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The All-Estonian Congress in Tartu, November 1905: A Reassessment

2007; Routledge; Volume: 38; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01629770701682624

1751-7877

Toivo U. Raun,

Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics

Abstract This article offers a reassessment of the All-Estonian Congress, held in Tartu in November 1905, focusing on the background to this key event during the Russian Revolution of 1905, the most controversial aspects of the Congress itself, and its immediate as well as long-term significance. The split of the Congress into two wings reflected the fragmentation of Estonian political and social thought in the heated atmosphere of 1905, with one side calling for an evolutionary solution to the crisis facing the Russian state while the other demanded revolutionary change. In the longer perspective the Congress must be seen as a key element in the first broadly based political mobilization of the Estonian population in modern times, laying the groundwork for more sweeping change after 1917. Keywords: Revolutionpolitical mobilizationJaan Tõnissonsocial democratsAll-Estonian Congressdemocratization Notes Notes 1. All dates that identify specific days in the text will be given according to both the Julian calendar, which was still in use in the Russian Empire at this time (and until 1918), and the Gregorian calendar prevalent in nearly all of Europe. The Julian calendar was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar in the twentieth century. All dates used in the citations will be according to the Julian calendar. 2. In order to avoid possible confusion with other entities such as independent Estonia in the twentieth century or medieval Livonia, the Baltic provinces will be referred to by their German names in this article. 3. For a reliable comparative overview of developments in the three Baltic provinces during 1905, see Benz (Citation1990b, Citation1991–92). See also the longer version of his study of 1905 in the form of a University of Mainz dissertation (Benz Citation1990a). 4. By the early twentieth century voluntary associations (Est. selts, Ger. Verein) had become the most typical outlet for self-organization and grassroots initiatives in the Estonian areas despite the restrictions placed on them by a wary tsarist regime. On the history of the Estonian voluntary associations in the late tsarist period, see especially Jansen (Citation1995) as well as the other contributions in the same collection of articles. 5. On this point see Raun (Citation2006). 6. It is estimated that in December 1905 and January 1906 about 300 people in Estland and northern Livland were shot by the punitive expeditions (consisting of tsarist military forces, often aided by members of the local Baltic German nobility) and another 600 received corporal punishment. After the operations by the military ended, courts-martial operated in the Baltic provinces until April 1907 and rendered death sentences to 168 individuals in Estland, 315 in Livland and 112 in Kurland. See Karjahärm & Pullat (1975, pp. 151, 153). 7. Partial lists of the delegates were published in the press. See Postimees, 14 December 1905, p. 3; 15 December, p. 3; 16 December, p. 3; Uudised, 9 December 1905, p. 1. In the list of representatives that appeared in Postimees a substantial number of individuals were identified by their full first names. Only one woman (Rosalie Waldmann) seems to be among those listed. Waldmann, a delegate from Järvamaa (Ger. Jerwen), also stands out as the only woman on the committee selected to oversee the implementation of the Bürgermusse resolutions. At the Aula meetings an individual identified in the press as ‘Miss Ertel’, presumably a reference to the writer Alide Ertel (1877–1955), took part in the debates (Uudised 20 December 1905, p. 2; Cederberg Citation1926–29, pp. 86–7). 8. On the expansion of the Estonian role in urban government in the last years of the tsarist era, see Karjahärm (Citation1973). 9. In a study published two years after the Congress, Mihkel Martna, a leading social democrat who played a major role in the Tartu assembly, used the metaphor of ‘fever’ to describe the prevailing atmosphere in late November 1905. See Jürisson (Citation1907, p. 168). For a strong fictional evocation of the frenzied mood during 1905, see the third volume of A. H. Tammsaare's Tõde ja õigus [Truth and Justice]. 10. Jaan Tõnisson was born in 1868 in the northern Livland district of Viljandimaa (Ger. Kreis Fellin), the son of a farm owner. He obtained a law degree from Tartu University in 1892 and remained in the city after graduation, beginning a four-decade tenure as editor of Postimees in 1896. In the years before 1905 Tõnisson already set a high standard for activism for an Estonian public figure, including breathing new life into the Tartu Estonian Agricultural Society and establishing the first Estonian savings and loan and mutual credit societies in Tartu. During 1905 he made effective use of his newspaper as an advocate for non-violent change, and, as noted above, he established the first legal Estonian political party (and in tsarist times, the only one), the Estonian Progressive People's Party. Tõnisson was elected to the I Duma in 1906 as a peasant delegate from Livland and signed the Viipuri Manifesto, which led to the loss of his political rights and a three-month prison sentence. After playing a key role in the establishment of Estonian independence in 1917–20, he served as prime minister and head of state four times in the 1920s and 1930s. He was arrested by the Soviet authorities in 1940; his later fate and date of death remain unknown (Cederberg Citation1926–29, pp. 537–42; Eesti Entsüklopeedia, IX, p. 656). 11. Jaan Teemant was born in 1872 in the western coastal district of Läänemaa, the son of a rural township clerk. Having earned a law degree at St. Petersburg University in 1901 he settled in Tallinn and gained considerable popularity among the Estonian peasantry as their advocate in numerous court cases against members of the Baltic German landowning nobility. Beginning in 1904 he also became known as a key member of the Estonian-Russian bloc in the Tallinn City Council. During 1905 Teemant helped to organize the submission of petitions for change to the tsarist government, based on the 18 February ukase, and defended the rights of workers in Tallinn to demonstrate and express their views. In view of his public visibility and his reputation for fairness, it is not surprising that Teemant was acceptable to the majority of the delegates to the Tartu All-Estonian Congress, whether moderates or radicals. The punitive expedition sentenced him to death, but he managed to escape abroad, returning only after the end of martial law in 1908. He was then sentenced to a term of one and a half years in prison. During the interwar independence era Teemant was a leading politician in the Farmers’ Party (Est. Põllumeeste Kogud), serving as head of state four times. Like Tõnisson, Teemant was arrested by the Soviets in 1940, and his exact fate and date of death also remain unknown (Cederberg Citation1926–29, pp. 514–16; Eesti Entsüklopeedia, IX, p. 328). 12. In his memoir of the Congress Friedebert Tuglas argues that ‘it was no secret to anyone’ that Tõnisson supporters from Tartu were encouraged to come to the Bürgermusse meetings following the split of the Congress. See Tuglas (Citation1932, p. 109). 13. In the Bürgermusse debates Oscar Rütli, one of the influential vice-chairs of the moderate wing of the Congress, expressed the view that the population of the Russian Empire was not in favor of a republic, and if one were to be tried there it would result in horrors similar to those of the French Revolution (Postimees, 1 December 1905, p. 3). 14. These new institutions of local government at the provincial level would presumably have replaced the existing diets (Landtage) of the Baltic German nobility. 15. For a useful overview of the evolution of the terms ‘homeland’ and ‘fatherland, native land’ (Est. isamaa) in the second half of the nineteenth century, see Jansen (Citation2000). 16. Following 1905 the Setu region was increasingly viewed as part of the Estonian homeland, and it was joined to independent Estonia following the peace treaty with Soviet Russia in February 1920. On this issue and for background on the Setus, see Raun (Citation1991). 17. Initially, Martna was nominated to be a member of the five-member central bureau, but he withdrew his name immediately.