Law professor and Estonia’s last constitutional prime minister who, acting as president, formed the Tief government in 1944
Born in Kirbla Parish in the Governorate of Estonia, he studied law at St Petersburg University and taught Roman and Estonian law at the University of Tartu until 1944. Editor-in-chief of Postimees and speaker of the lower chamber, he was prime minister from 1939 until Soviet troops entered Estonia in June 1940; after President Konstantin Päts was arrested by the Soviets he became, under the constitution, prime minister in the duties of the president. On 29 July 1941 he asked the Germans to let him form an independent government and was refused, and he declined to head the Self-Administration. On 7 February 1944 he appealed by radio for men to answer the call-up, and 38,000 registered. In June he appointed Otto Tief deputy prime minister, and in September, as the Germans withdrew, formed the Tief government. He then reached Sweden, where he died of gastric cancer in January 1945.
Career timeline
- 1938–1939Speaker of the lower chamber
- 1939–1940Prime minister of Estonia
- 1940–1945Prime minister in the duties of the president
- 1944Backed the call-up; formed the Tief government
The agronomist who pushed a sovereignty declaration through the Soviet system and led Estonia out of the empire
Lukyanov warned him of a ten-year sentence for 'anti-constitutional activity.' Rüütel stood his ground: 'We will convene the Supreme Council and put the Declaration of Independence to a vote,' inadvertently saying 'Independence' instead of 'Sovereignty,' as he later recalled.
An agricultural economist from the Estonian island of Saaremaa, Rüütel rose through the Soviet system: rector of the Estonian Agricultural Academy, Communist Party functionary, and finally chairman of the Presidium of the Estonian SSR Supreme Soviet in 1983. On 16 November 1988, defying Moscow's threat of imprisonment, he pushed the Estonian sovereignty declaration through the legislature, opening the first crack in the Soviet edifice; in 1990, as chairman of the Supreme Council, he declared Soviet rule illegal and initiated the transition to restored independence. After independence he was elected president in 2001 and served until 2006, steering Estonia into NATO and the European Union.
Career timeline
- 1949–1950Senior agronomist, Saaremaa Executive Committee agricultural department
- 1955–1957Teacher, Tartu School of Agricultural Mechanization
- 1957–1963Senior zootechnician and director, experimental farm of the Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Research Institute
- 1963–1969Director, Tartu Reference State Farm
- 1969–1977Rector, Estonian Academy of Agriculture
- 1977–1979Secretary for agriculture, Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia
- 1979–1983First Deputy Chairman, Council of Ministers of the Estonian SSR
- 1983–1990Chairman, Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR
- 1990–1992Chairman, Supreme Council of the Republic of Estonia
- 2001–2006President of the Republic of Estonia
