Eighth Plenum of the Estonian Communist Party (1950)
에스토니아 공산당 제8차 전원회의 (1950)
The plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Estonia held in Tallinn on 21–26 March 1950. Following a Moscow decision that the leadership had neglected the struggle against bourgeois nationalism, it replaced First Secretary Nikolai Karotamm with Johannes Käbin and opened a purge of writers, artists and intellectuals branded “bourgeois nationalists”.
In depth
In Estonia it is known as the March Plenum (Märtsipleenum). As Stalin opened a new purge to discipline local leaderships in 1949, the Estonian leadership, considered close to the Leningrad party, became a target in the wake of the Leningrad Affair. A Central Committee investigation set off by one individual’s complaints concluded that Karotamm relied on old bourgeois cadres and defended kulaks, and on 7 March 1950 the Politburo approved the decision “On errors and shortcomings in the work of the Central Committee of the Estonian party”.
At the plenum Panteleimon Ponomarenko delivered the indictment on behalf of the Central Committee. Nigol Andresen, Hans Kruus, Hendrik Allik and others were arrested soon afterwards, more than a hundred people were dismissed from the Academy of Sciences within a year, and at Tartu University about 200 teaching staff were accused and nearly 100 students expelled. Arnold Veimer, chairman of the Council of Ministers, was removed in March 1951. Käbin led the party until 1978.