TUNNE KELAM ⟩ Celebrating the 34th Anniversary of the first session of the Congress of Estonia

Tunne Kelam. Photo: Eero Vabamägi

In 2024, we mark the 34th anniversary of the convening of the Congress of Estonia, an alternative democratic transition-time parliament of Estonian citizens, Tunne Kelam writes.

This event was the climax to the Citizens’ Committees movement – the largest civic initiative in Estonia’s history. From the spring of 1989 to February 1990, following the call by three new independence-minded parties (Estonian National Independence Party, Heritage Society and Christian Union) hundreds of volunteers, risking suppression by Soviet authorities and having been denied access to the official media, managed to register over 700,000 citizens of the Republic of Estonia at home and abroad.

During this nation-wide grassroots action, tens of thousands of Estonian inhabitants who were officially listed as Soviet subjects, signed a statement by which they declared themselves to be citizens of the Republic of Estonia. Although under terms of the notorious Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939, Estonia had been illegally annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, the Republic of Estonia continued to exist de jure under international law. Most Western democracies never recognised the occupation of the Baltic States, members of the pre-war League of Nations, as legal. In accordance to the non-recognition policy, initiated in 1940 by the United States, the American government continued to recognize the Baltic diplomats assigned to Washington as part of the official diplomatic corps for half a century. The non-recognition policy proved to be correct when the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was finally restored in 1991.

Registration of Estonian citizens presented a qualitative difference compared to the participation in huge patriotic gatherings which had started already in summer 1988 – known as the Singing Revolution.

Joining the big night demonstrations was pretty much anonymous, presenting a relatively low risk for the attendees. On the other hand, signing individually and openly a statement by which the signatory confirmed his or her allegiance to the Estonian Republic, was at the beginning assessed as a highly risky decision. In fact, it could be treated as high treason. The Soviet Estonia’s reformists, like the Popular Front leader Edgar Savisaar, strongly opposed the citizens’ registration as a provocation, warning that registration as citizens of the Estonian Republic meant signing oneself on to a new deportation train to Siberia.

By overcoming the deep-seated fear created by half a century of Soviet terror, the Estonian citizens’ movement resulted in the most authentic referendum in favour of restoration of a fully independent state, relying on international law and the principle of legal continuity.

However, when against all the odds by September 1989, more than 300,000 had registered themselves as citizens of the Republic of Estonia, the barrier of fear was broken. It became clear that no new train to could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people. Instead, more and more Estonians became convinced that this new train was heading to the free West. And then, even the Soviet officials and recent Communists hurried to register themselves – no one wanted to be left behind.

By overcoming the deep-seated fear created by half a century of Soviet terror, the Estonian citizens’ movement resulted in the most authentic referendum in favour of restoration of a fully independent state, relying on international law and the principle of legal continuity. By the first session of the Congress of Estonia in March 1990, a crucial mental and political change had taken place. Instead of merely hoping to be granted some more economic and cultural autonomy within the framework of the Soviet Union, by their own initiative Estonian citizens succeeded in creating a true democratic alternative to the half-hearted reforms designed by perestroika-minded communist elites.

As a result, a new paradigm of full-fledged democracy and complete independence entered the Estonian political process. One of the consequences was the massive departure of Estonians from the communist party which quietly dis-integrated in the spring of 1990.

The Citizens’ Committees movement relied on legal, not ethnic, principles. Among the citizens of pre-occupation Estonia, there were thousands of ethnic Russians, Germans, Swedes, Jews and others, whose Estonian citizenship continued to be valid via hereditary line (jus sanguinis). Significantly, the citizens’ movement offered non-citizens a chance to register themselves as applicants for Estonian citizenship. Those who took this courageous step were promised citizenship without any qualifications after the restoration of independence. Some 60,000 applied and elected their own representatives to the Congress of Estonia. This was the beginning of inclusive national politics.

After the first constitutional parliamentary elections in September 1992, the Congress of Estonia dissolved itself. Its goal – the restoration of the legal state power – had been accomplished.

The Congress of Estonia was elected in February 1990 with the presence of several international observers. Nearly 90% of the registered citizens participated, the highest degree of political activity in the history of free Estonia. There were 1200 candidates for 464 seats. All in all, the Congress of Estonia represented 31 political parties and movements, displaying the full national spectrum at that time. As the democratically elected representative body of legal Estonian citizens, the Congress had a unique mandate to decide on the principles of statehood as well as citizenship. At its first session, March 11-12, 1990, the Congress adopted a Declaration on Restoration of Legal State Power in Estonia. Instead of claiming power immediately, the Congress, in cooperation with the newly elected and now more democratic Supreme Soviet, proclaimed a transition period which provided for more flexibility and avoided violent clashes. This marked the debut of a democratic, non-Soviet political alternative into the crumbling Estonian SSR reality.

During 1990-92, the Congress of Estonia convened 10 times, serving as a hotbed for fledgling democracy. As the representative body of Estonian citizens, it thwarted the attempts of the Soviet Estonian power structures to form a pseudo-state based on the Estonian SSR. On August 20, 1991, leaders of the Congress of Estonia reached a national understanding with the Supreme Soviet on restoring the Republic of Estonia as an independent, democratic nation state based upon legal continuity. Under the terms of the national understanding, a Constitutional Assembly was formed by representatives of the two bodies on the basis of parity. After the first constitutional parliamentary elections in September 1992, the Congress of Estonia dissolved itself. Its goal – the restoration of the legal state power – had been accomplished.

In his Estonian Independence Day speech in 1999, President Lennart Meri stated: «I want to stress that we have restored the independence of our nation on the basis of legal continuity. In this regard the Supreme Council was the practical lever. But the legal foundation, the fulcrum on which this lever rested, was the Estonian Citizens’ Committee. Only in this way did the Estonian people win back their independence.»