Congress of Estonia

The Congress of Estonia was an alternative "grassroots" parliament set up in Estonia as a part of the process of regaining of independence from the Soviet Union. It also challenged the power and authority of the other quasi-parliament in the country, called the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR, which had been set up according to Soviet laws. The Congress claimed to represent the highest authority on questions of Estonian statehood and citizenship, deriving this authority from the consent and initiative of the citizens of Estonia. The aim of the Congress was to restore Estonian independence based on a principle of legal continuity with the pre-1940 republic of Estonia as established in 1918.

Activity

In 1989 independence activists formed the Committees of Citizens of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti Kodanike Komiteed) and started registering people considered to be Estonian citizens by birth according to the jus sanguinis principle, i.e., the people who held Estonian citizenship in June 1940 (when the Estonia's independence de facto lapsed as the country was occupied by the Soviet Union) and their descendants. People who did not satisfy these criteria could register applications for citizenship. By February 1990, 790,000 provisional citizens and about 60,000 applicants had been registered.

In February 1990, an election of the Congress was held among citizens so registered. The Congress had 499 delegates from 31 distinct political parties. The Estonian National Independence Party (Estonian: Eesti Rahvusliku Sõltumatuse Partei, usually abbreviated as ERSP) won the most seats, other parties represented included the the Popular Front of Estonia, the Heritage Society and the Communist Party of Estonia. The permanent standing committee, the Committee of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti Komitee) was chaired by Tunne Kelam.

In September 1991, a constitutional assembly was formed of equal numbers of members of the Supreme Soviet and the Congress of Estonia, to develop a new constitution for the Republic. The new constitution was approved by referendum in June 1992, using the constitution replacement process specified in the 1938 constitution as a matter of legal continuity of the Republic of Estonia. Both the Congress of Estonia and the Supreme Soviet dissolved themselves in October 1992, with the swearing-in of the first parliament (Riigikogu) elected under the new constitution, in September 1992.

Politics

March 1990 also saw the election of the Estonian Supreme Soviet, the first multi-party national elections in the Estonian SSR. Unlike the previous Soviet, which consisting largely of members of the Communist Party of Estonia, the new Supreme Soviet was dominated by the Estonian Popular Front.

The main distinctions between the political ideas of the Congress of Estonia and the Supreme Soviet were:

• Congress of Estonia supported legal continuity of the Republic over declaring the "Third Republic" (after the First Republic of 1918-1940 and the Soviet Republic of 1940-1991), which was the Supreme Soviet's dominant position;
• Congress of Estonia, as the Citizens' Committees before it, supported continuity in citizenship, as opposed to extending citizenship to all people with propiska in Estonia in 1990 (sometimes called the 'zero option of citizenship' or 'clean state citizenship', Estonian: kodakondsuse nullvariant), including the over 300,000 occupation years' immigrants from other regions of the Soviet Union.

The opposition between the Congress of Estonia and the Supreme Soviet over the first point was the primary reason that the Supreme Soviet did not "proclaim" or "reestablish" Estonia's independence during the 1991 August Putsch, but instead, as a compromise, decided to "affirm" it. This way, discussions over propriety of the ways could continue, but the independence would be freshly declared.

In later discussions, Congress of Estonia prevailed in both of the above-mentioned points.

Citizenship

After the new constitution got established, in 1992 a new citizenship law recognised the citizenship registrations of the Citizens' Committees as a legal registry of Estonian citizens. Soviet Union's citizens who had filed Citizenship Committee application cards, could receive Estonian citizenship under a simplified procedure. By 1996 a total of 23,326 people had been naturalized by this procedure. Other noncitizens had to pass exams in the Estonian language, the Estonian history, and the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia in order to naturalise. Alternatively, Russia being a successor state to the Soviet Union, all former USSR citizens qualified for natural-born citizenship of Russian Federation, available upon mere request, as provided by the law “On the RSFSR Citizenship” in force up to 2000.

Later developments

Over the years, the conditions of naturalisation were variously changed. As of May 2007, a naturalisation applicant does not need to pass an exam in Estonian history anymore, but has to show preceding legal residence in Estonian territory (at least 8 years, of which last 5 years must be "continuous", defined as spending at least 183 days of every of these years on Estonian soil) and stable legal income.

External links

• Estonia's Way to Freedom
• Independence Reclaimed, August 1991-October 1992