Manifesto to all the peoples of Estonia

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Manifesto to all the peoples of Estonia (Pärnu version)

The Manifesto to All the Peoples of Estonia (Estonian Manifesto kõigile Eestimaa rahvastele ) of February 1918 was the founding charter of the Republic of Estonia . The day of public proclamation in Tallinn , February 24th, is Estonian National Day .

prehistory

The February Revolution in Russia in 1917 and the overthrow of the tsarist rule brought the Estonia Governorate , whose territory had belonged to the Russian Empire since the Peace of Nystad in 1721, new, expanded rights to self-government. On April 12, 1917, the Provisional Government of Russia issued a decree on the autonomy of Estonia. In May and June 1917, the general, indirect elections to the provisional parliament of the Estonia Governorate ( Ajutine Maanõukogu , unofficially called Maapäev ) took place. The state parliament was constituted on July 14, 1917. It was the first democratically elected parliament in Estonia. The state parliament elected a state government ( Maavalitsus ) under the politician Jaan Raamot , who was later succeeded by Konstantin Päts .

On November 28, 1917 a few weeks after the takeover of the Bolsheviks in Petrograd of 7 November 1917, the Provisional Parliament in Tallinn said in its last meeting to supreme power in Estonia until the convening of a Constituent Assembly. The state parliament set up a council of elders ( Eesti maapäeva vanemate nõukogu ), which should also have the authority to legislate in the event of a crisis.

The delegates did not comply with the Bolsheviks' call for the state parliament to dissolve. He was therefore forcibly dispersed by the Bolsheviks. The MPs went underground. At the end of 1917 they agreed to proclaim state independence in the event of a threatened German occupation of Estonia and to ask the Western powers to recognize Estonian state independence.

Creation of the manifest

In mid-February 1918, after the preliminary failure of the German-Soviet Russian peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk , the German troops quickly advanced further north-east. The Russian armed forces prepared to flee Estonia.

On February 18, 1918, the start of the German major offensive , the Council of Elders of the Provisional Landtag set up a committee in the wake of the looming power vacuum, which was supposed to work out an independence manifesto for a sovereign Estonia. It included the four MPs Karl Ast , Jüri Jaakson , Juhan Kukk , Jüri Vilms and Ferdinand Peterson . The aim was to create an independent and democratic state. The new state order should later work out a constituent assembly to be elected. The manifesto, which used earlier drafts, was adopted on February 21, 1918.

At the same time, on February 19, the Council of Elders formed the three-member "Estonian Rescue Committee" ( Eestimaa Pastoral Committee ) and gave it extensive powers. The rescue committee included the Estonian politicians Konstantin Päts , Jüri Vilms and Konstantin Konik . The task of the committee should be to coordinate the steps necessary for independence.

Proclamation

Estonian independence proclaimed in Pärnu (February 23, 1918)

The proclamation of the manifesto was originally planned for February 21, 1918 in Haapsalu , West Estonia, where the nationally-minded Estonian military was located. But before the members of the rescue committee arrived there, the city was occupied by German troops early in the morning. The rescue committee's plan to announce the manifesto in Tartu on February 24 was also rejected.

For the first time, the manifesto on Saturday, February 23, 1918 at about eight o'clock in the evening was from the balcony of the theater Endla in West Estonian Parnu by the state parliament Hugo Kuusner solemnly read on behalf of the Council of Elders of the provisional parliament and announced through posters. On February 24, 1918 it was read out in Viljandi by Mayor Gustav Talts and in Tori . On the same day, posters with the text were pasted in the capital Tallinn and announced there on 25 February 1918 by the Provisional Prime Minister Konstantin Päts and in Paide by the military Jaan Maide , and one day later in Rakvere . The text appeared in the Estonian newspaper Päevaleht on February 25, 1918, and the following day in Estonian newspapers in Petrograd .

content

The most important statements of the manifesto are:

  • "Estonia, within its historical and ethnographic borders, will be declared an independent democratic republic from today."
  • "In the aforementioned areas, the only supreme organizing power is the people's power formed by the Estonian Maapäev in the form of the Estonian Rescue Committee."
  • “Until the Estonian Constituent Assembly, which meets on the basis of universal, direct, secret and equal suffrage, establishes the constitutional order of the country, all executive and legislative power will remain in the hands of the Estonian Maapäev and the Estonian Provisional Government which he formed will be guided by the following principles in its work:
1) All citizens of the Republic of Estonia, regardless of their beliefs, nationality and political beliefs, enjoy equal protection from the laws and courts of the Republic.
2) The national minorities living within the borders of the republic: the Russians, Germans, Swedes, Jews and others are granted the right to national cultural autonomy.
3) All civil liberties, freedom of speech, the press, religion, assembly, community, association and strike, as well as the inviolability of the person and the home, shall apply within the boundaries of the Estonian state on a legal basis, which the government must work out immediately.
4) It is the task of the Provisional Government to immediately establish judicial authorities to protect the security of the citizens. All political prisoners are to be released immediately.
5) The city, district and municipal self-governments are called upon to immediately resume their violently interrupted work.
6) A people's militia subordinate to the self-government should be brought into being immediately to maintain public order, as well as self-protection organizations of the citizens in the cities and in the countryside.
7) It is the task of the Provisional Government to work out legislative projects on a broad, democratic basis to solve the land question, the labor question, as well as food and finance issues without delay. "

February 24, 1918

On February 24, 1918, the Tallinn Rescue Committee once again declared Estonia's detachment from Russia and declared state independence for the first time in Estonian history. At the same time, the government declared the country's neutrality and called on all Estonian armed forces not to intervene in the German-Soviet war. On the same day the Rescue Committee appointed the (first) Provisional Government of Estonia . She represented a broad political spectrum. You belonged to the four largest democratic parties. Today February 24 is Estonian National Day.

German occupation

At noon on the same day, the first German troops marched into Tallinn and occupied all of Estonia by the beginning of March. They de facto took over sole power of government in the country. The Provisional Government could no longer meet. Prime Minister Konstantin Päts was arrested and interned, and his deputy, Jüri Vilms, was probably executed in Helsinki on German orders.

November 1918

It was not until the beginning of November 1918 that the German occupation in Estonia ended with the German defeat in the First World War. On November 11, 1918, Germany signed the Compiègne armistice .

The provisional government of the Republic of Estonia was able to meet again on the same day. A day later, in a joint meeting of the provisional government and the council of elders of the state parliament, a new cabinet and leadership of Konstantin Päts was formed, the second provisional government ( Provisional Government Päts II ).

attachment

literature

  • Ago Pajur : “The Birth of the Estonian Independence Manifesto 1918” In: Research on Baltic History Volume 1 (2006), pp. 136–163
  • Sulev Vahtre (ed.): Eesti ajalugu V . Tartu 2010, pp. 424-437.

Web links

Commons : Manifesto to all the peoples of Estonia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexander Schmidt: History of the Baltic States . Munich ³1999, p. 190
  2. ↑ Zigmantas Kiaupa et al .: History of the Baltic States , Tallinn 2002, p. 133
  3. ↑ estonica.org
  4. ↑ Sulev Vahtre (ed.): Eesti Ajalugu V. Tartu 2010, p 429
  5. ↑ Andres Adamson, Toomas Karjahärm: Eesti ajalugu gümnaasiumile . Tallinn 2003, p. 186
  6. ↑ The text announced in Tallinn differs slightly from the text in Pärnu and Paide
  7. ^ Tõnu Tannberg et al .: History of Estonia . Tallinn, 2002, p. 210