155-485: Konstantin Päts (23 February [ O.S. 11 February] 1874 – 18 January 1956) 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 (equivalent to both president and prime minister). After
310-512: A Vice-chairman of the Soviet Union as evidence that he intended Trotsky to be his successor as head of government. In his biography of Trotsky, British historian Isaac Deutscher writes that, faced with the evidence, "only the blind and the deaf could be unaware of the contrast between Stalinism and Leninism." Similarly, historian Moshe Lewin writes, "The Soviet regime underwent a long period of 'Stalinism,' which in its basic features
465-472: A cult of personality he thought might later be used against him by the same people who praised him excessively, one of those being Khrushchev—a prominent user of the term during Stalin's life who was later responsible for de-Stalinization and the beginning of the Khrushchev Thaw era. Some historians view Stalinism as a reflection of the ideologies of Leninism and Marxism , but some argue that it
620-468: A reformist social democracy rather than a form of revolutionary communism. Sheng Shicai , a Chinese warlord with Communist leanings, invited Soviet intervention and allowed Stalinist rule to extend to Xinjiang province in the 1930s. In 1937, Sheng conducted a purge similar to the Great Purge , imprisoning, torturing, and killing about 100,000 people, many of them Uyghurs . Cybernetics :
775-642: A calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 1582 and 1923. In England , Wales , Ireland and Britain's American colonies , there were two calendar changes, both in 1752. The first adjusted the start of a new year from 25 March ( Lady Day , the Feast of the Annunciation ) to 1 January,
930-436: A career as a gangster and robber , working to fund revolutionary activities, before eventually becoming General Secretary of the Soviet Union . Stalinism included the creation of a one man totalitarian police state , rapid industrialization , the theory of socialism in one country (until 1939), forced collectivization of agriculture , intensification of class conflict , a cult of personality , and subordination of
1085-544: A change which Scotland had made in 1600. The second discarded the Julian calendar in favour of the Gregorian calendar, skipping 11 days in the month of September to do so. To accommodate the two calendar changes, writers used dual dating to identify a given day by giving its date according to both styles of dating. For countries such as Russia where no start-of-year adjustment took place, O.S. and N.S. simply indicate
1240-613: A delegation with Päts was sent to Haapsalu, which was chosen to be the site of the initial declaration, but they were forced to head back to Tallinn, since the German forces had captured Haapsalu on the very same day. Attempts to reach Tartu before the German occupation had also failed. When the Soviet Russian forces had finally evacuated from Tallinn and the German forces were advancing, the Salvation Committee issued
1395-552: A joint letter to Päts, demanding civil freedoms and restoration of democratic regime. Reluctance to restore democracy also caused student riots in Tartu in the autumn of 1936, which led to clashes with the police and disbandment of the student council of the University of Tartu . The lack of organized opposition during the emergency made it easier for Päts to pass reforms. Päts ruled mostly through presidential decrees , because
1550-521: A key factor in the Soviet famine of 1930–1933 ; some scholars believe that Holodomor , which started near the end of 1932, was when the famine turned into an instrument of genocide; the Ukrainian government now recognizes it as such. Some scholars dispute the intentionality of the famine. The Stalinist era was largely regressive on social issues. Despite a brief period of decriminalization under Lenin,
1705-459: A letter dated "12/22 Dec. 1635". In his biography of John Dee , The Queen's Conjurer , Benjamin Woolley surmises that because Dee fought unsuccessfully for England to embrace the 1583/84 date set for the change, "England remained outside the Gregorian system for a further 170 years, communications during that period customarily carrying two dates". In contrast, Thomas Jefferson , who lived while
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#17327649263971860-455: A member of the city council; and in April 1905, he became the deputy mayor, chairing the city council. His active work at the town government left him little time for his newspaper. Because of the lack of Päts’ supervision of Teataja , a group of revolutionaries, led by Hans Pöögelmann , had managed to take control in the newspaper’s staff and publish anti-government articles, calling people for
2015-423: A more critical and ambivalent attitude towards his cult of personality. The cult of personality served to legitimate Stalin's authority, establish continuity with Lenin as his "discipline, student and mentee" in the view of his wider followers. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev , would later denounce the cult of personality around Stalin as contradictory to Leninist principles and party discourse. Stalin blamed
2170-471: A nation should be organized not by political views into parties, but by vocation into respective chambers, and a series of state corporative institutions were thus introduced, following in big part the example of contemporary corporatism in Fascist Italy . Päts had promoted the idea of corporate chambers already in 1918, but the idea did not gain support from strong left-wing parties at the time. Päts
2325-720: A priest, he left for the high school in Pärnu. From 1894 to 1898, he attended the Faculty of Law of Tartu University , from which he graduated as a cand. jur. After graduation, Päts served in the Russian 96th Infantry Regiment of Omsk in Pskov and was promoted an ensign . After rejecting an academic career in Tartu, he moved to Tallinn in 1900, to start a political career. In Tallinn, Konstantin Päts started his career as an assistant at
2480-399: A reactionary pseudoscience that appeared in the U.S.A. after World War II and also spread through other capitalist countries. Cybernetics clearly reflects one of the basic features of the bourgeois worldview—its inhumanity, striving to transform workers into an extension of the machine, into a tool of production, and an instrument of war. At the same time, for cybernetics an imperialistic utopia
2635-570: A rental apartment in Pärnu in 1882. Three years later, Jakob bought himself some land in Raeküla , near Pärnu, where they initially lived in a roadside tavern, but built a new house after the tavern burned down. Jakob divided his land into smaller lots and built half a dozen new houses on the site, which eventually grew into a borough, and later became a district of Pärnu. Konstantin Päts was born on 23 February [ O.S. 11 February] 1874 near Tahkuranna . According to locals' memories, he
2790-649: A revolution. During the 1905 Revolution , Päts was already an activist on self-government reform, where he supported national autonomy in the Baltic governorates . In the escalation of the revolution, his newspaper was closed and its staff members arrested. Päts found out about this in advance and managed to escape to Switzerland , only to find out that he had been condemned to death in the Russian Empire. In 1906, he moved to Helsinki , Finland, where he continued his literary and journalist career. Much of his work
2945-469: A rivalry not only between Postimees and Teataja , but also between Jaan Tõnisson and Konstantin Päts personally for the position of leadership in the Estonian nationalist movement. Unlike the more nationalist and radically ideological Postimees , Teataja emphasized the importance of education and commerce for the nationalist cause. The work was made difficult by the strict censorship policies imposed by
3100-442: A speaker for the assembly. Jaan Tõnisson of the centre-right nominated the candidacy of Konstantin Päts, who, however, lost by only one vote to the almost unknown Artur Vallner. At first, Päts chose not to join any of the parliamentary groups , but eventually joined the most right-wing Democratic group. Päts replaced Jaan Raamot as chairman of the provincial government on 25 October [ O.S. 12 October] 1917. During
3255-911: A start-of-year adjustment works well with little confusion for events before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar. For example, the Battle of Agincourt is well known to have been fought on 25 October 1415, which is Saint Crispin's Day . However, for the period between the first introduction of the Gregorian calendar on 15 October 1582 and its introduction in Britain on 14 September 1752, there can be considerable confusion between events in Continental Western Europe and in British domains. Events in Continental Western Europe are usually reported in English-language histories by using
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#17327649263973410-498: A theory standing in sharp contrast to Trotsky's permanent revolution and all earlier socialistic theses. The revolution did not spread outside Russia as Lenin had assumed it soon would. The revolution had not succeeded even within other former territories of the Russian Empire ―such as Poland , Finland , Lithuania , Latvia , and Estonia . On the contrary, these countries had returned to capitalist bourgeois rule. He
3565-536: Is 9 February 1649, the date by which his contemporaries in some parts of continental Europe would have recorded his execution. The O.S./N.S. designation is particularly relevant for dates which fall between the start of the "historical year" (1 January) and the legal start date, where different. This was 25 March in England, Wales, Ireland and the colonies until 1752, and until 1600 in Scotland. In Britain, 1 January
3720-477: Is an unprincipled intriguer, who subordinates everything to the preservation of his own power. He changes his theory according to whom he needs to get rid of. Bukharin on Stalin's theoretical position, 1928. Despite this, by the autumn of 1924, Stalin's notion of socialism in Soviet Russia was initially considered next to blasphemy by other Politburo members , including Zinoviev and Kamenev to
3875-515: Is characteristic—replacing living, thinking man, fighting for his interests, by a machine, both in industry and in war. The instigators of a new world war use cybernetics in their dirty, practical affairs. "Cybernetics" in the Short Philosophical Dictionary , 1954 Under Stalin, repression was extended to academic scholarship, the natural sciences, and literary fields. In particular, Einstein's theory of relativity
4030-594: Is separate from the socialist ideals it stemmed from. After a political struggle that culminated in the defeat of the Bukharinists (the "Party's Right Tendency "), Stalinism was free to shape policy without opposition, ushering in an era of harsh totalitarianism that worked toward rapid industrialization regardless of the human cost. From 1917 to 1924, though often appearing united, Stalin, Vladimir Lenin , and Leon Trotsky had discernible ideological differences. In his dispute with Trotsky, Stalin de-emphasized
4185-500: Is that from 1930 to 1953, around 1.5 to 1.7 million perished in the gulag system. In February 1956, Nikita Khrushchev condemned the deportations as a violation of Leninism and reversed most of them, although it was not until 1991 that the Tatars, Meskhetians , and Volga Germans were allowed to return en masse to their homelands. At the start of the 1930s, Stalin launched a wave of radical economic policies that completely overhauled
4340-554: Is the 1938 publication, History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) , in which the history of the governing party was significantly altered and revised including the importance of the leading figures during the Bolshevik revolution. Retrospectively, Lenin's primary associates such as Zinoviev, Trotsky, Radek and Bukharin were presented as "vacillating", "opportunists" and "foreign spies" whereas Stalin
4495-560: Is used to describe the period during which Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union while serving as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 to his death on 5 March 1953. It was a development of Leninism , and while Stalin avoided using the term "Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism", he allowed others to do so. Following Lenin's death, Stalin contributed to
4650-650: The 1938 parliamentary elections were held. Opposition candidates were allowed to take part, however they were given little or no attention in the media. Päts's supporters in the National Front for the Implementation of the Constitution won 64 of the 80 seats in the lower chamber, the Riigivolikogu . The president, who was yet to be elected, was also able to directly appoint into office 10 of
4805-713: The Bank of Estonia . After stepping down as head of government, Päts served as President (speaker) of the Riigikogu from 20 November 1922 to 7 June 1923. In 1923 elections , Farmers' Assemblies took 23 seats. On 2 August 1923, Päts became State Elder for the second time. A similar centre-right coalition with three centrist parties lasted again until the Estonian Labour Party left the coalition, forcing Päts to step down on 26 March 1924. Otto August Strandman had openly criticized Päts for his role in corruption within
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4960-471: The Communist Party of Palestine , spent twenty five years in Stalin's prisons and concentrations camps after the purges in 1937. Shortly before, during, and immediately after World War II , Stalin conducted a series of deportations that profoundly affected the ethnic map of the Soviet Union. Separatism , resistance to Soviet rule, and collaboration with the invading Germans were the official reasons for
5115-798: The Estonian Declaration of Independence on 24 February 1918 (the declaration had also been delivered to Pärnu , where it was proclaimed on 23 February). Instantly, the Estonian Provisional Government was formed; and Konstantin Päts became the Chairman of the Council of Ministers , the Minister of Internal Affairs, and the Minister of Commerce and Industry. The position of Minister of Commerce and Industry probably remained vacant in reality. On 25 February 1918,
5270-593: The Great Purge and the Dekulakization campaign. Stalinism was also marked by militant atheism, mass anti-religious persecution , and ethnic cleansing through forced deportations . Some historians, such as Robert Service , have blamed Stalinist policies, particularly collectivization, for causing famines such as the Holodomor . Other historians and scholars disagree on Stalinism's role. Officially designed to accelerate development toward communism ,
5425-651: The October Revolution , Bolsheviks took control in Estonia and the Provincial Assembly was disbanded. After failing to give over official documents, Päts was arrested three times, until he finally went underground. Since the Bolshevik rule in Estonia was relatively weak, the Council of Elders of the Maapäev declared on 28 November [ O.S. 15 November] 1917 that the assembly was
5580-552: The Patriotic League ( Isamaaliit ) was formed to replace political parties, while all other political organizations were suspended in March 1935. Päts stated in his opinions at the time that political organizations should unite the society, not fragment it. The initial state of emergency was declared for six months in March 1934, but after September 1934, Päts extended it for a year in a total of six times. Päts believed that
5735-527: The Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , Stalin consolidated nearly absolute power in the 1930s with a Great Purge of the party that claimed to expel "opportunists" and "counter-revolutionary infiltrators". Those targeted by the purge were often expelled from the party; more severe measures ranged from banishment to the Gulag labor camps to execution after trials held by NKVD troikas . In
5890-546: The Russian Empire and the very beginning of Soviet Russia . For example, in the article "The October (November) Revolution", the Encyclopædia Britannica uses the format of "25 October (7 November, New Style)" to describe the date of the start of the revolution. The Latin equivalents, which are used in many languages, are, on the one hand, stili veteris (genitive) or stilo vetere (ablative), abbreviated st.v. , and meaning "(of/in) old style" ; and, on
6045-592: The Union of Settlers and Smallholders in 1932. Päts was the Speaker of the Parliament ( Riigikogu ) (1922–1923) and served five times as State Elder , a post equivalent to that of president in Estonia's radically parliamentarian system (1921–1922, 1923–1924, 1931–1932, 1932–1933, and 1933–1934). During his last term as State Elder, he organized a self-coup to neutralise the right-wing populist Vaps Movement . He
6200-550: The bourgeois state ) must become stronger before it can wither away. In Stalin's view, counter-revolutionary elements will attempt to derail the transition to full communism , and the state must be powerful enough to defeat them. For this reason, communist regimes influenced by Stalin are totalitarian . Other leftists, such as anarcho-communists , have criticized the party-state of the Stalin-era Soviet Union, accusing it of being bureaucratic and calling it
6355-498: The death penalty was extended to adolescents as young as 12 years old in 1935. After that, several trials, known as the Moscow Trials , were held, but the procedures were replicated throughout the country. Article 58 of the legal code, which listed prohibited anti-Soviet activities as a counter-revolutionary crime, was applied most broadly. Many alleged anti-Soviet pretexts were used to brand individuals as "enemies of
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6510-477: The kulaks for inciting reactionary violence against the people during the implementation of agricultural collectivization . In response, the state, under Stalin's leadership, initiated a violent campaign against them. This kind of campaign was later known as classicide , though several international legislatures have passed resolutions declaring the campaign a genocide. Some historians dispute that these social-class actions constitute genocide. As head of
6665-548: 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. Päts was one of the first Estonians to become active in politics, and he then started a famous, nearly four-decade long, political rivalry with Jaan Tõnisson — first through journalism with his newspaper Teataja , later through politics. Although Päts
6820-642: The 1920s but these groups were later rigorously repressed during the Stalinist era. Socialist realism was imposed in artistic production and other creative industries such as music , film along with sports were subject to extreme levels of political control. Historical falsification of political events such as the October Revolution and the Brest-Litovsk Treaty became a distinctive element of Stalin's regime. A notable example
6975-635: The 1930s and 1940s, the Soviet leadership sent NKVD squads into other countries to murder defectors and opponents of the Soviet regime. Victims of such plots included Trotsky, Yevhen Konovalets , Ignace Poretsky , Rudolf Klement, Alexander Kutepov , Evgeny Miller , and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( POUM ) leadership in Catalonia (e.g., Andréu Nin Pérez ). Joseph Berger-Barzilai , co-founder of
7130-434: The 1930s, Stalin became increasingly worried about Leningrad party head Sergei Kirov 's growing popularity. At the 1934 Party Congress , where the vote for the new Central Committee was held, Kirov received only three negative votes (the fewest of any candidate), while Stalin received over 100. After Kirov's assassination, which Stalin may have orchestrated, Stalin invented a detailed scheme to implicate opposition leaders in
7285-466: The 1934 Criminal Code re-criminalized homosexuality. Abortion was made illegal again in 1936 after controversial debate among citizens, and women's issues were largely ignored. Stalin considered the political and economic system under his rule to be Marxism–Leninism , which he considered the only legitimate successor of Marxism and Leninism . The historiography of Stalin is diverse, with many different aspects of continuity and discontinuity between
7440-513: The 19th century, a practice that the author Karen Bellenir considered to reveal a deep emotional resistance to calendar reform. Stalinism Stalinism ( Russian : Сталинизм , Stalinizm ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1924 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalin had previously made
7595-531: The 40 members of the higher chamber, Riiginõukogu . On 23 April 1938, Konstantin Päts was elected and nominated a presidential candidate by both chambers of the parliament ( Riigikogu ) as well as by the Assembly of Municipal Representatives. Jaan Tõnisson was the only opposition candidate in the parliament's lower chamber ( Riigivolikogu ). Of its 80 members, 65 voted for Päts and 14 for Tõnisson. There were no opposition candidates, and no elections necessary, in
7750-539: The 4th century , had drifted from reality . The Gregorian calendar reform also dealt with the accumulated difference between these figures, between the years 325 and 1582, by skipping 10 days to set the ecclesiastical date of the equinox to be 21 March, the median date of its occurrence at the time of the First Council of Nicea in 325. Countries that adopted the Gregorian calendar after 1699 needed to skip an additional day for each subsequent new century that
7905-590: The Bank of Estonia and economic policies that depended on trade with Russia. Päts kept away from office politics for seven years. Support for his party did not decline. From 15 December 1925 to 9 December 1927, Jaan Teemant of the Farmers' Assemblies was the State Elder. In 1926 elections , Farmers' Assemblies took again 23 seats and Jaan Teemant continued as State Elder. Already in 1927, Päts criticized members of
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#17327649263978060-583: The Boyne was commemorated with smaller parades on 1 July. However, both events were combined in the late 18th century, and continue to be celebrated as " The Twelfth ". Because of the differences, British writers and their correspondents often employed two dates, a practice called dual dating , more or less automatically. Letters concerning diplomacy and international trade thus sometimes bore both Julian and Gregorian dates to prevent confusion. For example, Sir William Boswell wrote to Sir John Coke from The Hague
8215-462: The British Isles and colonies converted to the Gregorian calendar, instructed that his tombstone bear his date of birth by using the Julian calendar (notated O.S. for Old Style) and his date of death by using the Gregorian calendar. At Jefferson's birth, the difference was eleven days between the Julian and Gregorian calendars and so his birthday of 2 April in the Julian calendar is 13 April in
8370-410: The British colonies, changed the start of the year from 25 March to 1 January, with effect from "the day after 31 December 1751". (Scotland had already made this aspect of the changes, on 1 January 1600.) The second (in effect ) adopted the Gregorian calendar in place of the Julian calendar. Thus "New Style" can refer to the start-of-year adjustment , to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar , or to
8525-470: The Central Asian republics. By some estimates, up to 43% of the resettled population died of diseases and malnutrition. According to official Soviet estimates, more than 14 million people passed through the gulags from 1929 to 1953, with a further 7 to 8 million deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union (including entire nationalities in several cases). The emergent scholarly consensus
8680-530: The Communist Party to remove Stalin from his post as its General Secretary .Trotsky also argued that he and Lenin had intended to lift the ban on the opposition parties such as the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries as soon as the economic and social conditions of Soviet Russia had improved. Lenin's Testament , the document containing this order, was suppressed after Lenin's death. Various historians have cited Lenin's proposal to appoint Trotsky as
8835-672: The German forces captured Tallinn. Konstantin Päts was arrested on 16 June 1918. He was sent to several prison camps in Latvia , until he was finally placed in a camp in Grodno , Poland. He was released at the end of the war on 17 November 1918. After the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Jüri Vilms mysteriously died in Finland, Jaan Poska led the underground republic. After Germany surrendered, Konstantin Päts's 2nd cabinet of
8990-623: The Gregorian calendar. For example, the Battle of Blenheim is always given as 13 August 1704. However, confusion occurs when an event involves both. For example, William III of England arrived at Brixham in England on 5 November (Julian calendar), after he had set sail from the Netherlands on 11 November (Gregorian calendar) 1688. The Battle of the Boyne in Ireland took place a few months later on 1 July 1690 (Julian calendar). That maps to 11 July (Gregorian calendar), conveniently close to
9145-466: The Gregorian calendar. Similarly, George Washington is now officially reported as having been born on 22 February 1732, rather than on 11 February 1731/32 (Julian calendar). The philosopher Jeremy Bentham , born on 4 February 1747/8 (Julian calendar), in later life celebrated his birthday on 15 February. There is some evidence that the calendar change was not easily accepted. Many British people continued to celebrate their holidays "Old Style" well into
9300-430: The Julian and Gregorian dating systems respectively. The need to correct the calendar arose from the realisation that the correct figure for the number of days in a year is not 365.25 (365 days 6 hours) as assumed by the Julian calendar but slightly less (c. 365.242 days). The Julian calendar therefore has too many leap years . The consequence was that the basis for the calculation of the date of Easter , as decided in
9455-581: The Julian calendar had added since then. When the British Empire did so in 1752, the gap had grown to eleven days; when Russia did so (as its civil calendar ) in 1918, thirteen days needed to be skipped. In the Kingdom of Great Britain and its possessions, the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 introduced two concurrent changes to the calendar. The first, which applied to England, Wales, Ireland and
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#17327649263979610-454: The Julian date of the subsequent (and more decisive) Battle of Aughrim on 12 July 1691 (Julian). The latter battle was commemorated annually throughout the 18th century on 12 July, following the usual historical convention of commemorating events of that period within Great Britain and Ireland by mapping the Julian date directly onto the modern Gregorian calendar date (as happens, for example, with Guy Fawkes Night on 5 November). The Battle of
9765-430: The Lenin–Stalin relationship (during the Khrushchev Thaw and later) was that the overly autocratic Stalin had distorted the Leninism of the wise dedushka Lenin. But Volkogonov also lamented that this view eventually dissolved for those like him who had the scales fall from their eyes immediately before and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union . After researching the biographies in the Soviet archives, he came to
9920-487: The Politburo, was in itself a crucial factor in Stalin's rise to power". Cinematic productions served to foster the cult of personality around Stalin with adherents to the party line receiving Stalin prizes . Although, film directors and their assistants were still liable to mass arrests during the Great Terror. Censorship of films contributed to a mythologizing of history as seen with the films First Cavalry Army (1941) and Defence of Tsaritsyn (1942) in which Stalin
10075-414: The Riigikogu was needed to pass real laws. The economy grew and the infrastructure, industry, and education were developed. The Estonianization of personal names was supported, the most prominent example being Minister of Internal Affairs Karl August Einbund, who changed his name to Kaarel Eenpalu. Päts also signed a decree to bring the Supreme Court from Tartu to Tallinn in 1935, although all but one of
10230-538: The Riigikogu, saying that they had been causing the instability of government coalitions, rather than ideological differences. At the 6th Congress of Farmers' Assemblies in 1929, the party was in opposition to August Rei 's leftist government and Päts, among others, demanded changes in the constitution, a smaller parliament, a separate presidential office and fight against corruption. In 1929 elections , Farmers' Assemblies took 24 seats and Päts served his third term as State Elder from 12 February 1931 to 19 February 1932. It
10385-408: The Russian Empire's governmental authorities. Päts's first political goal was to take power in the towns, where Baltic Germans still controlled the municipal governments. Päts served as a municipal adviser in Tallinn from 1904; and together with Jaan Poska, he organized an electoral block between Estonians and liberal Russians, which managed to win at the 1904 Tallinn municipal elections. Päts became
10540-418: The Soviet Union, transforming a peasant society into an industrial state with a literate population and a remarkable scientific superstructure." Robert Conquest disputes that conclusion, writing, "Russia had already been fourth to fifth among industrial economies before World War I", and that Russian industrial advances could have been achieved without collectivization, famine, or terror. According to Conquest,
10695-515: The Stalin era. Soviet scientists were forced to denounce any work that contradicted Lysenko. Over 3,000 biologists were imprisoned, fired, or executed for attempting to oppose Lysenkoism and genetic research was effectively destroyed until the death of Stalin in 1953. Due to the ideological influence of Lysenkoism , crop yields in the USSR declined. Orthodoxy was enforced in the cultural sphere . Prior to Stalin's rule, literary, religious and national representatives had some level of autonomy in
10850-401: The United States, pragmatically setting up joint-venture contracts with major American private enterprises such as the Ford Motor Company , which, under state supervision, assisted in developing the basis of the industry of the Soviet economy from the late 1920s to the 1930s. After the American private enterprises had completed their tasks, Soviet state enterprises took over. Stalinism
11005-400: The Vaps Movement that was seen by democratic parties as a local National Socialist party that had to be kept away from power. In August 1933, State Elder Jaan Tõnisson had declared a state of emergency and temporary censorship, that was lifted only when Päts's transitional government took office. The weak government response only gained support for the Vaps Movement and in early January 1934,
11160-651: The Vaps Movement". In August 1934, Päts appointed Karl August Einbund as Minister of Internal Affairs, making him the third leading figure of the era next to Päts and Laidoner. In September, the Agitation and Propaganda Department was created, in October, all parliamentary work was suspended after the opposition criticized the political restrictions and in December, censorship was introduced. In February 1935,
11315-611: The West, and Stalin and the majority of the Communist Party felt the NEP not only to be compromising communist ideals but also not delivering satisfactory economic performance or creating the envisaged socialist society. According to historian Sheila Fitzpatrick , the scholarly consensus was that Stalin appropriated the position of the Left Opposition on such matters as industrialisation and collectivisation . Trotsky maintained that
11470-778: The adoptive father was her uncle Baron Krüdener; however, it is more likely that she served the Krüdener family later as a governess. Jakob and Olga met while they were both working for the Krüdener family. Päts had an elder brother, Nikolai (1871–1940), three younger brothers – Paul (1876–1881), Voldemar (1878–1958), and Peeter (1880–1942) – and a younger sister, Marianne (1888–1947). Since their mother Olga had been raised an Eastern Orthodox Christian, their father Jakob converted from Lutheranism to Eastern Orthodox faith. The children were all brought up in strong Orthodox traditions. The family initially lived in Viljandi. Päts' father Jakob
11625-535: The advocacy of Jaan Poska , but the job was not satisfactory for Päts. In Tartu , Jaan Tõnisson had already founded his nationalist newspaper Postimees in 1891; Päts was planning to found his own in Tallinn. The first inspiration came from writers Eduard Vilde and A. H. Tammsaare , who could not get a licence from the Ministry of Internal Affairs because of their social democratic views. Instead, they used
11780-978: The archives, contends that, before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening of the archives for historical research, "our understanding of the scale and the nature of Soviet repression has been extremely poor" and that some specialists who wish to maintain earlier high estimates of the Stalinist death toll are "finding it difficult to adapt to the new circumstances when the archives are open and when there are plenty of irrefutable data" and instead "hang on to their old Sovietological methods with round-about calculations based on odd statements from emigres and other informants who are supposed to have superior knowledge." Stalin personally signed 357 proscription lists in 1937 and 1938 that condemned 40,000 people to execution, about 90% of whom are confirmed to have been shot. While reviewing one such list, he reportedly muttered to no one in particular: "Who's going to remember all this riff-raff in ten or twenty years? No one. Who remembers
11935-532: The army. A state of emergency was declared and the Vaps Movement was disbanded, with about 400 members arrested, including the presidential candidate Andres Larka . Johan Laidoner was reappointed Commander in Chief of the Army. The period following the self-coup in 1934-1938 has been called by some politicians and historians the "Era of silence" which was marked by some degree of authoritarianism by Päts. Speaking in
12090-839: The autocratic system in the Communist Party . They also note that Lenin put a ban on factions within the Russian Communist Party and introduced the one-party state in 1921—a move that enabled Stalin to get rid of his rivals easily after Lenin's death and cite Felix Dzerzhinsky , who, during the Bolshevik struggle against opponents in the Russian Civil War , exclaimed: "We stand for organized terror—this should be frankly stated." Opponents of this view include revisionist historians and many post–Cold War and otherwise dissident Soviet historians, including Roy Medvedev , who argues that although "one could list
12245-432: The candidate, Päts, and 19 ballots left empty. From a total of 240, the 219 votes were more than the required 3/5 majority (144 votes). Päts gave the presidential oath of office in front of the parliament ( Riigikogu ) on the same day, 24 April 1938, thus becoming the first President of Estonia . Old Style and New Style dates Old Style ( O.S. ) and New Style ( N.S. ) indicate dating systems before and after
12400-492: The combination of the two. It was through their use in the Calendar Act that the notations "Old Style" and "New Style" came into common usage. When recording British history, it is usual to quote the date as originally recorded at the time of the event, but with the year number adjusted to start on 1 January. The latter adjustment may be needed because the start of the civil calendar year had not always been 1 January and
12555-591: The deportations. Individual circumstances of those spending time in German-occupied territories were not examined. After the brief Nazi occupation of the Caucasus , the entire population of five of the small highland peoples and the Crimean Tatars —more than a million people in total—were deported without notice or any opportunity to take their possessions. As a result of Stalin's lack of trust in
12710-408: The devaluation proved to be successful and had a good impact to the economy later under his own rule, Päts never recognized his mistake by opposing the devaluation. Lack of government stability led to several new constitution proposals, but only the third proposal by the right-wing populist Vaps Movement was accepted in a referendum on 14–16 October 1933. Päts was elected on 21 October 1933 to head
12865-640: The disproportions and imbalances which became characteristic of Stalinist planning in the 1930s such as the underdeveloped consumer base along with the priority focus on heavy industry were due to a number of avoidable problems. He argued that the industrial drive had been enacted under more severe circumstances, several years later and in a less rational manner than originally conceived by the Left Opposition. Fredric Jameson has said that "Stalinism was…a success and fulfilled its historic mission, socially as well as economically" given that it "modernized
13020-543: The end of the following December, 1661/62 , a form of dual dating to indicate that in the following twelve weeks or so, the year was 1661 Old Style but 1662 New Style. Some more modern sources, often more academic ones (e.g. the History of Parliament ) also use the 1661/62 style for the period between 1 January and 24 March for years before the introduction of the New Style calendar in England. The Gregorian calendar
13175-647: The first Prime Minister. In the summer of 1919, Päts opposed the Estonian intervention into the war against the Baltic German Landeswehr in neighboring Latvia, but as he was in opposition and supported only by a small parliamentary minority, the then government decided to start the Landeswehr War , which ended in the Estonian-Latvian victory. After the war with Soviet Russia had also ended with Estonian victory on 2 February 1920,
13330-604: The government, much of the work in the Ministry of War was delegated to higher officers. On 28 November 1918, the Soviet Russian Red Army invaded Estonia and conquered the border city of Narva , marking the beginning of the Estonian War of Independence . By January 1919, Estonians had forced the Bolsheviks to retreat; and by 24 February 1919, the entire Estonian territory was under the control of
13485-592: The help of Päts as an unknown lawyer with an affiliation in the Orthodox Church . Päts was assumed by the authorities to have had established a newspaper that was loyal to the Empire and would "unite all Orthodox Estonians"; however, in reality his newspaper had a radical political content. The first issue of the Teataja ("The Gazette") came out on 23 October [ O.S. 10 October] 1901, starting
13640-489: The high-profile executions in this period. Many military leaders were convicted of treason, and a large-scale purge of Red Army officers followed. The repression of many formerly high-ranking revolutionaries and party members led Trotsky to claim that a "river of blood" separated Stalin's regime from Lenin's. In August 1940, Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico, where he had lived in exile since January 1937. This eliminated
13795-479: The idea of " permanent revolution "—by presenting the latter as a defeatist with little faith in Russian workers' abilities to construct socialism. The term Stalinism came into prominence during the mid-1930s when Lazar Kaganovich , a Soviet politician and associate of Stalin, reportedly declared: "Let's replace Long Live Leninism with Long Live Stalinism!" Stalin dismissed this as excessive and contributing to
13950-525: The industrial and agricultural face of the Soviet Union. This became known as the Great Turn as Russia turned away from the mixed-economic type New Economic Policy (NEP) and adopted a planned economy . Lenin implemented the NEP to ensure the survival of the socialist state following seven years of war ( World War I , 1914–1917, and the subsequent Civil War , 1917–1921) and rebuilt Soviet production to its 1913 levels. But Russia still lagged far behind
14105-720: The industrial successes were far less than claimed, and the Soviet-style industrialization was "an anti-innovative dead-end." Stephen Kotkin said those who argue collectivization was necessary are "dead wrong", writing that it "only seemed necessary within the straitjacket of Communist ideology and its repudiation of capitalism. And economically, collectivization failed to deliver." Kotkin further claimed that it decreased harvests instead of increasing them, as peasants tended to resist heavy taxes by producing fewer goods, caring only about their own subsistence. According to several Western historians, Stalinist agricultural policies were
14260-608: The intellectual left; Rykov , Bukharin , and Tomsky to the pragmatic right; and the powerful Trotsky, who belonged to no side but his own. None would even consider Stalin's concept a potential addition to communist ideology. Stalin's socialism in one country doctrine could not be imposed until he had come close to being the Soviet Union's autocratic ruler around 1929. Bukharin and the Right Opposition expressed their support for imposing Stalin's ideas, as Trotsky had been exiled, and Zinoviev and Kamenev had been expelled from
14415-622: The interests of foreign communist parties to those of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , which Stalinism deemed the leading vanguard party of communist revolution at the time. After Stalin's death and the Khrushchev Thaw , a period of de-Stalinization began in the 1950s and 1960s, which caused the influence of Stalin's ideology to begin to wane in the USSR. Stalin's regime forcibly purged society of what it saw as threats to itself and its brand of communism (so-called " enemies of
14570-625: The justices voted against it. After the coup , the Supreme Court lost many of its powers and was not able to observe the implementation of democratic principles in the country. Päts also founded the Tallinn Technical Institute on 15 September 1936 as the second university in Estonia. Losing the Supreme Court and some faculties in the university definitely reduced the importance of Tartu in Southern Estonia -
14725-605: The last of Stalin's opponents among the former Party leadership. Mass operations of the NKVD also targeted "national contingents" (foreign ethnicities) such as Poles , ethnic Germans , and Koreans . A total of 350,000 (144,000 of them Poles) were arrested and 247,157 (110,000 Poles) were executed. Many Americans who had emigrated to the Soviet Union during the worst of the Great Depression were executed, while others were sent to prison camps or gulags. Concurrent with
14880-599: The latter imagery having gained ascendency during the Great Patrotic War and Cold War . Some scholars have argued that Stalin took an active involvement with the construction of the cult of personality with writers such as Isaac Deutscher and Erik van Ree noting that Stalin had absorbed elements from the cult of Tsars, Orthodox Christianity and highlighting specific acts such as Lenin's embalming . Yet, other scholars have drawn on primary accounts from Stalin's associates such as Molotov which suggested he took
15035-502: The loyalty of particular ethnicities, groups such as the Soviet Koreans , Volga Germans , Crimean Tatars, Chechens , and many Poles, were forcibly moved out of strategic areas and relocated to places in the central Soviet Union, especially Kazakhstan . By some estimates, hundreds of thousands of deportees may have died en route. It is estimated that between 1941 and 1949, nearly 3.3 million people were deported to Siberia and
15190-425: The majority left-wing Constituent Assembly adopted a radical land reform law and the first constitution , which brought about a proportionally representative and very fractured parliament, rapidly changing government cabinets, and a nominal head of state whose office had little more than ceremonial powers only. In September 1919, Päts formed a new political party, the agrarian-conservative Farmers' Assemblies , which
15345-525: The movement won municipal elections in several urban municipalities. On 27 February 1934, Päts himself imposed a law, prohibiting members of the military to take part in politics. This action forced several thousand members of the army to secede from the Vaps Movement. Päts was one of the candidates in the presidential elections that were supposed to be held in April 1934, but the Vaps Movement candidate Andres Larka and even lieutenant general Johan Laidoner were both clearly more popular candidates than Päts in
15500-452: The murder, including Trotsky, Lev Kamenev , and Grigory Zinoviev . Thereafter, the investigations and trials expanded. Stalin passed a new law on "terrorist organizations and terrorist acts" that were to be investigated for no more than ten days, with no prosecution, defense attorneys, or appeals, followed by a sentence to be imposed "quickly." Stalin's Politburo also issued directives on quotas for mass arrests and executions. Under Stalin,
15655-628: The names now of the boyars Ivan the Terrible got rid of? No one." In addition, Stalin dispatched a contingent of NKVD operatives to Mongolia , established a Mongolian version of the NKVD troika , and unleashed a bloody purge in which tens of thousands were executed as "Japanese spies", as Mongolian ruler Khorloogiin Choibalsan closely followed Stalin's lead. Stalin had ordered for 100,000 Buddhist lamas in Mongolia to be liquidated but
15810-589: The need for industrialization in the Soviet Union was emphasized because the Soviet Union had previously fallen behind economically compared to Western countries and also because socialist society needed industry to face the challenges posed by internal and external enemies of communism. Rapid industrialization was accompanied by mass collectivization of agriculture and rapid urbanization , which converted many small villages into industrial cities . To accelerate industrialization's development, Stalin imported materials, ideas, expertise, and workers from western Europe and
15965-524: The new State Elder. In 1932 elections the newly formed Union of Settlers and Smallholders won 42 seats in Riigikogu and one of the party's leaders, Karl August Einbund , became the State Elder. On 3 October 1932, the coalition between the Union of Settlers and Smallholders and National Centre Party broke up, with the latter wanting to devalue the Estonian kroon during the Great Depression . Päts himself
16120-438: The non-aligned transitional government to the second constitution . Until 24 January 1934, he served as State Elder, but after the new constitution came into force, he became Prime Minister. The new constitution was a drift from democracy, giving a lot of power to the head of state (still named "State Elder") and leaving the Riigikogu only an advisory role. Both Päts and Tõnisson, his predecessor as head of state, tried to control
16275-410: The only legally elected and constituted authority in Estonia. Since even the Council of Elders was too big to work underground, the three-membered Estonian Salvation Committee was formed on 19 February 1918; and Konstantin Päts became one of its members. Soviet Russian forces evacuating, the Salvation Committee wanted to use the interregnum and declare Estonia's independence. On 21 February 1918,
16430-424: The opposition in most electoral districts. On 28 July 1937, the assembly adopted the third constitution , that was based on Päts's draft. A bicameral parliament was to be elected and the president was to be elected by the parliament, not by the people. On 3 September 1937, a 120-day period of transition began, during which Päts ruled as President-Regent . On 1 January 1938, the new constitution came into force and
16585-403: The other, stili novi or stilo novo , abbreviated st.n. and meaning "(of/in) new style". The Latin abbreviations may be capitalised differently by different users, e.g., St.n. or St.N. for stili novi . There are equivalents for these terms in other languages as well, such as the German a.St. (" alter Stil " for O.S.). Usually, the mapping of New Style dates onto Old Style dates with
16740-497: The parliament on 15 March 1934, Päts stated that the Estonian people were "blinded by the propaganda of the Vaps Movement and ill-minded because of it, and the power could therefore not be in the hands of the people". On 15–16 March 1934, the parliament ( Riigikogu ) approved Päts' actions in hopes of saving Estonian democracy. Päts postponed the presidential elections for the duration of the emergency, expressing concern about "emotions being too high because of anti-government agitation by
16895-425: The party. In a 1936 interview with journalist Roy W. Howard , Stalin articulated his rejection of world revolution and said, "We never had such plans and intentions" and "The export of revolution is nonsense". Traditional communist thought holds that the state will gradually " wither away " as the implementation of socialism reduces class distinction. But Stalin argued that the proletarian state (as opposed to
17050-438: The people "), which included political dissidents , non-Soviet nationalists, the bourgeoisie , better-off peasants (" kulaks "), and those of the working class who demonstrated " counter-revolutionary " sympathies. This resulted in mass repression of such people and their families , including mass arrests, show trials , executions, and imprisonment in forced labor camps known as gulags . The most notorious examples were
17205-407: The people", starting the cycle of public persecution, often proceeding to interrogation, torture, and deportation, if not death. The Russian word troika thereby gained a new meaning: a quick, simplified trial by a committee of three subordinated to the NKVD troika—with sentencing carried out within 24 hours. Stalin's hand-picked executioner Vasili Blokhin was entrusted with carrying out some of
17360-727: The political leader Peljidiin Genden resisted the order. Under Stalinist influence in the Mongolian People's Republic , an estimated 17,000 monks were killed, official figures show. Stalinist forces also oversaw purges of anti-Stalinist elements among the Spanish Republican insurgents, including the Trotskyist allied POUM faction and anarchist groups, during the Spanish Civil War . During
17515-513: The provisional government formed the autonomous Governorate of Estonia on 12 April [ O.S. 30 March] 1917. The Estonian Provincial Assembly (Maapäev) was elected; Päts joined and became one of the leading figures of the Estonian Country People's Union , which took 13 of the 55 seats. Left- and right-wing politicians gained an equal number of seats in the Provincial Assembly, which made it difficult to appoint
17670-547: The provisional government took office on 12 November 1918, making Päts the Prime Minister of the provisional government and the Minister of Internal Affairs. After Päts arrived in Tallinn and the Maapäev had gathered, Päts's 3rd cabinet of the provisional government was formed on 27 November 1918, with Päts as Prime Minister of the provisional government and also the Minister of War, leaving it up to him to organize national defence. However, due to his multiple portfolios in
17825-548: The provisional government, Päts also served as Minister of Internal Affairs (1918) and Minister of War (1918–1919) that left him in charge of organizing the Estonian military in the War of Independence against the Soviet Russian invasion. During the 1920s and early 1930s , Päts led one of the more prominent right-wing parties of the time – the conservative Farmers' Assemblies , which eventually merged into another party,
17980-646: The provisional government. In his speech at the 1919 Independence Day parade, Päts said: "We have to secure our economy so we could become less dependent on our allies. In order to avoid bankruptcy, our new state needs a solid foundation of agriculture." In April 1919, the Estonian Constituent Assembly was elected, but the Estonian Country People's Union won only 8 of the 120 seats, leaving the majority to centre-left parties. On 9 May 1919, Otto August Strandman took over as
18135-539: The public opinion. The campaign was accompanied by threats by the Vaps Movement to take power and rumours of a forthcoming coup . In early March 1934, Päts's political opponent Jaan Tõnisson compared the Vaps Movement with the Nazis in Germany and advised the government to take necessary action against the movement. Konstantin Päts then carried out a self-coup on 12 March 1934. He was supported by general Johan Laidoner and
18290-575: The purges, efforts were made to rewrite the history in Soviet textbooks and other propaganda materials. Notable people executed by NKVD were removed from the texts and photographs as though they had never existed. In light of revelations from Soviet archives, historians now estimate that nearly 700,000 people (353,074 in 1937 and 328,612 in 1938) were executed in the course of the terror, the great mass of them ordinary Soviet citizens: workers, peasants, homemakers, teachers, priests, musicians, soldiers, pensioners, ballerinas, and beggars. Scholars estimate
18445-504: The regimes Stalin and Lenin proposed. Some historians, such as Richard Pipes , consider Stalinism the natural consequence of Leninism: Stalin "faithfully implemented Lenin's domestic and foreign policy programs." Robert Service writes that "institutionally and ideologically Lenin laid the foundations for a Stalin [...] but the passage from Leninism to the worse terrors of Stalinism was not smooth and inevitable." Likewise, historian and Stalin biographer Edvard Radzinsky believes that Stalin
18600-411: The role of workers in advanced capitalist countries (e.g., he considered the U.S. working class "bourgeoisified" labor aristocracy ). All other October Revolution 1917 Bolshevik leaders regarded their revolution more or less as just the beginning, with Russia as the springboard on the road toward worldwide revolution. Stalin introduced the idea of socialism in one country by the autumn of 1924,
18755-461: The same conclusion as Radzinsky and Kotkin (that Lenin had built a culture of violent autocratic totalitarianism of which Stalinism was a logical extension). Proponents of continuity cite a variety of contributory factors, such as that Lenin, not Stalin, introduced the Red Terror with its hostage-taking and internment camps , and that Lenin developed the infamous Article 58 and established
18910-516: The start. Other revisionist historians such as Orlando Figes , while critical of the Soviet era, acknowledge that Lenin actively sought to counter Stalin's growing influence, allying with Trotsky in 1922–23, opposing Stalin on foreign trade , and proposing party reforms including the democratization of the Central Committee and recruitment of 50-100 ordinary workers into the party's lower organs. Critics include anti-Stalinist communists such as Trotsky, who pointed out that Lenin attempted to persuade
19065-537: The state, crushing the movement conclusively. Leaders of the movement were soon given court sentences as hard as 20 years of forced labour, however they were all pardoned two years later, in December 1937. Meanwhile, Jaan Tõnisson had criticized Päts's inability to bring the new constitution into effect. In July 1935, Tõnisson was ousted from the Postimees board. In October 1936, four former State Elders, Juhan Kukk , Ants Piip , Jaan Teemant and Jaan Tõnisson, sent
19220-560: The theoretical debates within the Communist Party, namely by developing the idea of " Socialism in One Country ". This concept was intricately linked to factional struggles within the party, particularly against Trotsky. He first developed the idea in December 1924 and elaborated upon in his writings of 1925–26. Stalin's doctrine held that socialism could be completed in Russia but that its final victory could not be guaranteed because of
19375-628: The threat from capitalist intervention. For this reason, he retained the Leninist view that world revolution was still a necessity to ensure the ultimate victory of socialism. Although retaining the Marxist belief that the state would wither away as socialism transformed into pure communism, he believed that the Soviet state would remain until the final defeat of international capitalism. This concept synthesised Marxist and Leninist ideas with nationalist ideals, and served to discredit Trotsky—who promoted
19530-556: The total death toll for the Great Purge (1936–1938) including fatalities attributed to imprisonment to be roughly 700,000-1.2 million. Many of the executed were interred in mass graves , with some significant killing and burial sites being Bykivnia , Kurapaty , and Butovo . Some Western experts believe the evidence released from the Soviet archives is understated, incomplete or unreliable. Conversely, historian Stephen G. Wheatcroft , who spent much of his career researching
19685-437: The town that had historically been supportive to Päts's opponent Jaan Tõnisson. Regarding the 1934 constitution as too authoritarian, Päts organised the passing of a new constitution through a referendum and a constituent assembly. The corporate chambers were to be the basis of forming the assembly. Its formation was approved (with 76% in favour) in a referendum in 1936. The 1936 National Assembly elections were boycotted by
19840-420: The upper chamber ( Riiginõukogu ) and in the Assembly of Municipal Representatives, where Päts received 36 from a total of 40 and 113 from a total of 120 votes, respectively. As both chambers of parliament and the Assembly of Municipal Representatives had elected and nominated the same candidate, in accordance with the constitution, a collective electoral body convened on 24 April 1938 and voted with 219 in favor of
19995-407: The various measures carried out by Stalin that were actually a continuation of anti-democratic trends and measures implemented under Lenin…in so many ways, Stalin acted, not in line with Lenin's clear instructions, but in defiance of them." In doing so, some historians have tried to distance Stalinism from Leninism to undermine the totalitarian view that Stalin's methods were inherent in communism from
20150-427: The views of opponents through an array of employed historians alongside economists to justify policy manoeuvering and safeguarding its own set of material interests. He cited a range of historical documents such as private letters, telegrams, party speeches, meeting minutes , and suppressed texts such as Lenin's Testament . British historian Orlando Figes argued that "The urge to silence Trotsky, and all criticism of
20305-399: Was a genuine follower of Lenin, exactly as he claimed. Another Stalin biographer, Stephen Kotkin , wrote that "his violence was not the product of his subconscious but of the Bolshevik engagement with Marxist–Leninist ideology." Dmitri Volkogonov , who wrote biographies of both Lenin and Stalin, wrote that during the 1960s through 1980s, an official patriotic Soviet de-Stalinized view of
20460-485: Was a housebuilder from Heimtali , near Viljandi. Konstantin's mother, Olga Päts ( née Tumanova; 1847–1914), was an orphan. According to some sources, she was raised in the Russian-speaking Razumovsky family (and her adoptive father was at one time the mayor of Valga in the then Governorate of Livonia ). Other sources indicate that she may have grown up with the Krüdener family instead, and that
20615-580: Was adopted in 1938, after which Päts was elected the first President of Estonia. During his presidency, the Stalinist Soviet Union invaded and occupied Estonia in June 1940. As president, he was forced to sign decrees for over a month, until being arrested and deported to Soviet Russia, where he died in 1956. Päts' patrilineal ancestors originated from the village of Holstre near Viljandi , Estonia. His father, Jakob (Jaagup) Päts (1842–1909),
20770-421: Was altered at different times in different countries. From 1155 to 1752, the civil or legal year in England began on 25 March ( Lady Day ); so for example, the execution of Charles I was recorded at the time in Parliament as happening on 30 January 164 8 (Old Style). In newer English-language texts, this date is usually shown as "30 January 164 9 " (New Style). The corresponding date in the Gregorian calendar
20925-560: Was an ideologically wide coalition with the Estonian Socialist Workers' Party and the centre-right Estonian People's Party . On 26 January 1932, Farmers' Assemblies and the left wing-agrarian Settlers' Party merged to form the Union of Settlers and Smallholders , only to be followed by the formation of the National Centre Party by four centrist parties. Päts's cabinet resigned, making Jaan Teemant
21080-595: Was based on the Country People's Union. In 1920 elections , the party won 21 seats in the 100-member Riigikogu and from 25 January 1921 to 21 November 1922, Konstantin Päts was the State Elder and led the first constitutional government cabinet. It was a centre-right coalition with three centrist parties. The cabinet fell soon after the centre-left Estonian Labour Party left the coalition because of Päts's right-wing policies and criticism of corruption within
21235-658: Was born on a neighbouring roadside farm, since his mother could not reach a doctor in time and was unable to make the last few kilometers back home. He was baptized in the Tahkuranna Orthodox Church. Konstantin started his education in the Orthodox parish school of Tahkuranna. In Pärnu, Konstantin attended the Russian language Orthodox parish school. Later, he attended the Riga Clerical Seminar in 1887–1892, but after deciding not to become
21390-596: Was celebrated as the New Year festival from as early as the 13th century, despite the recorded (civil) year not incrementing until 25 March, but the "year starting 25th March was called the Civil or Legal Year, although the phrase Old Style was more commonly used". To reduce misunderstandings about the date, it was normal even in semi-official documents such as parish registers to place a statutory new-year heading after 24 March (for example "1661") and another heading from
21545-499: Was depicted as the chief discipline during the revolution. However, in reality, Stalin was considered a relatively unknown figure with secondary importance at the time of the event. In his book, The Stalin School of Falsification , Leon Trotsky argued that the Stalinist faction routinely distorted political events, forged a theoretical basis for irreconcilable concepts such as the notion of "Socialism in One Country" and misrepresented
21700-602: Was elected as Chairman of the Supreme Committee of Estonian Soldiers, where he actively worked to form Estonian units in the Imperial Army . During the war, he also organized the cooperation between Estonians and liberal Baltic German estate owners. In 1917, when German forces were advancing on Estonia, Päts was able to avoid the mobilization. Since the control after the February Revolution
21855-595: Was forced to go underground after the Bolshevik coup in November 1917 . On 19 February 1918, Päts became one of the three members of the Estonian Salvation Committee that issued the Estonian Declaration of Independence on 24 February 1918. He headed the Estonian Provisional Government (1918–1919), although he was also imprisoned by the German occupation regime for several months in 1918. In
22010-513: Was given more powers by the disunited Riigikogu to deal with the economic crisis. His government was forced to resign on 18 May 1933, after the National Centre Party, still favouring devaluation, left the coalition and the Union of Settlers and Smallholders had lost many of its members to the reactivated Settlers' party. The succeeding Tõnisson's National Centre Party cabinet devalued the Estonian kroon by 35% on 27 June 1933. Although
22165-464: Was glorified as a central figure to the October Revolution . Conversely, the roles of other Soviet figures such as Lenin and Trotsky were diminished or misrepresented. In the aftermath of the succession struggle, in which Stalin had defeated both Left and Right Opposition , a cult of Stalin had materialised. From 1929 until 1953, there was a proliferation of architecture , statues , posters , banners and iconography featuring Stalin in which he
22320-496: Was implemented in Russia on 14 February 1918 by dropping the Julian dates of 1–13 February 1918 , pursuant to a Sovnarkom decree signed 24 January 1918 (Julian) by Vladimir Lenin . The decree required that the Julian date was to be written in parentheses after the Gregorian date, until 1 July 1918. It is common in English-language publications to use the familiar Old Style or New Style terms to discuss events and personalities in other countries, especially with reference to
22475-544: Was in the hands of the Russian Provisional Government , Estonians were pursuing for an autonomy within the Russian Empire. In local debates on whether to form one or two autonomous governorates in Estonia, Konstantin Päts, who supported a single autonomous governorate, took yet another victory from Jaan Tõnisson, who supported two autonomous governorates. After Estonian mass protests in Petrograd ,
22630-474: Was increasingly identified with the state and seen as an emblem of Marxism. In July 1930, a state decree instructed 200 artists to prepare propaganda posters for the Five Year Plans and collectivsation measures. Historian Anita Pisch drew specific focus to the various manifestations of the personality cult in which Stalin was associated with the "Father", "Saviour" and "Warrior" cultural archetypes with
22785-594: Was no longer condemned to death in the Russian Empire. He moved back to Estonia in 1909, to face only minor charges. From February 1910, he served time in Kresty Prison in Saint Petersburg, while his wife died of tuberculosis in Switzerland, where Päts had sent her for treatment. During his imprisonment, he was able to study foreign languages and write articles, to be published in newspapers. Päts
22940-476: Was one of the Estonian nationalist farmers, who in 1865 petitioned to Emperor Alexander II of Russia to remove the (what they considered oppressive) aristocratic privileges of Baltic German landowners . After the petition, Jakob came into conflict with the local nobility and in 1873 he was forced to move to Tahkuranna near Pärnu . As Päts' father was unable to find a job in Tahkuranna, the family moved to
23095-519: Was one of the key opponents of devaluation. A month-long government crisis started. Since there were only three major parties in the parliament, the third being the Estonian Socialist Workers' Party, no functioning coalition could be found until special authority was given to Konstantin Päts to form a grand coalition between all three major parties. His cabinet took office on 1 November 1932. On 25 November 1932, Päts's government
23250-523: Was published anonymously in Estonia. He also advised local municipalities on land reform questions. In 1908, Päts moved to Ollila , which was located at the Russian border near Saint Petersburg . There he became one of the editors for the Estonian newspaper Peterburi Teataja ("The St Petersburg Gazette"), although he still resided in Finland. In Ollila, he was reunited with his family, with whom he had parted when he escaped to Switzerland in 1905. After his wife had become seriously ill, Päts found out that he
23405-618: Was released on 25 March 1911. The governor of the Governorate of Estonia complained about Päts's activity in Estonia in 1905 and pleaded for the government not to let him return. He was banned from living in the Governorates of Estonia and Livonia for six years. However, strong connections with Jaan Poska helped him return to Estonia, where he founded another newspaper, Tallinna Teataja ("The Tallinn Gazette"). From February 1916, Päts served as an officer in Tallinn. In July 1917, he
23560-439: Was sentenced to death ( in absentia ) during the Russian Revolution of 1905 , he was able to flee abroad, first to Switzerland, then to Finland , where he continued his literary work. He returned to Estonia (then part of the Russian Empire ), and had to serve a prison sentence in 1910–1911. After the February Revolution in 1917, Päts headed the provincial government of the newly formed Autonomous Governorate of Estonia , which
23715-503: Was subject to public denunciation, many of his ideas were rejected on ideological grounds and condemned as "bourgeois idealism" in the Stalin era. A policy of ideological repression impacted various disciplinary fields such as genetics , cybernetics , biology , linguistics , physics , sociology , psychology , pedology , mathematical logic , economics and statistics . Pseudoscientific theories of Trofim Lysenko were favoured over other scientific disciplines during
23870-410: Was supported by the army and the parliament . During the 1934–1938 " Era of Silence ", many reforms were made and the economy grew, while he postponed the return of constitutional order. Largely supported by General Johan Laidoner , Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces , Päts ruled as Prime Minister in duties of the State Elder (1934–1937) and President-Regent (1937–1938) until a new constitution
24025-426: Was the main proponent of the formation of the chambers and the first two were founded while his government cabinets were in office in 1924 and 1931. Fifteen more chambers were established between 1934 and 1936, bringing the total number to 17. On 7 December 1935, a coup d'état attempt (the "Estonia plot", named after the Estonia Theatre ) by the Vaps Movement was exposed. More than 750 people were arrested throughout
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