Congress of Estonia

The Congress of Estonia was a rival parliament set up in the Estonian SSR during the process of Estonia's regaining independence from the Soviet Union, to challenge the power and authority of the Supreme Soviet of the ESSR, which, consisting largely of members of the Communist Party of Estonia until 1990, was widely perceived as being unduly influenced by pro-Soviet Union and/or pro-Communist ideas. The Congress claimed to represent the highest authority on questions of Estonian statehood and citizenship, deriving this authority from the consent and initiative of the citizens of Estonia.

In 1989 independence activists (Eesti Kodanike Komiteed, the Committees of Citizens of Estonia, alternatively translated as the Estonian Citizenship Committees) started registering people considered to be Estonian citizens by birth according to the jus sanguinis principle, i.e., the people who held Estonian citizenship in June 1940 (when Estonian independence de facto lapsed) and their descendants. People that did not satisfy this criteria could register applications for citizenship. By February 1990, 790,000 provisional citizens and about 60,000 applicants had been registered.

In February 1990, an election of the Congress was held among citizens so registered. The Congress had 499 delegates from 31 distinct political parties. The Estonian National Independence Party won the most seats, other parties represented included the the Popular Front of Estonia, the Heritage Society and the Communist Party of Estonia. The permanent standing committee, the Committee of Estonia was chaired by Tunne Kelam.

In September 1991, a constitutional assembly was formed of equal numbers of members of the Supreme Soviet and the Congress of Estonia. The new constitution was approved by referendum in June 1992. Congress of Estonia and the Supreme Soviet were dissolved in October 1992. In September 1992 the first parliament (Riigikogu) under the new constitution was elected.

Politics

The main distinctions between the political ideas of the Congress of Estonia and the Supreme Soviet (which rapidly became dominated by the Estonian Popular Front) were:

• Congress of Estonia supported legal continuity of the Republic over declaring the Third Republic (after the First Republic of 1918-1940 and the Soviet Republic of 1940-1991), which was the Supreme Soviet's dominant position;
• Congress of Estonia, as the Citizens' Committees before it, supported continuation in citizenship, as opposed to granting automatic citizenship to all people residing in Estonia in 1990 (sometimes called the 'zero variant of citizenship'), including the over 300,000 occupation years' immigrants from other regions of the Soviet Union.

The opposition between the Congress of Estonia and the Supreme Soviet over the first point was the primary reason that the Supreme Soviet didn't "proclaim" or "reestablish" Estonia's independence during the August coup, but instead, as a compromise, decided to "affirm" it. This way, discussions over propriety of the ways could continue, but the independence would be freshly declared.

In later discussions, Congress of Estonia prevailed in both of the above-mentioned points.

External links

• ELECTIONS AND REFERENDUMS IN ESTONIA 1989-1999 - 3. ELECTIONS TO THE ESTONIAN CONGRESS 24.02-1.03 1990
• Estonia's Way to Freedom
• Independence Reclaimed, August 1991-October 1992