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The Riigikogu is the unicameral parliament of Estonia. All important state-related questions pass through the Riigikogu. In addition to approving legislation, the Riigikogu appoints high officials, including the Prime Minister and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and elects the President. The Riigikogu also ratifies significant foreign treaties that impose military and proprietary obligations, bring about changes in the law, etc.; approves the budget presented by the government as law and monitors the executive power.
The president of the Republic of Estonia is the head of state of the Republic of Estonia. The current president is Alar Karis, elected by Parliament on 31 August 2021, replacing Kersti Kaljulaid.
Congress of Estonia was an innovative grassroots parliament established in Estonia as a part of the process of regaining of independence from the Soviet Union. It also challenged the power and authority of the pre-existing quasi-parliament in the country, called the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR, which had been imposed on Estonia after Moscow's illegal annexation in 1940. The Congress of Estonia declared that it represented the highest authority on questions of Estonian statehood and citizenship, deriving this authority from the consent and initiative of the citizens of Estonia. The aim of the Congress was to restore Estonian independence based on the principle of legal continuity, with the pre-1940 republic of Estonia, which had been established in 1918, as the foundation.
Parliamentary elections were held in the Latvian SSR on 18 March 1990. It was the first free parliamentary election in Latvia since 1931 and saw 201 deputies elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR, 170 of them in the first round. Run-off elections were held on 25 March, 1 April and 29 April. The Popular Front of Latvia won over two-thirds of the vote. Unlike its Estonian and Lithuanian counterparts, the Latvian Communist Party did not separate from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, on 3 May 1990, the new Supreme Soviet re-elected the Communist Party member Anatolijs Gorbunovs as its chairman, effectively the leader of Latvia. He subsequently resigned from the party, and a year later the Communist Party was banned by the parliament.
The Baltic states were under Soviet rule for 47 years starting in 1944. During that year and the next, World War II and the occupation by Nazi Germany ended, annexation and Sovietization by the Soviet Union occurred, and the Baltic states became the Soviet socialist republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They remained under Soviet rule until independence was regained in conjunction with dissolution of the Soviet Union in 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, 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 16 February 1947. They were the first elections since the Estonian SSR was declared on 21 July 1940 and the first after World War II.
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 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.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the process of internal disintegration within the Soviet Union (USSR) which resulted in the end of the country's and its federal government's existence as a sovereign state, thereby resulting in its constituent republics gaining full sovereignty on 26 December 1991. It brought an end to the General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's effort to reform the Soviet political and economic system in an attempt to stop a period of political stalemate and economic backslide. The Soviet Union had experienced internal stagnation and ethnic separatism. The USSR, although a highly centralized state, was made up of 21 republics that served as homelands for different ethnicities. By late 1991, amidst a catastrophic political crisis, with several republics already departing the Union and the waning of centralized power, the leaders of three of its founding members declared that the Soviet Union no longer existed. Eight more republics joined their declaration shortly thereafter. Gorbachev resigned in December 1991 and what was left of the Soviet parliament voted to end itself.
The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR was the rubber stamp "legislative assembly" of the Estonian SSR – an administrative subunit of the Soviet Union in 1940–1991. 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.
In 1990, elections were held for the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia and the Supreme Soviets of 14 other republics of the Soviet Union.
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
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