Ado Birk (; also known as ''Aadu Birk'', ''Aado Birk'' or ''Avdei Birk''; – 2 February 1942), was an Estonian politician who was the Estonian Prime Minister for three days, from 28 July 1920 to 30 July 1920.

Biography

Ado Birk was born in Kulbisaare farmstead,

Mõnnaste Mõnnaste is a village in Viljandi Parish, Viljandi County, Estonia. Until the 2017 administrative reform of Estonian municipalities the village was located in Tarvastu Parish. Mõnnaste is 15 km (9 miles) southeast of the town of Viljandi ne ...

village,

Tarvastu Parish Tarvastu Parish ( et, Tarvastu vald) was a rural municipality of Estonia, in Viljandi County. It had a population of 4,216 (as of 1 January 2009) and an area of 409.00 km². Settlements ;Small borough Mustla ;Villages Ämmuste – Anikats ...

Kreis Fellin Kreis Fellin (''Viljandi kreis'', ''Феллинский уезд'') was one of the nine subdivisions of the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the northern part of the governorate (in present-day southern Estonia). I ...

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 ...

. He graduated from the Theological (Orthodox) Seminary 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 B ...

, studied in the

Saint Petersburg Theological Academy The Saint Petersburg Theological Academy (russian: Санкт-Петербургская духовная академия) is a theological seminary in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The academy grants master and doctorate degrees preparing theologi ...

, and in the law departments of the Tartu (1907–1908),

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

(1908–1911) and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

(1911) universities. Between 1911 and 1912 he was Head 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 '' ...

Statistical Bureau. From 1912 to 1917 he worked as a solicitor to barrister

Jaan Poska Jaan Poska VR III/1 (; , Laiusevälja, Kreis Dorpat, Governorate of Livonia – 7 March 1920, Tallinn, Estonia) was an Estonian barrister and politician. Early life Poska was born the fifth of 12 children of a Russian Orthodox parish school ...

. In 1917 he was made provisional secretary of the Estonian Province Assembly (''Eesti Maanõukogu''), and in 1918 was made representative of Estonia in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, Finland. From 1918 to 1919 he was Chairman of Estonian Province Assembly and chairman of General Committee of Elections to the Constituent Assembly (''Asutav Kogu''). From 1919 to 1920 he was vice chairman of Constituent Assembly and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was prime minister for three days from 28 July 1920 to 30 July 1920. Between 1917 and 1924, Birk was also chairman of the Tallinn Voluntary Society of Firemen, in 1919–1922 chairman of the All-Estonian Union of Firemen. He was again appointed foreign minister in 1925 but on a caretaker capacity. He served in the Estonian mission to Russia from 1922 to 1926. An account detailed how he was recruited by the Soviet's department of intelligence (KRO) acting under a false flag. In the second half of 1920s and in the 1930s, he became active in the

Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church The Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church ( et, Eesti Apostlik-Õigeusu Kirik; EOC) is an Orthodox church in Estonia under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Under Estonian law it is the legal successor to the pr ...

(EAOC), and in 1939–1940 was the Ecumenical Secretary of the EAOC whilst serving as a businessman in Tallinn. With the onset of the Second World War, he was arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

(People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, the

Soviet secret police The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

) and on 14 June 1941, was in the Sosva prison camp, and was sentenced to death but died before the execution at Sosva,

Sverdlovsk oblast Sverdlovsk Oblast ( rus, Свердловская область, Sverdlovskaya oblast) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia located in the Ural Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Yekaterinburg, formerly known as ...

, Russia (see

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...

References

Aadu (Ado) Birk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birk, Ado 1883 births 1942 deaths People from Viljandi Parish People from Kreis Fellin Eastern Orthodox Christians from Estonia Estonian Radical Democratic Party politicians Estonian People's Party politicians Prime Ministers of Estonia Government ministers of Estonia Members of the Estonian Provincial Assembly Members of the Estonian Constituent Assembly Members of the Riigikogu, 1920–1923 Envoys of Estonia to the Soviet Union People who died in the Gulag Estonian people who died in Soviet detention Estonian people who died in prison custody