Provisional government of Pat II

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Konstantin Päts, here in a recording from 1934

The second Provisional Government of the Republic of Estonia under Prime Minister Konstantin Päts (Provisional Government Päts II) was in office from November 12 to 27, 1918. It remained in office for 16 days. It was the first government of the Republic of Estonia that could also exercise de facto government power.

Parties

The coalition government was set up by the Council of Elders of the Estonian Parliament ( Maanõukogu ). The four parties represented in it represented a broad political spectrum:

cabinet

Department Surname Term of office Political party
Prime Minister Konstantin Päts 11/12/1918 - 11/27/1918    EMRL
Deputy Prime Minister Jaan Poska 11/12/1918 - 11/27/1918 EDE
Minister of Justice Jaan Poska 11/12/1918 - 11/27/1918 EDE
Interior minister Konstantin Päts 11/12/1918 - 11/27/1918 EMRL
Deputy Minister of the Interior Juhan Kukk 11/12/1918 - 11/27/1918 ETE
Finance minister Juhan Kukk 11/12/1918 - 11/27/1918 ETE
Minister of War Andres Larka 11/12/1918 - 11/27/1918 independent   
Managing Minister of Commerce Nikolai Köstner 11/12/1918 - 11/16/1918 ESDTP
Minister of Agriculture and Food Jaan Raamot 11/12/1918 - 11/16/1918 EMRL
Foreign minister Otto Strandman 11/12/1918 - 11/27/1918 ETE
Minister of Education Peeter Siegfried Põld    11/12/1918 - 11/27/1918 EDE
Managing Minister of Labor and Social Affairs    Aleksander Tulp 11/16/1918 - 11/27/1918 ESDTP
Minister of transport Ferdinand Peterson 11/12/1918 - 11/27/1918 ETE
Minister with no portfolio Jaan Tõnisson 11/16/1918 - 11/27/1918 EDE

history

In the power vacuum of the First World War , the Republic of Estonia proclaimed its detachment from Russia and state independence in Tallinn on February 24, 1918 . On the same day Konstantin Päts formed a provisional government (Provisional Government Päts I). On February 25, German troops marched into Tallinn and occupied all of Estonia by early March.

The German Empire had no interest in an independent Estonian state. The German war target policy envisaged the creation of a Berlin- dependent Baltic Duchy under the leadership of the Baltic German nobility .

Konstantin Päts was arrested by the Germans and interned in East Prussia . Court Minister Jüri Vilms was executed in Helsinki in April 1918 under circumstances that have not yet been fully clarified . Other members of the government such as Minister of War Andres Larka were able to go into hiding.

In November, the German defeat in World War I also led to the collapse of imperial rule in Estonia. On November 9 and 10, the German soldiers in Tallinn joined the sailors' uprising in the German Reich . On November 11, 1918, Germany signed the Compiègne armistice .

The (first) Provisional Government of the Republic of Estonia was able to meet again on the same day . A day later, under the leadership of Konstantin Päts, a new cabinet was formed, the second provisional government, in a joint meeting of the provisional government and the council of elders of the state parliament ( Maanõukogu Vanematenõukogu ). On November 19, 1918, the plenipotentiary for the occupied Baltic countries, August Winnig in Riga , signed a contract with the provisional government that gave it power to govern in Estonia.

With the defeat of Germany, Bolshevik Soviet Russia figured it had a chance of retaking Estonia. On November 22nd, the Red Army began its attack on the East Estonian city of Narva , which, however, was still repulsed by German troops.

In view of the imminent danger of war, Päts restructured his cabinet and took over the office of Minister of War himself. The third Provisional Government of Estonia took office on November 27, 1918. One day later the so-called war of freedom against Soviet Russia began, which was to last until February 1920.

See also

Web links