Abstract
Estonia’s move towards independence was similar to that of the other two Baltic States. In Estonia, two different movements developed in the late 1980s - the reform communists and the nationalists. The reform oriented communist opposition grew in strength after the Popular Front of Estonia (PFE) was founded in April 1988. This new group, which consisted of many members of the Estonian Communist Party, advocated the transformation of the USSR into a confederacy, thus expecting a greater political and economic autonomy for Estonia. The nationalist movements, however, formed the Estonian National Independence Party (ERSP), which claimed independence for Estonia, demanded the adoption of Estonian as the language of the state and opposed a compromise with Russian minorities over voting rights.
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© 2001 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Müller-Rommel, F., Sootla, G. (2001). Estonia. In: Cabinets in Eastern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403905215_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403905215_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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Online ISBN: 978-1-4039-0521-5
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