page_title: Konstantin Päts
section_title: War of Independence
hierarchical_section_title: Konstantin Päts / Career / War of Independence
caption_attribution_description: Estonian Constituent Assembly, opening session on April 23 1919
context_page_description: Konstantin Päts was the most influential politician of interwar Estonia, and served five times as the country's head of government. He was one of the first Estonians to become active in politics and started an almost 40-year political rivalry with Jaan Tõnisson, first through journalism with his newspaper Teataja, later through politics. He was condemned to death during the 1905 Revolution, but managed to flee first to Switzerland, then to Finland, where he continued his literary work. He returned to Estonia, but had to spend time in prison in 1910–1911.
  In 1917, Päts headed the provincial government of the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia, but was forced to go underground after the October Revolution. On 19 February 1918, Päts became one of the three members of the Estonian Salvation Committee that issued the Estonian Declaration of Independence on 24 February. Konstantin Päts headed the Estonian Provisional Government, although he was imprisoned during the second half of the German Occupation. In the provisional government, Päts also served as Minister of Internal Affairs and Minister of War that left him organizing Estonian troops for the War of Independence.
context_section_description: Päts founded the Estonian Defence League to provide defence for the advancing Red Army. On 28 November 1918, Soviet Russian forces captured Narva, which resulted the Estonian War of Independence. During a government meeting, Konstantin Päts banged his fist on the table and refused to compromise with the communists. This persuaded other government members to start a war against Soviet Russia. In January 1919, Estonians forced the Bolsheviks to retreat and by 24 February 1919, the entire Estonian territory was under the control of the provisional government. In his speech at the 1919 Independence Day parade, he said: "We have to secure our economy so we could become less dependent from our allies. In order to avoid bankruptcy, we have to found our state on agriculture". This became the basis for the Estonian economy for the next 20 years.
  In April 1919, the Estonian Constituent Assembly was elected, but the Estonian Country People's Union won only 8 of the 120 seats, leaving the majority to centre-left parties. On 9 May 1919, Otto August Strandman took over as the first Prime Minister. In the summer of 1919, Päts opposed going into war with the Baltic German Landeswehr, but as he was in opposition, the government decided to start the Landeswehr War, which ended in Estonian-Latvian victory. After the war had ended on 2 February 1920, the majority left-wing Constituent Assembly adopted the radical land reform law and the first constitution, which brought down a very proportional parliament, short government cabinets and no separate and stable head of state.
caption: Weak representation in the left wing dominated Constituent Assembly left Konstantin Päts with little power in composing the land reform law and the 1920 constitution.
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