The Communist Party of Estonia (CPSU) ( et, Eestimaa Kommunistlik Partei; russian: Коммунистическая партия Эстонии, Kommunisticheskaya partiya Estonii) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

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, an ...

. The party was initially known as Communist Party of Estonia (on CPSU platform) (EKP (NLKP platvormil)), and was formed in 1990 through a split in the original

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 ...

(EKP). The split occurred at the 20th congress of EKP in March 1990, as a reaction against the decision of the congress to separate EKP from the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union " Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspape ...

and rebrand itself into the Estonian Democratic Labour Party (EDTP). Immediately after the independence decision of EKP, the pro-Soviet delegates left the congress venue. The convened their own rival 20th congress on March 26, 1990. EKP (NLKP platvormil) elected its own

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party organizations, the ...

, headed by its First Secretary Alexander Gusev, and would function as a separate party from EKP.Ishiyama, John T.. ''Representational Mechanisms and Ethnopolitics: Evidence from Transitional Democracies in Eastern Europe''; published in East European Quarterly, Vol. 33, 1999. The party was often perceived, along with

Intermovement The Intermovement ''(International Movement of Workers in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic)'' ( et, Interliikumine, russian: Интердвижение, translit. Interdvizhenie) was a political movement and organisation in the Est ...

, as representing the resistance of the Russian population in Estonia against independence. However unlike the split in the

Communist Party of Latvia The Communist Party of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Komunistiskā partija, LKP) was a political party in Latvia. History Latvian Social-Democracy prior to 1919 The party was founded at a congress in June 1904. Initially the party was known as the Latvia ...

, the split in EKP did not follow ethnic lines. A study on the electoral patterns of the

1990 Estonian Supreme Soviet election Elections to the Supreme Soviet were held in the Estonian SSR on 18 March 1990. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p574 Altogether 392 candidates ran for the Soviet-style legislature's 105 seats, of wh ...

showed that the EKP (NLKP platvormil) candidates had a support of 13.3% of the non-Estonian voters. Notably, when the split in EKP occurred in 1990 party units in Russian-dominated towns like

Narva Narva, russian: Нарва is a municipality and city in Estonia. It is located in Ida-Viru county, at the eastern extreme point of Estonia, on the west bank of the Narva river which forms the Estonia–Russia international border. With 5 ...

, Sillamäe and

Kohtla-Järve Kohtla-Järve is a city and municipality in northeastern Estonia, founded in 1924 and incorporated as a town in 1946. The city is highly industrial, and is both a processor of oil shales and is a large producer of various petrochemical products ...

decided to retain their membership in EKP rather than joining EKP (NLKP platvormil).Ishiyama, John T./Breuning, Marijke.
Ethnopolitics in the New Europe
'.

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998. p. 87 Unlike the analogous split in the Communist Party of Latvia, EKP (NLKP platvormil) failed to gain control over any major portion of the resources and personnel of the EKP after the split. On 20 June 1990 the name of the party was changed to Communist Party of Estonia (CPSU) (EKP (NLKP)). EKP (NLKP) held its 21st Party Congress in the fall of 1990 (counting the twenty party congresses of EKP as theirs). The congress elected Lembit Annus, as the new First Secretary. With the new leadership followed a less confrontational approach that its Latvian counterpart. In April 1991 Annus expressed willingness to enter a coalition government in Estonia. Parallel to the March 3, 1991 referendum on Estonian independence, the party organized a referendum of its own. The vote took place in the cities of Kohtla-Järve, Sillamäe and Narva. The question of the referendum was "Do you want the sovereign Estonia to remain within the composition of the USSR?". Unlike the main referendum, all residents (including Soviet troops) could take part. Only the results from Sillamäe were made public, with a turnout of 83%. 89% of the voters in Sillamäe had voted yes in the referendum.Metcalf, Lee Kendall. ''Outbidding to Radical Nationalists: Minority Policy in Estonia, 1988–1993'', published in ''Nations and Nationalism'', Volume 2 Issue 2, p. 213-234

Activities

The party supported the August 1991 Soviet coup. Following the defeat of the coup, the party was declared illegal by the Estonian government on August 22, 1991. At the time

secretary of the party was Pavel Panfilov. After the ban, some former members covertly created the Communist Party of Estonia to continue the cause. Initially their grouping was affiliated with the

Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP–CPSU), abbr. СКП–КПСС is a federation of communist parties in the post-Soviet states founded in 1993. Gennady Zyuganov has been the organisation's chairman sinc ...

(SKP-KPSS), but when SKP-KPSS split in 2001 they joined the

Oleg Shenin Oleg Semyonovich Shenin (russian: Олег Семёнович Шенин, link=no; 2 July 1937 – 28 May 2009) was the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Shenin), which should not be confused with the larger UCP-CPSU. She ...

. The party carried out a congress in 1999, and elected a Central Committee.

References

External links

Presentation by the EKP at the 2005 International Communist Seminar
{{Political parties in Estonia Banned communist parties Defunct political parties in Estonia Communist parties in the Soviet Union Communist parties in Estonia Organizations of the Revolutions of 1989 Political parties established in 1990 1990 establishments in Estonia 1991 disestablishments in Estonia Singing Revolution Dissolution of the Soviet Union Political parties disestablished in 1991 International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties