Estonian heads of state since 1918 and the legal grounds of their activities.

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Konstantin Päts

* 23.02.1874 in Tahkuranna
† 18.01.1956 in Burashevo, Oblast of Kalinin (Tver), Russia 

 

Prime Minister of the Provisional Government
24.02.1918-09.05.1919
Head of State (Elder of State)
25.01.1921-21.11.1922
02.08.1923-26.03.1924
12.02.1931-19.02.1932
21.10.1933-24.01.1934
Prime Minister in the Duties of the Head of State
24.01.1934-03.09.1937
Protector of State
03.09.1937-24.04.1938
President
24.04.1938-17.06.1940

 

1917-1918 Chairman of the Estonian Province Assembly (Eesti Maanõukogu). 1918, Chairman of the Estonian Rescue Committee. 1918, imprisoned by the German occupation powers, from July to November 1918 in a prison camp in Poland. In 1918, while the Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of Estonia, as well as the Minister of Internal Affairs, 1918 the Minister of War. 1922-1923 Chairman of I Riigikogu.1917-1919 member of the Estonian Province Assembly, 1919-1920 member of the Constituent Assembly (Asutav Kogu), 1920-1934/37 member of the I-V Riigikogu.

Finished the Pärnu State High School, studied at the Law Department of the Tartu University in 1894-1898, Candidate of Law.

1898-1899 compulsory army service in Pskov, 1900-1901 solicitor by barrister J. Poska in Tallinn. 1901.1905 editor of the ?Teataja? (The Gazette) newspaper. 1904-1905 Member of Tallinn City Council, Assistant Mayor in 1905. Participated in the Russian Revolution of 1905, escaped abroad, was sentenced to death by default by the Russian court-martial. 1905-1906 exile in Switzerland, 1906-1909 in Finland. In 1909 in St. Petersburg gave himself up to the court authorities and was sentenced to 9 months of imprisonment, served the punishment in the "Kresty" prison of St. Petersburg. 1908-1910 editor of the "St. Petersburg Gazette" (Peterburi Teataja, an Estonian newspaper in St. Petersburg). 1911-1916 editor of the "Tallinna Teataja" (The Tallinn Gazette), 1916-1917 army service in Tallinn. In 1917, Chairman of the Supreme Committee of the Estonian Military in Tallinn.

1919-1933 Chairman of the "Estonian Lloyd" insurance company (intermittently, during his times as a member of the Government of the Republic, 1925.1929 Chairman of the Board of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, from 1935 Honorary Councillor, 1925-1936 Chairman of the Estonian-Finnish-Hungarian Association, from 1936 Honorary Chairman, 1927-1937 Chairman of the "Fenno-Ugria" Foundation, Chairman of the Board of the Harju Bank, Chairman of the Tallinn Exchange Committee. Owner of the Kloostrimetsa farmstead in the vicinity of Tallinn.

1928 Honorary Doctor of Law of Tartu University, in 1938 Honorary Doctor of Sciences of the Tallinn Technical University and the University of Andhra (India). 1938 Honorary Member of the Estonian Naturalists' Society, Honorary Member of the Learned Estonian Society, Honorary Member of the Estonian Institute of Natural Resources, 1939 Honorary Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Honorary Alumnus of the student fraternity "Fraternitas Estica". Honorary citizen of Tallinn, Narva, Pärnu and Tartu and the rural municipality of Tahkuranna. Cross of Freedom I/1 and III/1.

Publications in the field of state law and politics.

30.07.1940 imprisoned by the NKVD (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, here the Soviet State Secret Police) and deported to Russia, lived as deportee, then in prison, 1954-56 in the mental hospital of Kalinin, where also died. On 21.10.1990 was reburied to the Metsakalmistu in Tallinn.