Politics in Estonia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Estonia is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in the Estonian parliament. Executive power is exercised by the government, which is led by the prime minister. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Estonia is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, and NATO.
Otto August Strandman was an Estonian politician, who served as Prime Minister (1919) and State Elder of Estonia (1929–1931).
Konstantin Päts was an Estonian statesman and the country's president from 1938 to 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 State Elder. He carried out a self-coup on 12 March 1934. After the 16–17 June 1940 Soviet invasion and occupation of Estonia, 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.
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.
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.
The State Elder, sometimes also translated as Head of State, was the official title of the Estonian head of state from 1920 to 1937. He combined some of the functions held by a president and prime minister in most other democracies.
Riigihoidja was the name of the office of the head of state and head of the caretaker government of Estonia from 3 September 1937 to 24 April 1938. The first person to hold this position was Konstantin Päts, five time former State Elder. His eventual successor ex officio was Johan Laidoner, then Commander-in-Chief.
Jüri Uluots was an Estonian prime minister, journalist, prominent attorney and distinguished Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Tartu.
Johannes Vares was an Estonian and Soviet poet, medical doctor, and politician.
Kaarel Eenpalu was an Estonian journalist, politician and head of state, who served as 7th Prime Minister of Estonia.
The Constitution of Estonia is the fundamental law of the Republic of Estonia and establishes the state order as that of a democratic republic where the supreme power is vested in its citizens. The first Constitution was adopted by the freely elected Estonian Constituent Assembly on 15 June 1920 and came into force on 21 December 1920. Heavily amended on 24 January 1934, following a referendum in 1933, it was in force until the second Constitution was enacted on 1 January 1938. It remained in force, de facto, until 16 June 1940, when the Soviet Union occupied Estonia and, de jure, until 28 June 1992, when the third and current Constitution of the Republic of Estonia was adopted by referendum.
The history of Estonia from 1918 to 1940 spanned the interwar period from the end of the Estonian War of Independence until the outbreak of World War II. It covers the years of parliamentary democracy, the Great Depression and the period of corporatist authoritarian rule.
The Estonian government-in-exile was the formally declared governmental authority of the Republic of Estonia in exile, existing from 1944 until the reestablishment of Estonian sovereignty over Estonian territory in 1991. It traced its legitimacy through constitutional succession to the last Estonian government in power prior to the June 1940 Soviet invasion and occupation of the country. During its existence, it was the internationally recognized government of Estonia.
The Era of Silence was the period between 1934 and 1938 in Estonian history. The period began with the preemptive self-coup of 12 March 1934, which Estonian Prime Minister Konstantin Päts carried out to avert a feared takeover of the state apparatus by the popular Vaps Movement.
Mihkel Klaassen was a justice of the Supreme Court of Estonia since 1924.
The National Committee of the Republic of Estonia was a deliberative and legislative body, formed by Estonian politicians and members of the last government of Republic of Estonia before the Soviet occupation, to control the Anti-Soviet resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Estonia in March 1944. By April 1944 a large number of the committee members were arrested by the German security agencies. On September 20, 1944, the committee proclaimed the Republic of Estonia restored, but two days later, the Soviet Army took control of Tallinn.
Taavi Rõivas is an Estonian politician, former Prime Minister of Estonia from 2014 to 2016 and former leader of the Reform Party. Before his term as the Prime Minister, Rõivas was the Minister of Social Affairs from 2012 to 2014. On 9 November 2016 his second cabinet dissolved after coalition partners, Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica and Social Democratic Party, sided with the opposition in a no confidence motion. At the end of 2020, Rõivas announced quitting politics, and resigned from his parliament seat.
Maksim Unt was an Estonian and Soviet politician.
The Estonian coup d'état of 1934 was a bloodless military coup organized on March 12, 1934 by State Elder candidates Johan Laidoner, Konstantin Päts, and August Rei, who took part in the State Elder elections scheduled for April of the same year, during which Lieutenant General Laidoner and acting State Elder Päts had several Vaps leaders and activists, supporters of the fourth State Elder candidate Andres Larka, arrested. Päts, in violation of the constitution, appointed Laidoner as the commander-in-chief of the defense forces and decreed a stop to the election process for State Elder and the Riigikogu.
