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.
Activities and affiliations
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
Related historical events
- 1939.09–1941.06The annexation of the Baltic states and the June 1941 deportationPrime minister of EstoniaThe last constitutional prime minister; his government went underground when the Vares government was installed.
- 1941.06–1944.11The Baltic states under German occupation: from the June Uprising through the Holocaust to the retreat of 1944Prime minister acting as presidentAsked the Germans in 1941 for an independent government and was refused; in 1944 he backed the call-up and formed the Tief government.
- 1944–1953The Soviet reoccupation of the Baltic states: the Forest Brothers and the deportations of 1949Acting President of EstoniaAs the Germans withdrew in September 1944 the constitutional government seized the government buildings in Tallinn, but when the Leningrad Front took the capital he fled to Sweden.