Activities and affiliations

Government and administration Estonia state institutions 1868–1941? Missing; presumed dead

Estonian prime minister who concluded the Treaty of Tartu, publisher of Postimees

As Soviet forces occupied Estonia in June 1940, he urged President Päts to offer at least symbolic armed resistance.

Leader of Estonia's liberal national movement through the newspaper Postimees, he was prime minister in 1919 and 1920 and concluded the Treaty of Tartu. Pushed out for opposing Päts's authoritarian regime in 1934, he was arrested after the Soviet occupation of 1940 and disappeared.

Government and administration Estonia state institutions 1874–1956 ○ Died in prison

Head of Estonia's government in the independence war, later dictator of the 'era of silence'

"The greatest thing we have accomplished is the creation of the Estonian state," he said in his June 1940 Victory Day speech under Soviet pressure.

Led Estonia's declaration of independence in February 1918 and held the country together as head of the provisional government in the first winter of the independence war. In 1934 he built the authoritarian 'era of silence' with Laidoner; deported by the Soviets in 1940, he died in custody in 1956.

Military command Estonia state institutions 1884–1953 ○ Died in prison

Commander-in-chief of Estonia's war of independence

Launching the counteroffensive on 3 January 1919, he drove the 1st Division 200 kilometres east within eleven days, retaking Tartu and Narva.

Commander-in-chief of the Estonian army from December 1918, he led the counteroffensive of January 1919 and the battle of Cēsis in June. He propped up Päts's emergency regime in 1934 and, deported by the Soviets in 1940, died in Vladimir prison in 1953.

Government and administration Estonia state institutions 1928–2024 ○ Natural causes

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.

Science and technology Estonia state institutions 1930–2015 ○ Died, aged 84

The Estonian scientist who blocked phosphorite mining from inside the system

He stood out in TV debates by carrying a portfolio of documents and smoothly pulling out the relevant one to prove his point whenever opponents challenged him.

Estonian chemical physicist and politician. After studying oil-shale technology at Tallinn Polytechnic, he built the Soviet bloc's first NMR spectrometer and became a pioneer of high-resolution solid-state NMR spectroscopy. As a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, he led scientists in exposing the environmental and demographic dangers of planned phosphorite mines in 1987, providing the intellectual foundation for the 'Phosphorite War,' a catalyst for mass resistance and the independence movement. As a USSR People's Deputy, he unearthed and publicised the secret protocols of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, demolishing the legal basis for the Baltic annexation; after independence he served twice as a government minister.