Vaino Väljas

Vaino Väljas ( born March 28, 1931 in Külaküla, rural community Emmaste, Hiiumaa, Estonia) is an Estonian politician and Soviet diplomat. He was the last president of Estonia (ERP ) Communist Party before the secession of Estonia by the Soviet Union.

Study

Vaino Väljas graduated in 1955 graduated from the history department of the State University of Tartu (Estonian Tartu Riiklik Ülikool ) from. In 1973 he earned his doctorate candidate of historical science.

Politician and diplomat

Väljas made ​​a straight career within the Communist Party of Estonia ( Eestimaa Kommunistlik Party): 1951/52, was at the University of Tartu Secretary - Leninist Communist Youth Association Gung Estonia ( Eestimaa Leninliku Kommunistliku Noorsooühing - ELKNÜ ), the youth organization of the Communist Party. From 1953 to 1955 Väljas was secretary of the city committee of the ELKNÜ. 1955 to 1961 he held the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the ELKNÜ.

From 1961 to 1971 Väljas was first secretary of the city committee of the Tallinners EKP and 1971-1980 Secretary of the Central Committee of the EKP. Then hit Väljas a career in the Soviet diplomatic service, which was rather unusual for Estonians. From 1980 to 1986, Väljas Soviet Ambassador in Venezuela before he worked until 1988 as a Soviet ambassador to Nicaragua from 1986. There is a peace treaty between the communist authorities and right rebel groups was signed in March 1988.

Last years of the Estonian SSR

In June 1988, appointed General Secretary of the CPSU Mikhail Gorbachev, Väljas surprising to the top of EKP. In the sign of glasnost and perestroika, the previous First Secretary of the Central Committee of the EKP, Karl Vaino was also within the party on the defensive because of its rigid anti-reform stance and had on 16 June 1988 vacate his office. Already the next day there was a great demonstration of the democratic opposition at the Tallinn Song Stage where 150,000 people showed the forbidden in the Soviet Union blue -black-white Estonian national flag. A week later, she was again declared by the Supreme Soviet under pressure from the protesters for the official flag of Estonia.

With the inauguration of the relatively liberal Väljas ' the EKP opened widely the ideas of Gorbachev but also demands for more extensive national Estonian self-determination. However, the EKP could keep up with developments in the country and the democratic demands of the Estonian population hardly step. She was always more on the defensive. However, the leadership of the EKP under Väljas wanted to avoid bloodshed at all costs.

Vaino Väljas led even the historic session of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR, on the Declaration on the Sovereignty of the Estonian SSR with only one dissenting vote was adopted on 16 November 1988. She explained the priority of Estonian laws before the Soviet law. The Declaration laid the foundation for the success of the so-called Singing Revolution, the final independence from the Soviet Union and the restoration of state independence of Estonia in August 1991.

In September 1988, it led to a renewed peaceful mass rally of the opposition People's Movement Rahvarinne. At the event, Eesti Laul ( " The Estonian Song " ) called for 300,000 people democracy and restoration of state independence of Estonia. Also Väljas gained the insight that the ultimate independence from the Soviet Union could no longer stay without violence, especially as Moscow rejected the idea of ​​a loose federation of Soviet republics.

After the abolition of the monopoly of the party EKP in February 1990 Väljas tried to drive the conversion of the EKP in a Democratic Left Party. At the 20th Congress of the EKP in March 1990, however, the unbridgeable divide between Moscow - loyal hardliners and reform-oriented forces within the party became clear. The elections to the Supreme Council of 18 March 1990, the first democratic elections in Estonia for fifty years, the democratic- liberal movement gained independence under its leading candidate Edgar Savisaar, who replaced Indrek Toome as Prime Minister. In August 1991, during the coup in Moscow, Estonia proclaimed the restoration of its national independence. In March 1991, the population had spoken with a majority of 77.8 % in a referendum for the restoration of Estonian independence.

After the turn

From 1992 to 1995 Väljas took over the presidency of the products resulting from the EKP left socialist Estonian Social Democratic Workers' Party ( Eesti Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Tööpartei - ESDTP ), which later in Vasakpartei Eesti (Estonian Left Party ) renamed itself. Politically, the party remained insignificant after the end of communism. 1995 Väljas withdrew from politics.

Private life

Vaino Väljas is the Sandestin May Väljas (* 1931) married. He has a daughter and a son.