Nikolai Karotamm (October 23, 1901 – September 21, 1969) was an
Estonian communist politician. He was a member of the
Communist Party of Estonia
The Communist Party of Estonia ( et, Eestimaa Kommunistlik Partei, abbreviated EKP) was a subdivision of the Soviet communist party which in 1920-1940 operated illegally in Estonia and, after the 1940 occupation and annexation of Estonia by the ...
. In 1925, he emigrated to the Netherlands, where in 1926, he joined the
Communist Party of the Netherlands
The Communist Party of the Netherlands ( nl, Communistische Partij Nederland, , CPN) was a Dutch communist party. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Part ...
.
Following the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he led multiple repatriation teams to displaced persons camps in Germany.
Biography
Nikolai Karotamm was born in the family of a carpenter and served in the
Guard Battalion in 1921.
In 1925 he moved to the Nederlands and joined the
Communist Party of Netherlands. In 1926 he settled in the USSR and studied at the
. In 1928 Karotamm became a member of the
All-Union Communist Party (b) and in the same year was sent to Estonia to reestablish the
Estonian Communist Party
The Communist Party of Estonia ( et, Eestimaa Kommunistlik Partei, abbreviated EKP) was a subdivision of the Soviet communist party which in 1920-1940 operated illegally in Estonia and, after the 1940 occupation and annexation of Estonia by the ...
.
In 1929 he returned to the Soviet Union and graduated from the univerty and later became a lecturer at the university. He also worked as an active agent of the
Executive Committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
of the
Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
. He was arrested during the
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...
in 1938 but was soon released without charges.
During the annexation of Estonia by the Soviet Union, Karotamm arrived in Estonia in July 1940 and worked as the editor-in-chief of the newspaper ''Kommunist'' from July to August 1940. After the June coup, he was appointed the first secretary of the
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...
City Committee in of the ECP (b) 1941.
In August 1941 he was elected Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the ECB , and from 1940 to 1951 he was a member of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the EC (b) P and the Central Committee of the EC (b) P.
Voldemar Pinn
Voldemar is largely an Estonian masculine given name. People with the name Voldemar include:
* Voldemar Aussem (1879–1936), Soviet nobleman, communist official and diplomat
* Voldemar Hammer (1894–1982), Estonian politician
* Voldemar Jaanus ( ...
. Kes oli Nikolai Karotamm? Kultuuritragöödia jälgedes. Haapsalu Trükikoda, 1996, lk 76-83
Upon the invasion of
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and the subsequent occupation of Baltic states, Karotamm became a member of the Republican Defense Committee of the Estonian SSR. After the Soviet government became aware of the arrest of
Karl Säre
Karl Säre (July 2, 1903 – March 14, 1945) was a Soviet and Estonian communist politician. He was the first first secretary of the Central Committee of the Estonian Communist Party.
During World War II, he was arrested by Nazi Germany and t ...
by the German invaders, Karotamm became the acting leader of the Communist Party of Estonia after he fled to Leningrad.
[В. И. Гринкевич, В. И. Савченко. В борьбе за Прибалтику // Краснознамённый Балтийский флот в Великой Отечественной войне советского народа, 1941-1945 гг. (в 4-х книгах). Книга 1. Оборона Прибалтики и Ленинграда. М., "Наука", 1990. стр.62-70]
In 1944 he returned to Estonia and was officially elected as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Estonia and was simultaneously First Secretary of the
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 ' ...
City Committee of the ECP (b).
In 1949 he was relieved from his positions and subsequently expelled from the party due to alleged "inappropriate leniency and negligence and the concealment of bourgeois nationalists". He then settled in Moscow and studied in the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU and later worked at the Institute of Economics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He received his doctorate of economics in 1964.
Due to his disagreements with his successor
Johannes Käbin
Johannes Käbin (), also known by his Russified name Ivan Gustavovich Kebin (; 24 September 1905, Kalvi, Kreis Wierland, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire – 26 October 1999, Tallinn, Estonia) was an Estonian Soviet politician who led t ...
, Karotamm never returned to Estonia. He died in Moscow and was buried at the
Metsakalmistu cemetery
Metsakalmistu (meaning ''Forest Cemetery'') is a cemetery in the Pirita district of Tallinn.
Metsakalmistu was originally planned to be a public medieval cemetery. Eduard Vilde was the first to be buried in 1933. The original area of the cemet ...
.
References
Bibliography
*Voldemar Pinn, Kes oli Nikolai Karotamm? I. Kultuuritragöödia jälgedes: kompartei kolmest esimesest sekretärist Karl Särest, Nikolai Karotammest, Johannes Käbinist. Haapsalu 1996
*Voldemar Pinn, Kes oli Nikolai Karotamm? II Langi Kolla kroonika. Pärnu 1997?
External links
Eesti biograafiline andmebaas ISIK. KAROTAMM, Nikolai
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karotamm, Nikolai
1901 births
1969 deaths
People from Pärnu
People from Kreis Pernau
Heads of the Communist Party of Estonia
Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1947–1951
Second convocation members of the Soviet of the Union
Third convocation members of the Soviet of the Union
Recipients of the Order of Lenin