Original sentence: By 1996 a total of 23,326 people had been naturalized by this procedure.It also challenged the power and authority of the Supreme Soviet of the ESSR.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 Congress of Estonia was a rival parliament set up in the Estonian SSR during the process of Estonia's regaining of independence from the Soviet Union.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.The opposition between the Congress of Estonia and the Supreme Soviet over the first point was the primary reason that the Supreme Soviet didn't "proclaim" or "reestablish" Estonia's independence during the 1991 August Putsch, but instead, as a compromise, decided to "affirm" it.The reinstated pre-1940 citizenship law did not provide automatic Estonian citizenship to nearly third of Estonia's population who had settled to Estonia during Soviet rule 1945-1991 and had lost their Soviet citizenship when the Soviet Union ceased to exist on 1 January 1992
Edited sentence: By 1996 a total of 23,326 people hade been naturalized by this procedure.In practice this would mean denying citizenship to Estonia's Soviet migrant population, representing nearly 40% of the total population.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 Congress of Estonia was a rival parliament set up in the Estonian SSR during the process of Estonia's separation from the Soviet Union, to challenge the power and authority of the Supreme Soviet of the ESSR.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.The opposition between the Congress of Estonia and the Supreme Soviet over the first point was the primary reason that the Supreme Soviet didn't "proclaim" or "reestablish" Estonia's independence during the August Putsch, but instead, as a compromise, decided to "affirm" it.The restrictive citizenship laws led to the disenfranchisement a third of Estonian population who had settled to Estonia during Soviet rule 1945-1991