Democratization and Ethnic Peace by Airat R. Aklaev

Author:Airat R. Aklaev [Aklaev, Airat R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social
ISBN: 9780429856518
Google: OASaDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-05-23T04:55:13+00:00

Ethnopolitics and Democratic Transition (1990-92)

Towards Restoration of Independence (1990-91) Politics of democratic transition in Estonia to a large extent overlapped with politics of restoring independence and an increased differentiation among political actors as regards the choice of principles on which future Estonia was to be built.

In the early months of 1990 a crucial struggle over who should lead the movement for renewed independence emerged on Estonian agenda. During the week between 24 February and 1 March of 1990, ECC successfully organized elections to the non-Soviet Congress of Estonia (CE). Reportedly, 502,445 registered ER citizens and 26,000 applicants came to the polls. Among the elected 439 deputies to the ECC, 109 were independent candidates, while others were distributed between supporters of the PFE (107 deputies), ENIP (105 deputies), independent Estonian CP (39 deputies) (SE, 3 March 1990; Ekspress-Khronika, 13 March 1990). Conceived as an alternative representative body of authority, CE quickly claimed the moral and legal right to negotiate independence on the principle of legal continuity of the pre-1940 Republic of Estonia. The CE expressed for cooperation with the Estonian Supreme Soviet on issues concerning the formation of lawful bodies of power, provided the representatives of what was called the occupation regime (having in mind the Russophones arrived in the republic after 1940) be excluded from the process.

Official elections into Estonian Supreme Soviet, held on 18 March 1990, also resulted in definite victory of the pro-independence forces. New Estonian parliament voted at 73 to 8 with 29 abstentions the Declaration on State Status of Estonia which proclaimed juridical restitutio ad integrum. The Soviet power in Estonia was declared illegal from the moment it was established and the start of a transition period to the complete restoration of the country’s independence was announced. The transition period was to last ‘until the formation of the constitutional organs of state power of the Republic of Estonia’. (SE, 31 March 1990). The PFE, which dominated this new and democratically elected Supreme Council, argued that Moscow would be more willing to negotiate with an existing institution. A resolution was passed on collaboration with the Congress of Estonia in the cause of restoration of Estonia’s independence on the principle of legal continuity (Nutt, 1990, p. 42).

Both CE and Estonia’s new Supreme Soviet agreed to cooperate and there was substantial overlap in their composition. However, the Supreme Soviet possessed the clear advantage of commanding legislative authority within the existing system, and it dominated the day-to-day political life. On 18 May 1990, Estonian parliament voted the decree On the Fundamentals of the Provisional Governing Order in Estonia which declared Estonia’s intention to base its relations with the USSR on the 1920 Tartu Treaty which had recognized Estonia’s independence (SE, 18 May 1990).

The last year of the Soviet history in Estonia saw increasing political differentiation among the Russian speakers. On the one hand, Estonia’s thrust for re-independence triggered increasing counter-action on behalf of conservative forces pro-Union oriented forces. IM and OSTK tried to earn support among communist leadership of local

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