "revolutionary activities" and deported to Tallinn , where he continued his party activities. He passed his law exam as an external student in 1912. From 1912 Anvelt worked as an auxiliary lawyer in Narva .

During the First World War , Anvelt secretly continued communist party work in Estonia. Together with Johannes Käspert and Villem Buk, he founded the left-wing Kampfblatt Kiir in Narva , which he shaped significantly.

Revolution in Russia

With the February Revolution of 1917 Jaan Anvelt became chairman of the Narva Workers 'and Soldiers' Council ( Tööliste yes Soldatite Saadikute Nõukogu ). In March 1917 he became editor of Kiir and, together with Viktor Kingissepp, became the most important Bolshevik leader in Estonia.

Anvelt took an active part in the October Revolution in Estonia. On November 5, 1917, he took power in Estonia with the revolution. Anvelt was elected chairman of the Estonian Soviet Executive Committee ( Eestimaa Nõukogude Täitevkomitee ) and was a member of the Estonian War Revolutionary Committee ( Eestimaa Sõja-Revolutsioonikomitee ).

On November 28, 1917, the Estonian state parliament ( Maapäev ) declared itself independent from all Russian organs. The decision was not recognized by Petrograd. On December 8, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars appointed Jaan Anvelt as Estonia's Bolshevik head of government. Anvelt and his government were able to retain communist control over the capital Tallinn, but lost power in large parts of the country. Before the approaching German troops in February 1918 , Anvelt fled to Petrograd on March 4, 1918 , where he remained politically active.

Estonian War of Independence

After the withdrawal of the German occupation troops, the Estonian War of Freedom broke out between the bourgeois-democratic Estonian government and Soviet Russia . On November 28, 1918, the Red Army occupied the city of Narva on Estonia's eastern border. One day later she founded the Estonian workers' commune ( Eesti Töörahva Kommuuna , Эстляндская Трудовая Коммуна ) as a puppet government of the Estonian territories occupied by the Bolsheviks. Jaan Anvelt became chairman of the government. He held the office until the workers' commune was dissolved on June 5, 1919.

The rule of Anvelt was marked by numerous acts of revenge and massacres in Rakvere and Tartu, including the Russian Orthodox Bishop of Tallinn, Platon (canonized in 2000), and the Lutheran pastors Walther Paucker , Traugott Hahn (both listed in the Evangelical Calendar of Names since 1969 ) and Moritz Wilhelm Paul Schwartz fell victim. In May 1919, the Red Army was completely expelled from Estonia. With the peace treaty of Tartu of February 2, 1920, Soviet Russia finally had to recognize the independence of Estonia.

Underground work

Anvelt lived underground in Estonia from August 1921 to 1925. He was one of the main planners of the communist coup of December 1, 1924 against the Estonian government. The coup failed and around 150 people were killed. Anvelt then fled to the Soviet Union again. Allegedly he was still in Estonia in the 1930s to support the party work of the banned Estonian Communist Party .

From 1925 Anvelt worked for the Comintern in Moscow. From 1926 to 1929 he was a commissioner at an air force academy. From 1929 to 1935 he was Deputy Chairman of the Civil Air Fleet of the Soviet Union and from 1935 to 1937 Secretary of the International Control Commission at the Comintern.

Anvelt was imprisoned and executed during the Great Terror in the Soviet Union in 1937.

Web links

Commons : Jaan Anvelt  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography (Estonian)