Theodor Rõuk

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Theodor Rouk (born December 2 . Jul / 14. December  1891 greg. In the town of Kabala, parish Pilistvere, Viljandi County , Governorate of Livonia ; † 21st July 1940 in Tallinn , Estonian SSR ) was an Estonian lawyer and politician.

Early years

Theodor Rõuk came from a humble background. His schooling was strongly promoted by the Orthodox Church . From 1900 to 1903 he attended the Orthodox church school in Viljandi , before continuing his education to the Livonian capital Riga . He graduated from the Spiritual Seminar there in 1911 (Рижская духовная семинария). Since then he has been friends with his schoolmate Konstantin Päts , who later became head of state and government several times.

Theodor Rõuk began his studies in 1911. In 1915 he graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Imperial University of Warsaw . On September 1, 1915, he was drafted into the tsarist army .

military

During the First World War he received military training at the Vladimir Military School in Petrograd (1916) and in nearby Oranienbaum . He then took part in the First World War.

With the revolution in Russia and the proclamation of Estonian independence, Rõuk returned to his homeland. He submitted to the Provisional Government under Konstantin Päts and the military leadership under Major General Ernst Põdder . From November 1918, the end of the German occupation of Estonia, Rõuk organized the paramilitary Estonian home guard associations ( Eesti Kaitse Liit ) in the capital Tallinn and the surrounding Harju district . From December 1918 he served as local commander in chief of the Kaitseliit and as city commander of Tallinn. With the end of the Estonian War of Independence against Soviet Russia (1918-1920), Rõuk retired in April 1920 from active military service.

Lawyer and politician

From 1920 to 1922 the lawyer was employed by the Public Prosecutor of the Tallinn-Haapsalu Peace Court. In 1923/24 he was its chairman.

From March to December 1924, the right-wing conservative circles close to but non-party Rõuk was Interior Minister in the cabinet of the head of state and government Friedrich Karl Akel . During his tenure, Estonian communists tried, with the support of Moscow, on December 1, 1924, to overthrow the democratic government by means of a coup and to establish Bolshevik rule in Estonia. The attempted coup was bloodily suppressed by the military and police on the same day.

After leaving the government, Rõuk settled in Tallinn as a lawyer in 1925. He continued to be politically active in right-wing circles. Rõuk is considered the political mentor of the young lawyer Artur Sirk , who initially worked in Rõuk's office. At the end of the 1920s, Sirk rose to become a leading figure in the fascist “ Central Association of Estonian Freedom Fighters ” (EVKL).

Rõuk was also a member of the board of the right-wing populist movement. At the 2nd Congress of the EVKL in March 1931, Rõuk, as a sharp critic of Estonian parliamentarism and the constitution of 1920, made a decisive contribution to the radicalization of the federal government. Behind the leading figures Andres Larka (who came from the same community as Rõuk) and Artur Sirk, Rõuk exerted great influence on the politics of the right-wing populist mass movement. After unification was broken up by the Estonian government in 1934, Rõuk was briefly imprisoned, but was then released.

From 1938 to 1940 Rõuk was chairman of the "Grenzland-Verein" founded in 1924 ( Piirimaade selts ). From the mid-1930s, the organization was under the state Propaganda Office ( propagandatalitus ). She took care of spreading the Estonian national culture in the peripheral areas of Estonia. Their focus was in the south-eastern, Russian-influenced region of Petserimaa .

A few weeks after the Soviet occupation of Estonia, on the day the country was renamed the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic , Theodor Rõuk committed suicide in Tallinn. Today he is buried in the Tallinn Military Cemetery ( Kaitseväe kalmistu ).

Private life

Theodor Rõuk was married to Eugenia Rõuk. The couple had a son, Enno (1918–1997). He spent the years between 1945 and 1953 in the Soviet gulag .

literature

  • Eesti elulood. Tallinn: Eesti entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 153

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Laura Vaan: Propagandatalitus Eesti Vabariigis autoritaarsel ajajärgul. , P. 93 (Master's thesis, University of Tartu 2005)
personal data
SURNAME Rõuk, Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rõuk, Feodor (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian lawyer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Kabala Municipality, Pilistvere Parish, Viljandi County , Livonia Governorate
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 1940
Place of death Tallinn , Estonian SSR