Jaan Anvelt was born in Livonia governorate into a peasant family. He studied at the Yuryev (currently Tartu) Schoolteachers’ School. Since 1907, he studied at the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg University, but he was expelled in 1911. Since 1904, Anvelt was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), a Bolshevik. He led Estonian student society in St. Petersburg. In 1911, Anvelt was arrested and exiled to Estonia. A member of Estonian militant groups. Editor of the Kiir (the Ray) newspaper (1912–1914, 1917) published in Narva.

Immediately after the February Revolution in early March 1917, he headed the Estonian Provisional Revolutionary Committee of the city of Narva, the Narva Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. Anvelt was a member of the Revel and North Baltic regional Committees of the RSDLP(b). From August 1917, he was a member of the Estonian Committee and the Estonian Regional Bureau of the RSDLP(b). He held the post of Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Soviets of the Estonian region. In October 1917, he was a delegate to the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets, a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Estonian Regional Executive Committee of Soviets. He was elected an MP (deputy) of the Constituent Assembly.

Since February 1918, he was the Military Commissar of the Northwestern region. Since April 1918, People’s Commissar for Nationalities of the Northern Region. Since May 1918, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Estonian Sections of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) — RCP(b). He graduated from the 2nd Petrograd artillery courses for command personnel of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (1918). Since November 15, 1918, he was Chairman of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Estonia (established in Petrograd).

At the end of 1918 – January 1919, he was the Military Commissar of the 6th rifle division of the 7th army of the Red Army, which seized Narva in battle. Since November 29, 1918, he was Chairman of the Council and Head of the military department of the Commune of the Working People of Estonia.

In August 1919, he was appointed a member of the Foreign Bureau of Estonian Central Committee of the Communist Party based in Staraya Russa (since September, in Petrograd). Since November 1920, he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia. A delegate to the 3rd Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) (1921).

Since 1919, he held senior positions in charge of political work in the Red Army. In 1921–1922, he was the Head of the Petrograd fortified region. He was involved in underground work in Estonia and was an organizer of the Uprising of December 1, 1924. In 1925, he returned to the USSR.

In 1926–1929, he worked as Commissar of the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. In 1929–1935, he was Deputy Chief, and later Chief of the Chief Directorate of the Civil Aviation. In 1935–1937, he was a member and executive secretary of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. He was subjected to repression. December 11, 1937, the fifth day after the arrest, saw him die during interrogation. In 1956, he was rehabilitated.