Rudolf Penno

Rudolf Penno (born April 30 ^{. Jul} / 12. May  1896 ^greg. In the village Ristamäe, then rural community Undla , county Viru , Governorate of Estonia ; † 25. November 1951 in Stockholm , Sweden ) was an Estonian politician.

Early years

Rudolf Penno was born as the son of farm worker Jüri Penno (1856–1929) and his wife Pauline Elisabeth Schrotmann (1858–1900). From 1906 to 1909 he attended the parish school in Hulja (today rural community Kadrina ), then until 1912 the ministerial school in Liiguste (today rural community Haljala ). In 1912 he graduated from the Rakvere City School . From 1912 to 1916 he studied at the local seminar for prospective primary school teachers.

From 1916 to 1918 Rudolf Penno took part in the tsarist army in the First World War. In 1917 he completed an apprenticeship at the Vladimir War School in the Russian capital Saint Petersburg .

From 1918 to 1920 he fought as an officer against Soviet Russia in the Estonian War of Independence .

From 1920 to 1923 Penno worked as a teacher at various schools in Kadrina , Neeruti and Liiguste . From 1921 to 1944 he settled as a small farmer on the Pajuvälja farm in the village of Saukse (today the rural community of Kadrina).

politics

In 1922 Penno was one of the founders of the so-called " Settlers Association " ( Asunike koondis ), which established itself as a political party from 1925 onwards. She was represented in parliament from 1923 . The settlers' union stood up primarily for the interests of small farmers in Estonia, which at that time was still heavily agricultural.

From 1925 to 1930 Penno was the editor in charge of the monthly agricultural magazine Uus Talu ("The New Farm"). She was close to the settlers' union.

Penno was a member of the Estonian Parliament ( Riigikogu ) from 1923 to 1937, from the second to the fifth legislative period . In the third, fourth and fifth legislative periods, Penno held the office of Deputy Speaker of Parliament. He was parliamentary group leader of his party. From 1930 to 1934 Penno was chairman of the state parliament in Viru district .

In addition, Penno was a leading member of numerous business associations: from 1925 he was, among other things, a member of the board of an agricultural bank, and from 1928 managing director of the Talu insurance company . From 1929 he was a member of the supervisory board of Rahvapank ("Volksbank"). In addition, Penno was part of the leadership of numerous Estonian educational and sports associations.

On September 28, 1934, Penno was elected President of Parliament of the Republic of Estonia. He held the office de jure until December 31, 1937. Penno's election in 1934 was a reaction to the bloodless coup d'état of March 12, 1934 , with which the incumbent head of state and government Konstantin Päts took power with the help of the Estonian military. In September 1934, in protest against the government's prolonged state of emergency, Parliament refused to elect the retired General Jaan Soots, proposed by the Pats government, as President of Parliament. Instead, it appointed Penno President of Parliament; In the plenary session, party representatives sharply criticized the government's measures, in particular the curtailment of parliamentary rights. As a result, Interior Minister Karl Einbund had the plenary session of the Riigikogu end on October 2, 1934 and armed troops marched up at the seat of parliament. The parliament did not meet again until 1938. Pats ruled without a legislature with the help of presidential decrees.

Penno later came to terms with the authoritarian rule of Konstantin Päts. In February 1938 Penno was sent as a member of the newly elected Riigivolikogu . In 1939 he was second deputy president of parliament.

Soviet occupation and exile

With the Soviet occupation of Estonia in the summer of 1940, Penno was imprisoned. During the German occupation of Estonia he served in the German armed forces in 1941/42.

In September 1944, the Estonian Prime Minister Otto Tief appointed his party friend Rudolf Penno as Minister of Trade and Industry in his short-lived cabinet . Penno could not take up the office due to the war events, because he was no longer in Estonia. He and his family managed to escape from the advancing Red Army in February 1944, initially to Helsinki . He then settled in Sweden, where he died in 1951.

Penno and his wife are buried in the Högalids Församling cemetery in Stockholm's Hägersten district.

Private life

Rudolf Penno was married to Alma Elfriede Penno (née Trubok) (1900–1978) from 1922. The couple had two sons and a daughter.

His son Ado Penno (1925–1944) died in World War II . The son Enno Penno (* 1930) became an Estonian politician in exile. From 1990 to 1992 he was the last Prime Minister of the Estonian government in exile .

literature

• Eesti elulood. Tallinn: Eesti entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 366

Web links

• Biobibliographical information (ISIK)
• Brief biography ( Virumaa Teataja , May 16, 2006)
• Works by Rudolf Penno in the holdings of the Estonian National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.