Congress of Estonia

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The Congress of Estonia (

legal continuity, with the pre-1940 Republic of Estonia, which had been established in 1918, as the foundation.[1]

Activity

In 1989, independence activists formed a mass movement called the

by the Soviet Union), and their descendants. People who did not satisfy these criteria were invited to file applications for citizenship. By February 1990, 790,000 citizens and about 60,000 applicants had been registered.

In February 1990, the election of a body of representatives of these citizens – the Congress of Estonia – was conducted by those who had been registered. The Congress had 499 delegates from 31 political parties. The Estonian National Independence Party (Estonian: Eesti Rahvusliku Sõltumatuse Partei, usually abbreviated as ERSP) won the most seats. Other parties represented included the Popular Front of Estonia, the Estonian Heritage Society and the Communist Party of Estonia.[5] The permanent standing committee of the Congress of Estonia – the Committee of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti Komitee) – was chaired by Mr. Tunne Kelam.

In September 1991, a

Republic of Estonia. Both the Congress of Estonia and the Supreme Soviet dissolved themselves in October 1992, with the swearing-in of the first parliament (Riigikogu
) elected under the new constitution in September 1992.

Politics

March 1990 also saw

Estonian Popular Front
.

The main distinctions between the political ideas of the Congress of Estonia and the Supreme Soviet were:[1]

  • The Congress of Estonia stood for the principle of
    legal continuity
    of the Republic, in contrast to the "Third Republic" concept (after the First Republic of 1918–1940 and the Soviet Republic of 1940–1991), which was the Supreme Soviet's dominant position;
  • The Congress of Estonia, as the Citizens Committees before it, supported continuity in citizenship, as opposed to extending citizenship to all people with residential registrations (called propiska in Russian) in Estonia in 1990 (sometimes called the 'zero option citizenship' or 'clean state citizenship', Estonian: kodakondsuse nullvariant), including more than 300,000 occupation-era migrants from the neighboring Soviet Union.

Opposition on issues of substance between the Congress of Estonia and the Supreme Soviet over the first point was the primary reason that the Supreme Soviet did not "proclaim" or "establish" Estonia's independence during the 1991

August Putsch
in Russia, but instead, as a compromise, decided to reaffirm it instead. In later discussions, the Congress of Estonia prevailed regarding the aforementioned points.

A small number of the members of the Congress of Estonia were Estonians who had gone into exile during

Committees of Correspondence, which were shadow governments organized by the patriot leaders of the Thirteen Colonies on the eve of the American Revolution. The American Committees of Correspondence played an important role in the events that led to the formation of the United States of America.[6]

Later developments

After the adoption of the new Constitution in 1992, a new Citizenship Law recognised the citizenship registrations of the Citizens' Committees as the initial legal registry of Estonian citizens. Citizens of the Soviet Union who had filed applications with the Citizens Committees were enabled to be naturalised on the basis of a simplified procedure.

List of notable members

References

  1. ^ a b The Restoration of Estonian Independence Archived 2007-04-02 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Time magazine
    – August 21, 1989
  3. ^ National minorities in Estonia Archived 2007-06-07 at the Wayback Machine – Legal Information Centre for Human Rights, April 1998
  4. ^ See, for instance, position expressed by European Parliament, which condemned "the fact that the occupation of these formerly independent and neutral States by the Soviet Union occurred in 1940 following the Molotov/Ribbentrop pact, and continues." European Parliament (January 13, 1983). "Resolution on the situation in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania". Official Journal of the European Communities. C 42/78.
  5. ^ Elections and Referendums in Estonia 1989–1999 – Elections to the Estonian Congress 24.02 – 01.03.1990
  6. ^ Assertion based on an unpublished interview with a member of the Congress of Estonia

External links