Soviet republic that existed on the territory of the former Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire at the end of 1918 – beginning of 1919.

 

After the October coup of 1917, Soviet power was established in the part of the Baltic States that was not occupied by the German troops, that is in Northern Latvia and Estonia. On February 1, 1918, the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies of Estonia published a draft Constitution for the Commune of the Working People of Estonia claimed it an autonomous republic within Soviet Russia. By the end of February, the territory of Estonia was under German occupation, which lasted until the end of World War I in November 1918.

 

The Provisional Estonian Revolutionary Committee was established at a meeting of the Estonian section of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) — RCP(b) on November 15 in Petrograd. It was headed by Jaan Anvelt who took over the preparations for the Sovietization of Estonia. The formation of the Estonian Red Army units began as early as the spring of 1918. In the autumn, three Estonian regiments were formed as part of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army.

 

The withdrawal of German troops from Estonian territory began at the end of November 1918. On November 29, units of the 7th Army of the Red Army, including the Red Estonian regiments, pushed back the forces of the Republic of Estonia and occupied Narva. The Commune  was proclaimed on the same day with Narva as its temporary capital. On December 3, the Estonian Revolutionary Committee, which had moved there, established the Council of the Commune. Jaan Anvelt became the chairman and military leader of the Commune and Victor Kingissepp became the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs. The government of the Russian SFSR recognized the independence of the new republic by a decree of December 7, 1918. The Reds occupied Tartu, Rakvere (Vesenberg), and Valga (Valk) and managed to establish control over Eastern Estonia by the end of the year.

 

The decrees of the Soviet government were in force on the territory of the Commune. However, under the agrarian reform, former landowners’ estates were transformed only into state farms and lands were not transferred to the peasants. This set some of them against the Bolsheviks. The authorities of the Commune actively pursued an anti-religious policy; they prohibited acts of worship and closed churches, also causing discontent of people.

 

In early January 1919, units of the army of the Republic of Estonia managed to stop the Soviet offensive against Tallinn with the help of the Finnish volunteer units, the Russian White Northern Corps, and the British squadron. On January 6–7, the Estonian army launched a counter-offensive, on January 14 the Red Army units retreated from Tartu (Yuryev), and on January 19 they left Narva. The troops of the Estonian Red Army also suffered defeats in the southern sector of the front and on January 31 they left Valga. The last detachments of the Reds were driven out of Estonian territory by February 24, and the Commune of the Working People of Estonia was officially eliminated on June 5, 1919.