Election to Asutav Kogu in 1919

Opening session of the Constituent Assembly on April 23, 1919 at the Estonia Theater and Opera House in Tallinn

The election for the Constituent Assembly of the Republic of Estonia (Asutav Kogu) took place from April 5th to 7th, 1919. The Constituent Assembly worked out the first constitution for the Republic of Estonia and acted as parliament from April 1919 to December 1920. The new constitution came into force on December 21, 1920.

prehistory

After the revolutionary year in Russia and the withdrawal of the Russian army from Estonia , the “ Rescue Committee ” authorized by the Provisional Landtag ( Maapäev ) proclaimed the independence of the Republic of Estonia on February 24, 1918 in Tallinn. Troops of the German army marched into the Estonian capital the very next day and de facto took over government. The German Reich rejected Estonian independence. Instead, leading German and Baltic German politicians sought a “ United Baltic Duchy ” as a German vassal state in northeastern Europe.

It was only with the defeat of Germany in World War I that the provisional Estonian government under Konstantin Päts was able to exercise actual government power in Estonia from mid-November 1918. However, German troops initially stayed in the country. The General Plenipotentiary for the occupied Baltic countries, August Winnig , signed a contract with the provisional Estonian government in Riga on November 19, 1918 . On the basis of this treaty, the Estonian government took over power on Estonian territory with official German approval.

On November 13, 1918, Soviet Russia began a military offensive to recapture the Baltic States . On November 28, 1928, Bolshevik troops attacked the East Estonian city of Narva . This started the so-called Estonian War of Independence . It ended with an Estonian victory in early 1920. In the Tartu Peace Treaty of February 2, 1920, Soviet Russia recognized the Republic of Estonia de jure as a sovereign and independent state.

Preparation of the Constituent Assembly

After the end of the German occupation, the provisional state parliament called on November 27, 1919 the elections for a constituent assembly ( Asutva Kogu ). The constituent assembly should take over the role of the legislature until the first regular parliamentary election.

The election for Asutav Kogu was to take place in early February 1919; the Constituent Assembly was to meet for the first time on February 20, 1919. At the same time, the provisional state parliament confirmed the (third) provisional government under Constantine Päts. The coalition government comprised the four largest Estonian parties and representatives of the three largest national minorities.

Because of the attack by the Bolshevik troops and their advance on Tallinn, the state parliament met again on December 27, 1918. On February 5, 1919, he decided to postpone the upcoming elections to early April 1919 because of the war.

A main committee ( peak committee ) was set up to prepare for the election . Committee chairman was the lawyer Kaarel Parts , since February 1, 1919 chairman of the provisional state parliament ( Maapäev ). The elections should be immediate, free, equal and secret. For the first time in Estonian history, men and women were eligible to vote. The voting age was twenty years.

Before the election, there was a consolidation of the Estonian party system, which was to be formative for the 1920s. In particular, the conservative national liberal Estonian People's Party ( Eesti Rahvaerakond ) came into being as a merger of the Estonian Democratic Party ( Eesti Demokraatlik Erakond ) and the Estonian Radical Democratic Party ( Eesti Radikaaldemokraatlik Erakond ). At the founding congress in March 1919, the clerical part of the party split off. Supporters of a stronger position of the Evangelical Lutheran Church founded their own denominational party under the name of Christian People's Party ( Kristlik Rahvaerakond ) .

choice

The election for the Constituent Assembly ( Asutav Kogu ) took place from April 5th to 7th, 1919, that is, during the war. Even front-line soldiers who were at war could cast their votes.

All citizens who had Russian citizenship before February 24, 1918, who lived permanently in Estonia and were entered in the registers of local self-government were eligible to vote. Prison inmates, other legally convicted persons and persons officially declared to be mentally ill were excluded from the right to vote.

Participated in the election of ten parties and groups of voters. Bolshevik parties were forbidden and excluded from voting because the democratic parties viewed them as the henchmen of the Soviet war opponent. The Bolsheviks, like the extreme right, called for an election boycott.

The turnout was high at over 80%. A total of 467,906 valid votes were cast. The election was democratic and uneventful.

The distribution of seats for the 120 mandates is based on the principles of proportional representation .

Election result

Official final result of the election for Asutav Kogu (120 seats)

Political party		German name	political orientation	Percentages	be right	Seats
	Eesti Sotsiaaldemokraatiline Tööliste party	Estonian Social Democratic Labor Party	social democratic	33.3%	152.341	41
	Eesti Tööerakond	Estonian Labor Party	Middle left	25.1%	114,879	30th
	Eesti Rahvaerakond	Estonian People's Party	Middle right	10.6%	94,896	25th
	Eesti Maarahva Liit	Estonian Rural People's Union	conservative-agrarian	6.5%	29,989	8th
	Eesti Sotsialistide-Revolutionary Party	Estonian Socialist Revolutionary Party	left socialist	5.8%	26,536	7th
	Kristlik Rahvaerakond	Christian People's Party	Christian-conservative	4.4%	20,157	5
	Saksa erakond Eestimaal	German party in Estonia	German Balts	2.5%	11,462	3
	Vene Kodanikkude Kogu	Assembly of Russian Citizens	Russian minority	1.2%	5,765	1
	Hiiu saare elanike party	Party of the inhabitants of Hiiumaa Island	Regional party	0.2%	1,090	-
	Üle-eestimaaline Meremeeste Liit	All-Estonian Association of Seafarers	Interest party	0.1%	795	-

Eight parties made it into the Constituent Assembly. The three left-wing parties were able to record a major electoral success with almost 65% of the votes and 78 seats.

The outstanding election winner with 41 seats was the Estonian Social Democratic Labor Party (ESDTP) under its leader, lawyer August Rei . Rei was elected chairman on April 23, 1919 by the Constituent Assembly by 100 votes out of 115 votes.

The second strongest party was the center-left Estonian Labor Party (ETE). Its chairman was Otto Strandman , whom the Constituent Assembly elected as the new Prime Minister. His government took office on May 8, 1919. The coalition government was composed of

• Eesti Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Tööliste Party (Estonian Social Democratic Workers' Party, ESDTP) - four ministerial posts
• Eesti Tööerakond (Estonian Labor Party, ETE) - four ministerial posts
• Eesti Rahvaerakond (Estonian People's Party, ER) - two ministerial posts

In the government the three largest parliamentary groups of the constituent assembly had come together (ESDTP 41 seats, ETE 30 seats, ER 25 seats). In the 120-member constituent assembly, it initially had an overwhelming majority of 96 seats. For reasons of foreign policy, Strandman left out the left-wing socialists. This was intended to support the Western powers in the Estonian War of Independence against Soviet Russia and in the withdrawal of the remaining German troops.

The conservative-agrarian Estonian Rural People's Union ( Eesti Maarahva Liit ) under its chairman Konstantin Päts was surprisingly weak with just eight seats . As a member of the three-person rescue committee, Päts was one of the fathers of Estonian independence and had led the provisional government from February 1918 to April 1919 . Many voters blamed Pats on the curtailment of freedom and property rights during the first phase of the Estonian War of Freedom.

The Baltic German population group was able to send three members to the Constituent Assembly ( Max Bock , Johannes Meyer and Herrmann Koch ). Despite the internal political differences, it succeeded in rallying the Baltic Germans behind it. The Russian minority only got one mandate, which the young lawyer Aleksei Sorokin took on . The two largest national minorities in Estonia thus also took part in the drafting of the constitution.

The 120-strong constituent assembly included 25 lawyers, eleven journalists, seven agronomists, six farmers, three teachers, two writers and two students. Seven MPs were female.

Constituent Assembly

On April 23, 1919, the Constituent Assembly met for its inaugural session. It took place in the concert hall of the Estonia Theater and Opera House in central Tallinn . From May 27, 1919, it met in the White Hall of the castle on Tallinn Toompea .

The Constituent Assembly also acted as the Parliament of the Republic of Estonia. She passed over 800 laws.

On June 15, 1920, the Constituent Assembly adopted the first constitution for the Republic of Estonia . The constitution came into force on December 21, 1920. The powers of the Asutav Kogu ended the day before .

From November 27 to 29, 1920, the elections for the first legislative period of the Estonian Parliament ( I. Riigikogu ) took place.

literature

• Mirko Harjula: Viro 1914-1922. Maailmansota, vallankumoukset, itsenäistyminen ja vapaussota (= Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran toimituksia. 1216). Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Helsinki 2009, ISBN 978-952-222-085-1 .

Web links

• Information on Asutav Kogu on the Estonian Parliament website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Number XII. of the Armistice of Compiègne : All German troops currently in the areas that belonged to Russia before the war must also retreat beyond the German borders as indicated above as soon as the Allies, taking into account the internal situation of these areas, the moment comes consider.
2. ↑ http://www.histrodamus.ee/?event=Show_event&event_id=4152&layer=250&lang=est#4149
3. ↑ http://www.histrodamus.ee/?event=Show_event&event_id=4151&layer=250&lang=est#4151
4. ↑ http://www.riigikogu.ee/index.php?id=36723
5. ↑ http://www.histrodamus.ee/?event=Show_event&event_id=4151&layer=250&lang=est#4152
6. ↑ http://www.riigikogu.ee/index.php?rep_id=21328