Architect of mass mobilization and independence politics
On live television on 13 April 1988, he proposed the idea of a Popular Front.
Edgar Savisaar was an Estonian politician and co-founder of the Popular Front of Estonia, helping turn demands for reform into mass politics. On live television on 13 April 1988, he proposed a Popular Front to support perestroika; the movement soon pressed for democracy and the restoration of Estonian independence. He became the first prime minister of restored Estonia, while economic hardship and later political controversies exposed the limits and tensions of his governing project.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1973Graduated from the University of Tartu with a degree in history
- 1980–1988Worked on economic planning in the state institutions of the Estonian SSR
- 1988–1989Academic director at Mainor and co-founder of the Popular Front of Estonia
- 1989–1990Deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers and head of the State Planning Committee of the Estonian SSR
- 1990–1992First prime minister of the Republic of Estonia
- 1992–1995Vice-speaker of the Riigikogu
- 2001–2004Mayor of Tallinn
- 2005–2007Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications
- 2007–2015Mayor of Tallinn
Related historical events
- 1985–1991Perestroika and GlasnostProposer of a Popular Front supporting perestroikaOn 13 April 1988, he proposed a Popular Front to support perestroika.
- 1988–1991The Nationalities Crisis and the Collapse of Central AuthorityCo-founder of the Estonian Popular FrontOn 13 April 1988, he first proposed the idea of the Popular Front on live Estonian television.
- 1987–1991The Baltic Independence Movement and the Baltic WayCo-founder of Estonia’s Popular FrontAs a co-founder of the Popular Front, he helped build a mass movement calling for the restoration of Estonian independence.
The 1987 Isemajandav Eesti (IME) Proposal and Economic Autonomy
Before the Popular Front idea, Savisaar was an economic planning official in Soviet Estonia and a drafter of reform proposals. From 1985 to 1988 he headed a department in the State Planning Committee of the Estonian SSR, after chairing the planning commission of the Mererajoon district executive committee in Tallinn from 1980 to 1985. Acting on the suggestion of the economist Jaak Leimann, Savisaar initiated the drafting of a reform proposal and on 18 August 1987 convened a working group of economists, sociologists and enterprise-management researchers at the Planning Committee, chairing its discussions.
The group concluded that the republic should obtain from the union centre the right to decide its own economic affairs. Savisaar took the finished text to Tartu himself and published it in the newspaper Edasi on 26 September 1987; known under the title "Proposal for the complete self-management of the entire Estonian SSR", it became known as the "proposal of the four men" alongside Siim Kallas, Tiit Made and Mikk Titma. Its ten points included management based on the law of value and commodity-money relations, placing the economy on republican territory under republican jurisdiction, trade with other republics and foreign countries through the market, introduction of a convertible rouble, and setting relations with the union budget at the level of the republic as a whole.
The proposal demanded not secession but the republic's economic self-management within the Soviet framework, and it was justified in the language of perestroika. Savisaar himself was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, from 1982 to 1990. The IME proposal earned him the Juhan Smuul literary prize in 1988, and in 1987 he received the University of Tartu economics faculty's "Economic Thought" travelling award. From that autumn he began publishing articles on the need for social reform, and this public profile led to his television appearances and, later, to the Popular Front idea.