Jaan Soots
Jaan Soots (born March 12, 1880 in Helme , Livonia Gouvernement , Russian Empire ; † February 6, 1942 in Usolje , Perm Region , Soviet Union ) was an Estonian major general and politician of the Association of Farmers PK ( Põllumeeste Kogud ) , who among other things between 1921 and 1923 and again from 1924 to 1927 Minister of War and between 1934 and 1939 Lord Mayor of Tallinn .
Life
Officer of the Imperial Russian Army, First World War and War of Independence
Jaan Soots volunteered in the Imperial Russian Army in 1900 and graduated from Vilnius Military School in 1904 . He then took part in the Russo-Japanese War between 1904 and 1905 and, after various other assignments as an officer, studied at the Nikolaus General Staff Academy from 1910 to 1913. During the First World War he was an officer in the General Staff of the Imperial Russian Army and was most recently promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1917 he returned to Estonia, where he organized the establishment of the staff of the newly established First Estonian Division and became its chief in December 1918. During the Estonian War of Freedom , he was Chief of the General Staff of the Estonian Army between 1918 and 1920. He then took part in the negotiations on the Peace of Dorpat , which ended the war with Soviet Russia . He wrote the book Wojna Estonii o Wyzwolenie 1918–1920 , which appeared in 1929, about his experiences during the War of Independence .
Deputy and Minister of War
After the end of the war, Soots joined the Estonian Rural People's Union EMRL (Eesti Maarahva Liit) by Konstantin Päts and was elected member of the Reichstag ( Riigikogu ) in the elections from November 27 to 29, 1920 . He was re-elected in the elections from May 5 to 7, 1923 , May 15 to 17, 1926 and May 11 to 13, 1929 as a candidate for the Põllumeeste Kogud ( Federation of Farmers ) and belonged to the Reichstag until May 21 , 1929 . May 1932.
On January 25, 1921, Major General Jaan Soots was appointed Minister of War (Sõjaminister) in the Päts I cabinet by Prime Minister Konstantin Päts and held this ministerial office in the subsequent Kukk cabinet from November 21, 1922 to August 2, 1923. As Minister of War he protected the interests of the army , which was also reflected in the allocation of land to members of the army and war veterans. During his first term in office, the first military school of the now independent states in the Baltic States was opened in 1921 . He also supported the military agreement with Poland , as he believed that close relations between Estonia and Poland would protect Estonia's independence against aggression by the Soviet Union . On the other hand, his personnel policy met with criticism, as he preferred professional officers with a "proper" military career. To this end, he recruited graduates from military schools and other officers of the Imperial Russian Army who only came to Estonia after 1920 and had not previously participated in the War of Independence. Some of these officers had served in the White Army or even in the Red Army between 1917 and 1920 , i.e. in those armies that the Estonians had to fight off in their struggle for freedom. This personnel policy led to protests among the war veterans, who had taken part in the War of Independence but were not accepted as officers in the Estonian army . This resulted in a growing popularity of the League of Veterans of the War of Freedom EVL (Eesti Vabadussojalaste Liit) in the first half of the 1920s.
On December 16, 1924, Soots was again Minister of War in the Jaakson cabinet and held this position in the subsequent Teemant I cabinet (December 15, 1925 to July 23, 1926) and in the Teemant II cabinet (July 23, 1926 to March 4, 1927) . In the second Teemant cabinet, he was also the executive minister of the interior (Siseminister) between November 12, 1926 and March 4, 1927 .
Lord Mayor of Tallinn
In 1933 Jaan Soots was appointed a member of the Parliamentary Constitutional Commission as representative of the Federation of Farmers. After the coup d'état of March 12, 1934 under Konstantin Päts and Johan Laidoner , it was expected that he would become President of the Reichstag. The Reichstag refused his election on September 28, 1934, whereupon Rudolf Penno was elected to the office of President of Parliament. Although he was a supporter of Päts and Laidoner, his political influence weakened after the coup. In April 1934 he became a member of the Tallinn City Council and succeeded Anton Uesson as Mayor and Chairman of the City Council and was last Mayor of Tallinn from May 1, 1938 until his replacement by Aleksander Tõnisson in December 1939.
After the invasion of Soviet troops in 1940, Soots, who was also a member of the employers' association, was arrested and died two years later in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp in Ukraine .
Awards
For his services to Estonia, Jaan Soots received the Freedom Cross , the Order of the White Star and the Bear Slayer Order .
For his services in the Imperial Army, he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus , the Russian Order of Saint Anne and the Order of Saint Vladimir .
publication
- Wojna Estonii o Wyzwolenie 1918–1920 (The Estonian War of Liberation 1918–1920), 1929.
Web links
- Wojciech Roszkowski, Jan Kofman: Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century , p. 2553, Routledge, 2016, ISBN 978-1-3174-7593-4
- Entry in prabook.com
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Soots, Jaan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Estonian military and politicians |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 12, 1880 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Helmets , Livonia Governorate , Russian Empire |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 6, 1942 |
| Place of death | Usolye , Perm Region , Soviet Union |