Sikkar cabinet

The government-in-exile of the Republic of Estonia under Prime Minister Johannes Sikkar ("Sikkar Cabinet") was in office from January 12, 1953 to August 22, 1960. According to official counts, it was the 29th government of the Republic of Estonia since independence was declared in 1918 and the first Estonian Government-in-exile after the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union in 1944. It remained in office for 2,780 days.

education

In the secret additional protocol to the German-Soviet non-aggression pact ("Hitler-Stalin Pact") of August 23, 1939, National Socialist Germany and the Soviet Union divided Eastern Europe into spheres of interest. Estonia fell to the Soviet sphere of interest. In mid-June 1940 the Red Army occupied the country. In July 1940 the new Stalinist rulers deported President Konstantin Päts and his family to the interior of the Soviet Union; Pats spent the rest of his life in Soviet insane asylums.

Since President Konstantin Päts was thus prevented from exercising his office, the Estonian Prime Minister took over the management of the Estonian President in accordance with Article 46 of the Estonian Constitution of 1938 and the “Law on the Representation of the President” ( Vabariigi Presidendi asetäitmise seadus ). This task fell to Prime Minister Jüri Uluots , who took office on October 31, 1939. On September 18, 1944, in the last days of the National Socialist occupation of Estonia and the withdrawal of the German troops, Uluots appointed the Estonian politician Otto Tief as acting Prime Minister and installed a new government . However, due to the military situation, she only stayed in office for a few days and was only able to develop a symbolic effect due to the complete occupation of the country by the Red Army. Prime Minister Tief was arrested by the advancing Soviet troops on October 10, 1944 and sentenced to ten years in a labor camp.

Uluots, who was already seriously ill with cancer, managed to flee across the Baltic Sea into exile in Sweden. After Uluots' death on January 9, 1945, the experienced social democratic politician August Rei took over the office of president in accordance with the provisions of the current constitution of 1938 . Rei, who had held the office of foreign minister in the Tief cabinet, had also fled to Sweden and lived there in exile until his death on March 29, 1963.

August Rei appointed the Estonian economist Johannes Sikkar (1897–1960) as Estonian Prime Minister in exile at the seat of the government-in-exile in Oslo, Norway . Sikkar and his cabinet took office on January 12, 1953. In September 1956 there was a major reshuffle of the cabinet.

After Johannes Sikkar's death on August 22, 1960 in Stockholm , Tõnis Kint was first the Estonian Prime Minister. On January 1, 1963, the former foreign minister in exile, Aleksander Warma, formed a new cabinet .

Cabinet members

Department	Surname	Term of office
Executive Prime Minister in exile	Johannes Sikkar	Jan. 12, 1953 - August 22, 1960
Executive Prime Minister in exile	Tõnis Kint	August 22, 1960 - January 1, 1962
Interior Minister in exile	Johannes Sikkar	Jan. 12, 1953 - August 22, 1960
Minister in exile [not assumed office]	Eduard Leetmaa	Jan. 31, 1959 - January 1, 1962
Minister in exile	Peeter Panksep	September 10, 1956 - January 1, 1962
Foreign Minister in Exile	Aleksander Warma	Jan. 12, 1953 - January 1, 1962
Executive Minister of Justice in exile	Aleksander Warma	Jan. 12, 1953 - January 1, 1962
Minister of Economics in exile	Mihkel Truusööt	January 12, 1953 - September 10, 1956
Minister of Economics in exile	Oskar Lõvi	September 10, 1956 - January 1, 1962
Minister in exile	Aksel Mark	September 10, 1956 - January 1, 1962
Managing Minister of Transport in exile	Mihkel Truusööt	January 12, 1953 - September 10, 1956
Minister in exile	Arvo Horm	September 10, 1956 - January 1, 1962
Minister of Agriculture in exile	Tõnis Kint	Jan. 12, 1953 - January 1, 1962
Managing Minister of War in exile	Tõnis Kint	Jan. 12, 1953 - January 1, 1962
Minister of Education in exile [not assumed office]	Gustav Suits	Jan. 12, 1953 - May 23, 1956
Managing Minister of Social Affairs in exile [not assumed office]	Gustav Suits	Jan. 12, 1953 - May 23, 1956

Political activity

Most of the members of the government in exile lived in Sweden, which, however, did not allow any political activity by the Baltic refugees. It therefore took its official seat in Oslo in the NATO country Norway .

The establishment of an Estonian government-in-exile coincides with the final phase of the Korean War and US policy is rolling back . The Estonian exiles still hoped in vain in the 1950s that they would recapture their homeland and expel the Soviet occupying power. Above all, the growing bloc confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union fueled this hope, even if the last Estonian resistance groups (“ forest brothers ”) were destroyed by the new Soviet rulers in the early 1950s .

The importance of the government-in-exile lay mainly in the constitutional continuity of the Estonian government organs and the continuation of the activities of the Estonian diplomatic missions in the western states despite the Soviet occupation of the country. Most western states continued to assume that the Republic of Estonia would continue to exist under international law.

See also

• Estonian government

Web links

• Government (Estonian State Chancellery)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://valitsus.ee/en/valitsus/varasemad-valitsused
2. ↑ Vabariigi Presidendi Asetäitmise Seadus ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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. , RT 1938, 36, 313