Jüri Uluots | |
|---|---|
 Jüri Uluots | |
| Prime Minister in the duties of the President | |
| In office 20 June 1940 – 9 January 1945 | |
| Prime Minister | Otto Tief |
| Preceded by | Konstantin Päts asPresident |
| Succeeded by | August Rei |
| Prime Minister of Estonia | |
| In office 12 October 1939 – 20 June 1940 | |
| President | Konstantin Päts |
| Preceded by | Kaarel Eenpalu |
| Succeeded by | Himself(as Prime Minister in the duties of the President) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 13 January 1890 |
| Died | 9 January 1945 (1945-01-10) (aged 54) |
| Alma mater | St. Petersburg University |
Jüri Uluots (13 January 1890 – 9 January 1945) was anEstonian prime minister, journalist, prominentattorney and distinguished Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at theUniversity of Tartu.
Uluots was born inKirbla Parish (nowLääneranna Parish), in theWiek County of theGovernorate of Estonia in 1890 and studied law atSt. Petersburg University in 1910–1918. He subsequently taughtRoman and Estonian law at the University of Tartu until 1944. Uluots was also an editor of theKaja newspaper 1919–1920, and editor-in-chief ofPostimees 1937–1938.
Uluots was elected to theRiigikogu, the Estonian parliament, for 1920–1926, and from 1929 through 1932. He was speaker of theRiigivolikogu (lower chamber) from 4 April 1938 to 12 October 1939.[1] Uluots then served as prime minister from 1939 until June 1940 whenSoviet troops entered Estonia and installed a newSovietpuppet government led byJohannes Vares, whereas Uluots' constitutional government went underground (and later, inexile). The communist puppet government wasnever recognized by the United States, United Kingdom and other western powers who considered it and the August 1940 annexation of Estonia into the USSR illegal.[2]
After the Estonian presidentKonstantin Päts was arrested by Soviet occupation forces and deported toRussia in July 1940, Professor Uluots becameprime minister in the duties of the president as dictated by the Estonian constitution. When theNazis invaded Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1941 the communist government was overthrown. On July 29, 1941, Uluots met with the Nazi military government of Tartu, thanked them for freeing Estonia and asked them to allow him to form the government of independent Estonia with its owned armed forces; however, his request was turned down,[3] and the Nazis offered him to head theEstonian Self-Administration, but he refused.[4]
In January 1944, the front was pushed back by the Soviet Army almost all the way to the former Estonian border.Narva was evacuated. Jüri Uluots delivered a radio address that implored all able-bodied men born from 1904 through 1923 to report for German military service (Before this, Uluots had opposed Estonian mobilization.) The call drew support from all across the country: 38,000 draftees appeared at German registration centers.[5] Several thousand Estonians who had joined the Finnish army came back across theGulf of Finland to join the newly formed Territorial Defense Force, assigned to defend Estonia against the Soviet advance. It was hoped that by engaging in such a war Estonia would be able to attract Western support for the cause of Estonia's independence from the USSR and thus ultimately succeed in achieving independence.[6]
In March 1944 theNational Committee of the Republic of Estonia was formed by the underground resistance movement inGerman-occupied Estonia.[7] By April 1944 a large number of the committee members were arrested by the German security agencies.[8] The Committee aimed to establish of a provisional government during expected German withdrawal as the Red Army had reached the border of Estonia on 2 February 1944. On 20 April 1944, the National Committee selected the Electoral Committee of the Republic of Estonia. The Committee determined that the Soviet-era appointment ofJohannes Vares as prime minister by Konstantin Päts had been illegal and that Uluots had assumed the President's duties from 21 June 1940 onwards.[9] On 21 June 1944, Jüri Uluots appointedOtto Tief as deputy prime minister.[10]
As the Germans retreated in September 1944, Uluots appointed a new government, headed byOtto Tief. On 20 September, the Estonian national government was proclaimed. Estonian forces seized the government buildings inToompea and ordered the German forces to leave.[11]
Tief's government left Tallinn prior to theSoviet army's arrival and went into hiding. But most of the cabinet members were later arrested and suffered various repressions by the Soviet authorities, or were sent to labour camps inSiberia. The remainder of the government fled toStockholm, Sweden, where itoperated in exile from 1944 to 1992 whenHeinrich Mark, who was prime minister in duties of the president, presented his credentials to incoming presidentLennart Meri.
Four days short of his 55th birthday, Uluots died ofgastric cancer shortly after arriving in Sweden in 1945.[12]
1938 –Order of the White Star I
| Preceded by none | Speaker of theRiigivolikogu 1938 – 1939 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Estonia 1939 – 1940 | Succeeded by vacant |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Estonia In the duties of the President 1940 – 1945 | Succeeded by |
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