Konstantin Päts

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Konstantin Päts, 1934

Konstantin Päts (born February 11th July / February 23rd  1874 greg. In Tahkuranna , Estonia Governorate , Russian Empire ; † January 18, 1956 in Buraschewo, Kalinin Oblast , Soviet Union ) was an Estonian politician . He was the first Estonian Prime Minister , several times Riigivanem ("Reich Elder") and from 1934 dictator of Estonia.

In addition to his political activities, Päts was active in the insurance and banking sector and published a number of papers on various topics.

Engagement until 1919

Konstantin Päts with his family
Päts as a Russian officer, 1917

Konstantin Päts, who completed his law studies at the University of Tartu in 1898 (until 1919 University of Dorpat ), subsequently served in the Russian army in Pskow until 1899 . From 1901 to 1905 he was editor of the newspaper Teataja (= Gazette) in Tallinn. In 1905 Päts took part in the bourgeois revolution and then went into exile in Switzerland (1905 to 1906) before criminal prosecution. In 1909 he returned to the Russian Empire and began his nine-month sentence in a St. Petersburg prison. From 1911 to 1916, Päts, who had also published an Estonian newspaper in St. Petersburg, was the editor of Tallinna Teataja . After another military service (1916 to 1917), this time in Tallinn, Päts became spokesman for the highest command of the Estonian military in Tallinn. From 1917 to 1918 he was spokesman for the Estonian provincial assembly ( Eesti Maanõukogu ). From July to November 1918 he was interned by the Germans in Poland. After his return to the now independent Estonia, Päts was appointed Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior and Minister of Defense of the provisional government .

Political career in the first Estonian republic

Päts speaks on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Estonia in St. Peter's Square in Tallinn , 1938

From 1919 to 1920 Päts was a member of the Constitutional Assembly ( Asutav Kogu ), from 1920 to 1934 and 1937 a member of the Estonian Reichstag (IV Riigikogu ). Between 1920 and 1934 he held the post of State Elder ( Riigivanem ), d. H. of the head of state, held: from January 1921 to November 1922, from August 1923 to March 1924, from February 1931 to February 1932, from November 1932 to May 1933 and from October 1933 to January 1934. He was party leader of the Federation of Farmers , which in grew into the strongest political force in Estonia in the 1920s.

After the coup d'état of March 12, 1934 , Pats established an authoritarian regime by declaring a state of emergency. With this he probably wanted to forestall the impending election victory of the quasi-fascist party EVL . During the following four years he ruled Estonia as Riigihoidja (Reich Protector). In 1938 Päts was elected president.

In contrast to his counterparts in Latvia and Lithuania, Päts did not completely remove the democratic order. The prime minister was popular with the population because of his closeness to the people and his peasant cunning.

Under Soviet rule

Konstantin Päts as a prisoner in a Soviet prison, 1941

After the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union in June 1940, Päts was imprisoned by the Soviets at the age of 66 and deported to the Soviet city of Ufa in the Urals . This marked the beginning of an almost 16-year ordeal through Soviet prisons, gulag camps and psychiatric clinics without any charges being brought against him. Despite everything, he remained unbending, as evidenced by three letters from the 1950s that could be smuggled abroad 20 years after his death.

For a short time he was also placed in the Jämejala Psychiatric Hospital , where there was applause from the population. Päts died in 1956 in a psychiatric clinic in Buraschewo in the Russian Oblast Kalinin (today's and pre-Soviet name: Tver ). The remains of Päts were transferred to Estonia in 1990; his grave is in the forest cemetery west of Tallinn, where Lennart Meri and other important people were also buried. Despite the coup in 1934, there is great veneration among the Estonian people for the first head of state of an independent Estonia.

See also

literature

  • Karl Heinz Gräfe: From the thunder cross to the swastika. The Baltic States between dictatorship and occupation . Edition Organon, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-931034-11-5 , short biography p. 438

Web links

Commons : Konstantin Päts  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence


personal data
SURNAME Pats, Constantine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Tahkuranna , Estonia Governorate, Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1956
Place of death Burashevo, Kalinin Oblast, USSR