Arnold Rüütel is an Estonian politician. He was the third President of Estonia from 8 October 2001 to 9 October 2006. Rüütel was the second president of the country after the end of the 1944–1991 Soviet occupation, and the restoration of the independent Republic of Estonia on 20 August 1991.
Konstantin Päts was an Estonian statesman and the country's president in 1938–1940. Päts was one of the most influential politicians of the independent democratic Republic of Estonia, and during the two decades prior to World War II he also served five times as the country's prime minister. After the 16–17 June 1940 Soviet invasion and occupation of Estonia, President Päts remained formally in office for over a month, until he was forced to resign, imprisoned by the new Stalinist regime, and deported to the USSR, where he died in 1956.
Jaan Tõnisson was an Estonian statesman, serving as the Prime Minister of Estonia twice during 1919 to 1920, as State Elder from 1927 to 1928 and in 1933, and as Foreign Minister of Estonia from 1931 to 1932.
Ado Birk, was an Estonian politician who was the Estonian Prime Minister for three days, from 28 July 1920 to 30 July 1920.
Jaan Anvelt, was an Estonian Bolshevik revolutionary and writer. He served the Russian SFSR, was a leader of the Communist Party of Estonia, the first premier of the Soviet Executive Committee of Estonia, and the chairman of the Council of the Commune of the Working People of Estonia. Imprisoned during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge in 1937, he died from the injuries sustained during a beating by Aleksandr Langfang while in NKVD custody.
The Communist Party of Estonia was a regional branch of the Soviet communist party which in 1920–1940 operated illegally in Estonia and, after the 1940 occupation and annexation of the country by the Soviet Union, was formally re-merged into the USSR's All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) and operated as part of the CPSU until 1990.
The Estonian Workers' Commune was a government claiming the Bolshevik-occupied parts of Republic of Estonia as its territories during the Estonian War of Independence and the Russian Civil War. It was recognised as an independent state only by Russian SFSR on December 7th, 1918.
Jaan Poska VR III/1 was an Estonian barrister and politician.
The Autonomous Governorate of Estonia of the Russian state was established as a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and ceased to exist prior to Estonia becoming a fully independent country in 1918.
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.
100 great Estonians of the 20th century is a list of notable Estonians compiled in 1999 by Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus, Eesti Päevaleht, National Library of Estonia, Radio Kuku, and TV3.
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.
Voldemar Vöölmann was an Estonian Communist politician who was the chairman of the city government of Tallinn from September 1917 to March 1918.
Ülo Nugis was an Estonian politician and economist. As Speaker of the Supreme Council of Estonia on 20 August 1991, he presided over the Supreme Council's historic session when it voted for the restoration of Estonia's national independence from the Soviet Union.
Alma Rosalie Ostra-Oinas was an Estonian journalist, writer and politician.
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.
