Otto Tief ( – 5 March 1976) was an

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n politician, military commander, and a lawyer. Tief was the acting prime minister of the last

government of Estonia The Government of the Republic of Estonia (''Estonian language, Estonian: Vabariigi Valitsus'') is the cabinet (government), cabinet of Estonia. Under the Constitution of Estonia, Constitution, it exercises executive power pursuant to the Cons ...

The Otto Tief government and the fall of Tallinn
22 September 1944: From one occupation to another
before Soviet troops occupied

in the Second World War in September 1944. Due to his commitment to his country, Tief is regarded by many of his fellow countrymen as a symbol of national resistance.

Education and career

Tief studied law in

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

between 1910 and 1916. During the

Estonian War of Independence The Estonian War of Independence, also known as the War of Freedom in Estonia, was a defensive campaign of the Estonian Army and its allies, most notably the United Kingdom, against the Soviet Russian westward offensive of 1918–1919 and the ...

, Tief was a commander in the Kalevlaste Maleva battalion formed in 1918 by members of the Kalev sports society. Following the war, he graduated in law from the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

in 1921. He served as legal counsel to Eesti Maapank (the Estonian Land-Bank) and also worked in private practice as a lawyer. Tief was elected to parliament (third

Riigikogu The Riigikogu (, from Estonian ''riigi-'', "of the state", and ''kogu'', "assembly") is the unicameral parliament of Estonia. In addition to approving legislation, the Parliament appoints high officials, including the prime minister and chi ...

) in 1926 and served as the Minister of Social Affairs from 1926 to 1927. In 1928 he was the Minister of Justice. In 1932 he was elected to the fifth Riigikogu.

Tief government of 1944

During the turbulent days in September 1944, between the retreat of the German occupation forces in

and the advancement of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, the acting

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of the

Republic of Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

Jüri Uluots Jüri Uluots (13 January 1890 – 9 January 1945) was an Estonian prime minister, journalist, prominent attorney and distinguished Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Tartu. Early life Uluots was born in Kirbla Pari ...

appointed Tief

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

and asked him to form a

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

on 18 September 1944. Tief then published a proclamation, re-establishing the independence of the Republic of Estonia on the basis of legal continuity, and attempted to organise the defence of

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

against the invading

, which pushed into the capital on 22 September 1944. Members of the Tief's government: * Otto Tief – Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Interior * Arnold Susi – Minister of Public Education * Johannes Klesment (escaped to Sweden, assumed office 13 January 1945) – Minister of Justice * Kaarel Liidak (died 16 January 1945) – Minister of Agriculture * Hugo Pärtelpoeg (died 29 April 1951) – Minister of Finance * Voldemar Sumberg – Minister of Social Affairs * Juhan Pikkov (died 3 September 1947) – Minister of Communications * August Rei (in Sweden, assumed office 31 December 1944, until 9 January 1945) – Minister of Foreign Affairs * Juhan Kaarlimäe – Minister * Johannes Sikkar (in Sweden, from 20 April 1952) – Minister * Artur Terras (in Sweden, from 20 April 1952) – Minister

Aftermath

Otto Tief was arrested by the Soviet

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

on 10 October 1944. In 1945, the Soviet occupation authorities sentenced him to ten years of imprisonment in the Siberian

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

. While in imprisonment, in January 1953, he was removed in absentia from the

Estonian government-in-exile The Estonian government-in-exile was the formally declared governmental authority of the Republic of Estonia in exile, existing from 1944 until the reestablishment of Estonian sovereignty over Estonian territory in 1991. It traced its legitimac ...

by August Rei. After being able to return briefly to Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1955, Tief was again forced to live in exile in

Soviet Ukraine The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. Under the Soviet one-party m ...

until 1965, when he was permitted to relocate closer to home, and he could then reside just on the other side of the Estonian border in

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. When Tief died on 5 March 1976, the Soviet security services would not allow his burial in Estonia. After Estonia regained independence in 1991, Tief was reinterred and reburied in his home country, in the national cemetery in

, in 1993.

Tief's symbolic significance

Tief held power for only a brief period of time (18–22 September 1944), and his efforts were rapidly undone by the invading

. However, Tief's actions have immense symbolic and legal significance, as his proclaiming of the restoration of the

, as well as the accompanying raising of the Estonian flag atop the tower of Pikk Hermann high above Tallinn at the seat of power in the Toompea quarter negates Soviet historiography's claims, according to which the invasion of Estonia by the Soviet

in September 1944 constituted "the liberation of Estonia". Although the attempt to restore Estonian independence in September 1944 did not succeed, the Tief government proved to be an integral and indispensable part of the ''de jure'' continuity of the Republic of Estonia.

Commemoration

In February 2007 the Estonian parliament decided to commemorate the actions of Tief's government by proclaiming 22 September the annual "Day of Resistance". 22 September 1944 was the day, several days after the departure of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

's occupying forces, that Stalin´s invading Red Army took over the administrative centre of Tallinn, tore down the Estonian national flag, and replaced it with the Red Banner, the symbol of Soviet occupation.

Postimees is an Estonian daily newspaper established on 5 June 1857, by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. In 1891, it became the first daily newspaper in Estonia. Its current editor-in-chief is Priit Hõbemägi. The paper has approximately 250 employees. ''P ...

ETV ETV may stand for: Television * Educational television, the use of television in education * Enhanced TV, an interactive television application specification Africa * e.tv, South Africa * ETV (Ethiopia), Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation * ETV G ...

24 22 September 2007
Eesti tähistab esmakordselt vastupanuvõitlemise päeva

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * Otto Tief, "Mälestusi aastaist 1944–1954" – Akadeemia 1990, nr. 2, lk. 231–250 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tief, Otto 1889 births 1976 deaths Politicians from Rapla Parish People from Kreis Harrien Settlers' Party politicians Prime ministers of Estonia Government ministers of Estonia Members of the Riigikogu, 1926–1929 Members of the Riigikogu, 1932–1934 Estonian anti-communists Estonian independence activists Russian military personnel of World War I Estonian military personnel of the Estonian War of Independence Recipients of the Cross of Liberty (Estonia) Recipients of the Order of Lāčplēsis Estonian people of World War II Estonian prisoners and detainees Estonian people imprisoned in the Soviet Union Burials at Metsakalmistu