Anna Leetsmann
Anna Henriette Leetsmann (12 October 1888 – 5 March 1942) was an Estonian
Early life and education
Leetsmann was born on 12 October 1888 in
Career
Communist politics and the Provincial Assembly
In 1917, Leetsmann joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) and became secretary of the party's Aseri branch. She served on the supervisory board of Viru County, and was elected to the Provincial Assembly of the newly-established Autonomous Governorate of Estonia. She tended to vote with the socialist faction of the Assembly and was the first woman elected to the Assembly and the only one until Alma Ostra-Oinas joined in November 1918.[2][3] In December 1917, the Bolshevik Jaan Anvelt and his party seized de facto power in Tallinn and other parts of Estonia and, sponsored by the new Russian Council of People's Commissars, declared the Provincial Assembly dissolved.[4] Leetsmann endorsed the call and travelled to Aseri to establish a revolutionary committee and organise the cement factory's brigade of Red Riflemen (Punakaart). She was elected, in December 1917, secretary of the Soviet of Workers and Soldiers (Tööliste ja Soldatite Saadikute Nõukogu) and appointed the Revolutionary Commissar of Viru County.[2]
The
Life in the Soviet Union, teaching and captivity
Leetsmann never returned to Estonia. In 1923, she became head of the Estonian division of
References
- ^ a b Jaan Toomla, Valitud ja Valitsenud: Eesti parlamentaarsete ja muude esinduskogude ning valitsuste isikkoosseis aastail 1917–1999 (National Library of Estonia, 1999), p. 296.
- ^ a b c d e "Anna Leetsmann", Estonian National Library. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
- ^ a b Toomla, p. 23.
- ^ a b "Estonia: History", Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 3 March 2019.