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Juhan Smuul was an Estonian writer. Until 1954 he used the given name Johannes Schmuul. Smuul was one of the most recognized writers in Soviet Estonia and was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia, a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR, chairman of the Estonian Writers' Union, secretary of the board of the Union of Soviet Writers.
Vaino Väljas was a Soviet and Estonian diplomat and politician. Väljas was leader of the Communist party in Soviet Estonia in 1988–1991, and the leader of Democratic Estonian Workers Party in 1992–1995 in independent Estonia.
Elections to the Supreme Soviet were held in the Estonian SSR on 18 March 1990. Altogether 392 candidates ran for the Soviet-style legislature's 105 seats, of which four were pre-allocated to the military districts of the Soviet Army. The pro-independence Popular Front won the plurality. The coalition of the reformed Estonian communists, who favored independence but close relations with the USSR and were supported by Indrek Toome who was running under the Free Estonia banner, won 27 seats. The anti-independence, pro-Moscow "Joint Soviet of Work Collectives", representing mostly the ethnic Russian immigrant minority in Estonia, won 25 seats. During its first session, the new legislature elected the former Communist Party member Arnold Rüütel as its chairman, allowing him to stay as the nominal leader of Estonia.
The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Estonia, or simply Estonia, was a union republic of the Soviet Union (USSR), covering the occupied and annexed territory of Estonia in 1940–1941 and 1944–1991. The Estonian SSR was nominally established to replace the until then independent Republic of Estonia on 21 July 1940, a month after the 16–17 June 1940 Soviet military invasion and occupation of the country during World War II. After the installation of a Stalinist government which, backed by the occupying Soviet Red Army, declared Estonia a Soviet constituency, the Estonian SSR was subsequently incorporated into the Soviet Union as a union republic on 6 August 1940. Estonia was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941, and administered as a part of Reichskommissariat Ostland until it was reconquered by the USSR in 1944.
The three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – were re-occupied in 1944–1945 by the Soviet Union (USSR) following the German occupation. The Baltic states regained independence in 1990–1991.
Parliamentary elections were held in Estonia on 14 and 15 July 1940 alongside simultaneous elections in Latvia and Lithuania. The elections followed the Soviet occupation of the three countries. As was the case in Latvia and Lithuania, the elections in Estonia were blatantly rigged. They were also unconstitutional, since only seats for the lower chamber of the Riigikogu, the Chamber of Deputies, were contested; the upper chamber, the National Council, had been dissolved and was never reconvened. According to August Rei, one of independent Estonia's last envoys to Moscow, under the Estonian constitution, the Chamber of Deputies had "no legislative power" apart from the National Council.
Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR were held on 25 February 1951. The Bloc of Communists and Non-Party Candidates was the only party able to contest the elections, and won all 115 seats. Elected members included Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Georgi Malenkov and Panteleimon Ponomarenko.
Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR were held on 27 February 1955. The Bloc of Communists and Non-Party Candidates was the only party able to contest the elections, and won all 125 seats.
Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR were held on 15 March 1959. The Bloc of Communists and Non-Party Candidates was the only party able to contest the elections, and won all 125 seats.
Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR were held on 17 March 1963. The Bloc of Communists and Non-Party Candidates was the only party able to contest the elections, and won all 178 seats.
Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR were held on 19 March 1967. The Bloc of Communists and Non-Party Candidates was the only party able to contest the elections and won all 178 seats.
Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR were held on 13 June 1971. The Bloc of Communists and Non-Party Candidates was the only party able to contest the elections, and won all 183 seats.
Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR were held on 15 June 1975. The Bloc of Communists and Non-Party Candidates was the only party able to contest the elections, and won all 200 seats.
Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR were held on 24 February 1980. The Bloc of Communists and Non-Party Candidates was the only party able to contest the elections, and won all 285 seats.
Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR were held on 24 February 1985. The Bloc of Communists and Non-Partisans was the only party able to contest the elections, and won all 285 seats.
Artur Vader was the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1970 – 1978. He was born in Gorbovo, Liozna District, Vitebsk Region, Byelorussian SSR.
Estonian Restoration of Independence, legally defined as the Restoration of the Republic of Estonia, was proclaimed on 20 August 1991. On that day at 23:02 local time, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Estonia, in agreement with the Estonian Committee, declared the illegal Soviet occupation and annexation of the country terminated, and proclaimed the full restoration of the independence of Estonia.
The Estonian Working People's Union was a front organization of the Communist Party of Estonia formed to contest in the rigged 1940 Estonian parliamentary election, as the sole officially allowed bloc. It consisted of 22 organizations, including the formally independent Estonian Communist Party, Estonian branch of Komsomol, the Central Union of Estonian Trade Unions, and cultural society "Idea". Its platform claimed to unite "democratic strata of the society" and demanded friendship and alliance between Estonia and the USSR, democratic liberties, raising salaries, combatting unemployment, social security, land for the landless, assistance for small farms, lowering the workers' burden of debt, re-organization of personal taxation, free education, ethnic equality, democratization of the military and wide development of the national culture. According to official results, 92.8% of voters voted for the bloc, with a voter turnout of 84%.
Illar Hallaste was an Estonian cleric, politician, lawyer, and businessman, most notable for being a voter for the Estonian restoration of Independence.
The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR was the formal rubber stamp legislative body of the Estonian SSR without any substantive meaning, which was formally elected in general elections, but whose members were essentially appointed by the leadership of the Communist Party. Before 1988, the Supreme Soviet had no meaningful political role. After its first democratic elections on 18 March 1990, the institution was renamed the Supreme Council of the Republic of Estonia on 8 May 1990.
References
- 1 2 Olev Liivik "Formation of the Supreme Soviet of the ESSR: Elections and the principles of assembling" Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, p3
- ↑ Liivik, p2
- ↑ Pravda No. 43, 19 February 1947
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