Parliamentary election in Estonia 1940

The Baltic States in the 1940s

The Estonian parliamentary election in 1940 took place on July 14th and 15th. It was the first communist sham elections in Estonia after its Soviet occupation in June 1940.

Soviet occupation

The Republic of Estonia had been independent since February 1918. In the Tartu Peace Treaty of February 2, 1920, the Soviet Union recognized Estonia's independence "forever". In 1921 Estonia joined the League of Nations .

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. Among other things, Estonia, Latvia , Finland and later Lithuania fell to the Soviet sphere of interest.

Under threat of military force, the governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania approved the stationing of Red Army troops in their countries in the autumn of 1939 after the Soviet invasion of Poland . The stationing of troops was initially limited to certain bases . The strength of the Soviet armed forces in Estonia was limited to 25,000. The Estonian Defense Forces during this period had an army of 15,000 men.

The Republic of Finland, which refused to give in to pressure from Moscow to station Soviet armed forces and assign territories, was attacked militarily by the Soviet Union in November 1939. The Finnish-Soviet winter war began.

Despite the Red Army troops stationed in Estonia, the Soviet Union largely stayed away from Estonian domestic politics until mid-1940. However, on June 17, 1940 - after an ultimatum to the Estonian government the day before - the Red Army took power in all of Estonia. More Soviet troops crossed the border from the Soviet Union. The Estonian armed forces have been disarmed. Over 100,000 Soviet soldiers were stationed in Estonia in June. As Stalin's envoy , his confidante Andrei Zhdanov de facto took power in the country. The Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Uluots had already submitted his resignation on June 16, 1940.

This sealed the Soviet occupation of Estonia and the end of Estonian independence. The new Soviet rulers now had to give the change of power a "democratic" look.

Soviet takeover

Konstantin Päts, President of the Republic of Estonia until 1940

Johannes Vares, who was appointed Prime Minister of the Soviet puppet government on June 21, 1940, with his wife Emilie

On June 21, 1940, the Soviet occupying powers staged demonstrations in Tallinn and eleven other places calling for the overthrow of the Estonian bourgeois government and the "improvement of living conditions".

On the same day, the Estonian President Konstantin Päts , who had ruled Estonia in an authoritarian manner with the help of the military since a bloodless coup d'état since 1934, appointed the Estonian writer Johannes Vares as prime minister and a left-wing Moscow puppet government made up of intellectuals and members of the labor movement.

The new government took office when President Päts swore it in on June 22, 1940. You did not (yet) belong to any members of the previously banned Estonian Communist Party . Most of its members were, however, people who were fundamentally open to communism . The new government did not play an independent role. She remained only Zhdanov's recipient of orders.

Dissolution of parliament

In the government meeting on July 5, 1940, President Päts dissolved the two chambers of the Estonian parliament at the behest of Zhdanov ( RT 1940, 60, 565). On the same day, the government under Johannes Vares called early new elections for the first chamber, the Riigivolikogu last elected in February 1938 ( RT 1940, 60, 566). The general election was to take place on June 14th and 15th, 1940.

At the same time, the government passed changes to the previous electoral law. Each candidate was required to provide at least 50 supporter signatures. The deadline for submitting candidate proposals was July 10, 1940. The candidates only had four days to stand for election.

On July 9th, the government put another hurdle in place to prevent independent candidates. An ordinance came into force, according to which all candidates had to submit a written election manifesto to the authorities by July 10, 2 p.m. ( RT 1940, 64, 992).

At the same time, the Soviet rulers took control of the electoral authorities. The state electoral commission (Valimiste Peakomitee) and the electoral commissions in the constituencies and polling stations were filled with people trusted by the new communist rulers.

Determination of candidates

Before 1940, all of Estonia was divided into eighty constituencies. There was a majority vote in each constituency .

The 80 communist representatives ran under the electoral block “Estonian Union of the Working People” (Eesti Töötava Rahva Liit - ERTL) , which was founded on June 6th .

It is true that bourgeois and nationally-minded independent candidates tried - mainly coordinated by the former Estonian Prime Minister Jaan Tõnisson - to stand for election. The applicants who did not belong to the “Union of the Working People” had no chance of being admitted to the election. They met bitter resistance from the new rulers.

Sixteen of the original contenders (including well-known democratic politicians such as Jaan Tõnisson , Aleksander Rei , Ants Piip , Heinrich Mark , Johan Pitka , Mihkel Rõuk , August Leps and Oskar Köster ) "voluntarily" refused to run, one was arrested and 58 others the right to stand as a candidate was denied for various reasons. The main reason given was that they were " enemies of the people ". Also, the candidates’s legally required election programs were arbitrarily not recognized.

Only one bourgeois candidate, Jüri-Rajur Liivak (1912–2000), actually succeeded in being allowed to vote. However, a smear campaign began against him, which accused him of criminal activities. As expected, he was defeated in the elections by his left rival, who received 100% of the valid votes. Liivak was arrested by the Soviet authorities in January 1941.

Managed elections

The elections took place under the supervision of the Red Army. A total of 1,350 polling stations were set up in the eighty constituencies . The candidate who received the relative majority of the votes in his constituency was elected.

In the election itself, voters were massively intimidated and the results falsified.

The elections took place contrary to the provisions of the Estonian electoral law. Legally, no election should have taken place in the 79 constituencies in which only one candidate stood for election - the candidate would be automatically elected. However, this legal provision did not fit into the concept of the Soviet rulers, who wanted to generate “democratic” legitimation through the sham elections.

Official election result

The result of the parliamentary elections, which was favorable to the new rulers, was officially announced on July 17, 1940. According to this, the turnout for 703,000 registered voters was 84.1 percent (591,030 votes cast). Of these, 92.9 percent (548,631 votes) voted for the communist election platform “Union of the Working People”.

All 80 communist candidates were thus elected. 7.2 percent of the votes (42,399) were invalid. The only independent candidate eligible for election received no vote according to the official final result.

New Parliament

Tallinn, July 17, 1940: After the parliamentary elections, athletes “spontaneously” demand that Estonia should join the Soviet Union

The newly elected Communist MPs formed a new parliament. It met for the first time from July 21 to 23, 1940. According to the law, his legislative period was five years.

The second chamber of parliament, the Riiginõukogu, was not redefined and was abolished by the first chamber.

On July 21, 1940, Parliament unanimously renamed the Republic of Estonia the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic ( RT 1940, 74, 733). It was accepted into the Soviet Union on August 6, 1940 as a Union republic .

The next step was to dismiss President Päts, who was deported with his family to the interior of Russia at the end of July . Päts remained imprisoned in Soviet insane asylums until the end of his life in 1956.

Parliament also enacted Soviet-style land reform and nationalized larger corporations and financial institutions.

Parliament set about drawing up a new Estonian constitution based on the Soviet model, which was adopted on August 25, 1940. The new parliament declared the provisions for constitutional amendments provided for in the 1938 constitution, which was still formally valid, to be inapplicable. The new Estonian constitution had been approved by the Central Committee of the CPSU three days earlier .

The Riigivolikogu renamed itself on August 25, 1940 in "Provisional Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic". From April 7, 1941 the parliament was called "Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic".

From July 21st to August 25th 1940, the communist Arnold Veimer held the office of President of Parliament. He was replaced by Voldemar Sassi , who held the office until July 1941.

Web links

• Riigivolikogu valimised ja Nõukogude korra kehtestamine Eestis 1940. a. (estonica.org)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.estonica.org/et/Kuidas_okupeeriti_Eesti_1940_a/
2. ↑ http://www.estonica.org/et/Varese_valitsus/
3. ↑ Mart Laar : Eesti iseseisvus ja selle häving (= Eesti riik ja rahvas XX sajandil. 1). Avita, Tallinn 2000, ISBN 9985-2-0291-0 , p. 140.
4. ↑ Sulev Vahtre (ed.): Eesti Ajalugu. Volume 6: Vabadussõjast Taasiseseisvumiseni. Ilmamaa, Tartu 2005, ISBN 9985-77-142-7 , p. 171.
5. ↑ http://www.ohtuleht.ee/index.aspx?id=136344  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Tõnu Tannberg, Ain Mäesalu, Mati Laur, Ago Pajur: History of Estonia. 2nd edition. Avita, Tallinn 2002, ISBN 9985-2-0606-1 , p. 265.