Vene Rahvuslik Liit Eestis
The Vene Rahvuslik Liit Eestis ( Russian Русский национальный союз в Эстонии; in German Russian National Association in Estonia ) was a party of the Russian population in Estonia in the interwar period .
background
On February 24, 1918, the Republic of Estonia proclaimed its detachment from Russia and its state sovereignty. From the end of 1918, Soviet Russian troops attempted to recapture the country by force and to establish Bolshevik rule. Estonia successfully defended itself in the following Estonian War of Independence . In the Tartu Peace Treaty of February 2, 1920, Soviet Russia recognized Estonia's independence "for all time".
Beginning April 1919 chose the Republic of Estonia a constituent assembly ( Asutav Kogu ). It worked out a democratic constitution that formed the basis of a constitutional republic based on the Western model.
At the beginning of the 1920s, the Russian-speaking population was by far the largest (national) minority in the country with 8.2%, followed by Baltic Germans (1.7%), Estonia-Swedes (0.7%), Jews (0.4%) ), Latvians and Roma . With the establishment of the Republic of Estonia, the question of its political representation in the young Estonian democracy arose.
Political party
The (third) Provisional Government under Prime Minister Konstantin Päts appointed a minister each for the Russian, Baltic German and Swedish minorities. She served from November 27, 1918 to May 9, 1919. The Russian representative was the young Tallinn lawyer Aleksei Sorokin (1888–1933). He remained one of the most important political representatives of the Russians in Estonia until his death. In terms of party politics, he initially belonged to the short-lived "Assembly of Russian Citizens" (Estonian Vene Kodanikkude Kogu , Russian Собрание русских граждан).
Sorokin was one of the founders of the Russian National Association in Estonia ( Vene Rahvuslik Liit ) in 1920 . The party was the only Russian party to have been represented in the parliament ( Riigikogu ) during the entire existence of Estonian democracy .
In the election to the Constituent Assembly ( Asutav Kogu ) of the Republic of Estonia, which took place in April 1919, Sorokin was elected as the only member of the Russian minority in the constituent assembly. There he took part in the drafting of the Estonian constitution . However, Sorokin - together with the three Baltic German MPs - was not one of the signatories of the Estonian declaration of independence of May 19, 1919; he abstained.
In the first parliamentary election of the young republic, which took place at the end of November 1920, Sorokin was the only Russian to succeed in the legislature.
The Russian National Association in Estonia was center-right oriented. During the interwar period he did not succeed in bringing together the minority, fragmented by great social differences, in one party or association, as was the case with the Baltic Germans . The conflicting interests within the Russian minority were too strong. In addition to a small urban elite, the Russian minority also included large parts of the workforce in the northeast of the country around the industrialized twin cities of Narva / Ivangorod (Estonian Jaanilinn ) and the rural population in the southeast in the Petserimaa district . There were also Russian emigrants who fled to Estonian exile after the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia. The Old Believers who had fled religious persecution in the Russian Empire lived as fishermen and farmers on Lake Peipus . The Estonian parties also managed to attract Russian voters.
In the parliamentary elections of 1923, 1926 and 1932, the Russian National Association made mostly short-lived alliances with other Russian parties in Estonia. After May 1919, no Russian party was involved in a government coalition.
Election results
| choice | Legislative period | be right | MPs (Asutav Kogu = 120 seats) (Riigikogu = 100 seats) |
Estonian name | German translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1919 | Asutav Kogu | 1.2% | 1 | Vene Kodanikkude Kogu | Assembly of Russian Citizens |
| 1920 | 1. Riigikogu | 1.8% | 1 | Vene Rahvuslik Liit Eestis | Russian National Association in Estonia |
| 1923 | 2. Riigikogu | 4.1% | 4th | Vein ühendatud parteid | United Russian parties (electoral alliance) |
| 1926 | 3. Riigikogu | 3.3% | 3 | Vene Rahva ühendatud nimekiri | United List of the Russian People (Electoral Alliance) |
| 1929 | 4. Riigikogu | 2.5% | 2 | Vene Rahvuslik Liit Eestis | Russian National Association in Estonia |
| 1932 | 5. Riigikogu | 7.5% | 8th | Vein Rahvuslik Liit Eestis; Vene Pahempoolsete Sotsialistide ja Talupidajate Koondus | Russian National Association in Estonia; Russian Association of Left-wing Socialists and Peasants (electoral alliance) |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sulev Vahtre (ed.): Eesti Ajalugu. Volume 6: Vabadussõjast Taasiseseisvumiseni. Ilmamaa, Tartu 2005, ISBN 9985-77-142-7 , p. 68.