Jaan Poska VR III/1 (; ,

Laiusevälja Laiusevälja ( Estonian for ''Laiuse Field'') is a village in Jõgeva Parish, Jõgeva County, Estonia. (retrieved 28 July 2021) It is located about 10 km northeast of the town of Jõgeva, adjacent to Laiuse small borough, on the Jõgeva–Mu ...

Kreis Dorpat Kreis Dorpat (''Tartu kreis'', ''Дерптский уезд'', 1893-1918 ''Юрьевский уезд'') was one of the nine subdivisions of the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the northeastern part of the gover ...

Governorate of Livonia The Governorate of Livonia, also known as the Livonia Governorate, was a Baltic governorate of the Russian Empire, now divided between Latvia and Estonia. Geography The shape of the province is a fairly rectangular in shape, with a maximum ...

– 7 March 1920,

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

) was an Estonian barrister and politician.

Early life

Poska was born the fifth of 12 children of a Russian Orthodox parish schoolmaster and received his secondary education at the Orthodox church's school in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

. He entered medical school at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

, but soon transferred to law where he graduated in 1890. Poska was the first ethnic Estonian admitted to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

in Tallinn where he worked as

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

Career

Jaan Poska was mayor of

during 1913–1917. In that position he supported reforms, like reforming healthcare and founding two schools. In April 1917, he became governor of the

Autonomous Governorate of Estonia In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...

. 1917 the ''

Maapäev The Estonian Provincial Assembly ( et, Eestimaa Kubermangu Ajutine Maanõukogu, (Ajutine) Maanõukogu, Eesti Maanõukogu, (Eesti) Maapäev) was elected after the February Revolution in 1917 as the national diet of the Autonomous Governorate of ...

'' refused to recognize the new

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

rule and proclaimed itself the supreme legal authority of Estonia. The

Republic of Estonia A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

formally declared independence on 24 February 1918, only to be occupied by the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

until the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Estonian war of independence against Baltic German and Russian forces lasted from 1918 to 1920. On 24 February 1918, Poska was appointed the

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

of Estonia. He worked in Western Europe for gaining diplomatic recognition to Estonia and participated in Paris Peace Conference. He led the peace talks with

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

and achieved Treaty of Tartu which was signed on 2 February 1920, and helped draft the first Estonian constitution. When Poska died suddenly on 7 March 1920 at the early age of 54. 20,000 Estonians attended his funeral.

Citations

Ülo Kaevats Ülo Kaevats (29 September 1947 – 30 January 2015) was an Estonian statesman, academic and philosopher. In 1972, he graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Chemistry of the University of Tartu with a qualification from a physicist and a rese ...

et al. 2000. ''Eesti Entsüklopeedia 14''. Tallinn: Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus,

Cited sources

External links

Tartu rahu sepistaja Jaan Poska väärib monumenti (Estonian)Livland. Estland. Kurland. Œsel.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070610022327/http://www.estonica.org/eng/lugu.html?menyy_id=97&kateg=43&alam=61&leht=5 On 28 November 1917, the Land council proclaimed itself the highest power in Estonia...]
On This Day - 28 November 1917
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poska, Jaan 1866 births 1920 deaths People from Jõgeva Parish People from Kreis Dorpat Eastern Orthodox Christians from Estonia Estonian People's Party politicians Rulers of Estonia Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Russian Constituent Assembly members Members of the Estonian Constituent Assembly Mayors of Tallinn Estonian diplomats Estonian anti-communists 19th-century Estonian lawyers University of Tartu alumni 20th-century Estonian politicians 20th-century Estonian lawyers

Early life

Career

See also

Citations

Cited sources

External links