Neeme Ruus

Neeme Ruus (born November 28 ^{. Jul} / 11. December  1911 ^greg. In Oparino , Governorate Vologda , Russian Empire ; †  2. June 1942 in Tallinn , Estonian SSR ) was an Estonian politician. After the Soviet occupation of the country in 1940/41, he was a leading member of the Communist Party of Estonia (EKP).

Live and act

Neeme Ruus was born into an Estonian family who immigrated to Russia. The father was a shoemaker.

He first attended school in Russia. After the Republic of Estonia became independent, the Ruus family moved back to their homeland in the 1920s. Neeme Ruus attended elementary school in Elva and Võru , then high school in Valga and Pärnu . During his high school years Ruus joined the left-wing youth organization "Young Socialist Union of Estonia" ( Eesti Noorsotsialistlik Liit ), of which he became a board member in 1931. In 1930 he joined the social democratic Eesti Sotsialistlik Tööliste party (Estonian Socialist Workers' Party, ESTP), but also had contacts with the banned Communist Party of Estonia (EKP).

1930/31 Ruus worked as an accountant in the editorial office of the social democratic Estonian newspaper Rahva Sõna . He was also active in the international Esperanto movement. In 1931/32 he lived as an Esperanto teacher at the Esperanto Institute in Sweden. From 1933 to 1938 he taught Esperanto in Tallinn. From 1936 to 1938 Ruus was also a board member of the Estonian Esperanto Association.

From 1931 to 1934 he completed various courses in Sweden and traveled abroad. In 1934 he attended a Swedish scholarship the "Collège de Pays du Nord" in Swiss Geneva . In 1935 he trained as a librarian. From 1936 to 1939 he was the deputy director of the Tallinn Adult Education Center.

In the 1930s, Ruus became more and more involved in left-wing circles. From 1938 to 1940 he was a member of the board of the cultural association idea . During the same period he was a member of the Riigivolikogu , the Chamber of Deputies of the Estonian Parliament. He also became a member of Tallinn City Council.

With the Soviet occupation of Estonia in June 1940, Ruus appeared in public as a leading member of the previously banned Communist Party of Estonia (EKP).

On June 21, 1940, when the Communists came to power, Ruus was appointed to the cabinet of Prime Minister Johannes Vares . In June and July 1940 he was Minister of Social Affairs in the first communist cabinet. After the communist sham elections in 1940 , directed by the new Moscow rulers , Ruus became a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR . From July 1940 to February 1941, Ruus was secretary of the Communist Party of Estonia's Central Committee for Agitation and Propaganda. In 1941 he was appointed vice- chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Estonian SSR as vice-chairman of Johannes Lauristin .

With the National Socialist occupation of Estonia in 1941, Ruus went underground and continued the work of the EKP. In the village of Hirvli , 60 kilometers from Tallinn, he ran an illegal communist printing press and radio station on a farm.

However, Ruus was tracked down and executed by the German occupation forces in Tallinn in early June 1942.

Private life

Neeme Ruus had been with the Estonian actress Linda Karin Ruus, b. Aruküll, (1913–1976) married. He is the father of the Estonian folklorist and folklorist Ingrid Rüütel (* 1935). Ingrid Rüütel is the wife of the former Estonian President Arnold Rüütel (* 1928).

literature

• Eesti elulood . Tallinn: Eesti entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti Entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 441.

Web links

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