Edgar Savisaar (born May 31, 1950) is an Estonian politician, one of the founders of the Estonian Popular Front and leader of the Center Party. He was the last chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Estonian SSR and the first acting prime minister of independent Estonia, the minister of the interior, the minister of economy and communications, and the mayor of Tallinn.
Origin
Where does Edgar Savisaar lead his life from? His biography began in the prison of the Estonian village of Harku, where his mother Maria was serving a five-year sentence, which she received for company with her husband Elmar for trying to sell her own horse instead of handing it over to the collective farm. Edgar's parents lived in the Pylvamaa district bordering the Pskov region of Russia. The population there is generally mixed, many people with Russian surnames. So Edgar's mother, as a girl, bore the name Bureshina, her father and grandfather were called Vasily and Matvey, respectively, and her brother, who was a policeman and party organizer of the collective farm, was Alexei.
Such is the story, of which there were many in the then USSR, happened toElmar and Maria Savisaar, who got off cheaply (if you can say that at all!), because her husband was given 15 years in the camps. She saved Maria's pregnancy and childbirth, a few months after the birth of her son she was released from prison under an amnesty.
Years of study
It is known that Edgar Savisaar started working early, starting to work at the Republican Clinical Hospital in Tartu. After work, he studied at night school, graduating in 1968. Then Edgar Savisaar continued his studies at the University of Tartu at the Faculty of History, graduating in 1973. During his studies, he worked as an instructor in the Tartu district committee of the Estonian Komsomol since 1969, and from 1970 to 1973 as an archivist at the Estonian State Historical Archives.
Beginning of a career in Soviet Estonia
Where did Edgar Savisaar work after graduation? His biography continued in his native district of Põlvamaa, where he worked as a secondary school teacher. In those years, student construction teams were very popular in the country. In Estonia, this movement had a certain specificity. Almost all high school students, students of vocational schools and technical schools traveled in the summer to local collective farms and state farms to help agriculture. They were organized into detachments headed by commanders and commissars, who were Komsomol workers and young teachers. One of these commissioners was Edgar Savisaar. The whole movement was led, of course, by the Estonian Komsomol Central Committee.
Engaging in scientific activities
Obviously, active social work helped the young teacher to get into graduate school at the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR in 1977, where he studied until 1979. Edgar Savisaar did not spend this time in vain, having managed to write a dissertation in which he studied the approaches of the Club of Rome in the formation of global social processes. The following year, he successfully defended it at the Moscow Institute of System Analysis.
In 1980-1985. Savisaar works in the executive committee of the Tallinn City Council, is engaged in economic planning. At the same time, since 1982, he has been working as an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy of the Estonian Academy of Sciences.
In 1985-1988. Savisaar works in the State Planning Committee of Estonia. In 1988-1989 he was director of research for the Minor consulting company.
Singing Revolution
With the beginning of Gorbachev's perestroika in the USSR, Savisaar publishes articles in the Estonian press about the need to reform society. He is invited to television in the popular evening program “Let's Think Again”. Savisaar's articles and speeches are being actively discussed in the republic.
In April 1988, together with a group of like-minded people, he created the Popular Front (Rahvarinne), which became the first mass political organization in the Soviet Union since 1920, not controlled by the Communist Party. Originally created to support perestroika, the Popular Front began to develop the ideas of Estonian national independence more and more and created the phenomenon of the so-called singing revolution, the hallmark of which was the unification of Estonians at rallies in thousands of people.traditional choirs performing folk songs.
Estonia's withdrawal from the USSR
Starting from the end of 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR has been consistently pursuing a policy aimed at secession of the republic from the union. First, in the fall of 1988, the Declaration of Sovereignty was adopted, which proclaimed the supremacy of Estonian laws over the allied ones. A year later, a decree is issued recognizing the illegal entry of Estonia into the USSR in July 1940.
In the same 1989, Edgar Savisaar, being the leader of the Popular Front, became vice-chairman of the Estonian Council of Ministers and head of its State Planning Committee. In March 1990, elections to the Supreme Council are held, in which the Popular Front receives only 24% of the vote, but it is Savisaar who is entrusted with the formation of the government. How could this happen? The fact is that the Estonian communists, a week after the elections, decide to leave the CPSU, and their representatives in the Supreme Council withdraw themselves from the government of the republic. As a result, Savisaar forms a government of members of the Popular Front, becoming chairman of the Council of Ministers of the still Estonian SSR.
However, a few days later, the Supreme Council declared the very existence of the union republic illegal, and on May 8 of the same 1990, renamed the Estonian SSR into the Republic of Estonia with the abolition of the previous anthem, flag and coat of arms and the restoration of the Constitution of 1938.
Confrontation May 15, 1990
Not everyone in Estonia liked what was happening. After all, more than 40% of itThe population then consisted of Russians and Russian-speaking citizens who linked their future and its guarantees precisely with the preservation of the Soviet Union. In opposition to the Popular Front, they created the Interfront movement.
On May 15, 1990, thousands of his supporters filled Lossi Square in front of the Supreme Council. A red flag was hoisted on its building (next to the three-color Estonian one), and hundreds of protesters broke through the police barrier and went inside. They demanded a meeting with SC Chairman Ruutel, but he did not appear before them.
At this time, Edgar Savisaar spoke in Estonian on Estonian radio. He repeatedly repeated information about the alleged storming of the Government House on Toompea Square by Interfront supporters and called on Estonians to gather in this place. People responded to his call, and two centers of concentration of forces formed in the city. A little more, and it could come to a direct collision. Under these conditions, Interfront leaders Mikhail Lysenko and Vladimir Yarovoy decided not to aggravate the situation and withdraw their supporters from the building of the Armed Forces. His protection, as well as the protection of other state institutions, instead of the police, was taken over by the Estonian self-defense units "Defense League". On that day, Soviet power in Estonia was defeated, but not yet completely overthrown.
Head of the Estonian government
For almost a year and a half until the attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in August 1991, the Estonian authorities, led by Savisaar and Ruutel, maneuvered, trying to get the union leadership to recognize their independence. But the latter was in no hurry to do this, especially sinceOn the territory of Estonia there were many units of the Soviet Army. And here it was not just anyone who came to the aid of the Estonian nationalists, but the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin.
Arriving in January 1991 in Tallinn, Yeltsin, on behalf of the RSFSR, signs an agreement with Estonia, in which he recognizes its independence. Of course, this was a signal for the nationalists in all the other union republics, and they heard it, starting to bite off pieces from another united Union, and in the end they gnawed it after the failure of the August 1991 putsch.
Career in a new country
Savisaar briefly led the government of independent Estonia. Breaking the old was easier than building the new. As a result of the collapse of economic ties with Russia at the beginning of 1992, an acute economic crisis erupted in the country, so that food cards even had to be introduced in the country. In the wake of general discontent at the end of January 1992, the government of Savisaar resigned.
After that, he was vice-chairman of the parliament for several years, held ministerial posts in various cabinets, was the mayor of the capital from 2001 to 2004, then returned to the government again to the ministerial post. Finally, since 2007, Edgar Savisaar was elected mayor of Tallinn again. A photo of him from this period is shown below.
The story connected with the transfer in 2007 from the center of Tallinn of a sculpture of a bronze soldier, a monument to fallen Soviet soldiers, gained wide resonance. Savisaar spoke out against this action, as a result of which he was accused by the Estonianradicals in pro-Russian views.
It would seem that such an experienced and sophisticated politician as Edgar Savisaar could threaten? His arrest in September 2015 on charges of bribery was like a bolt from the blue. The prosecutor's office accused him, as well as other officials of the Tallinn City Hall, of taking bribes in the amount of several hundred thousand euros, and the court removed the mayor from his post during the investigation.
Private life
Edgar Savisaar has been married three times and is the father of four children. From his marriage to Kaira Savisaar, he has a son, Erki, and from his marriage to Liis Savisaar, he has a daughter, Maria, and a son, Edgar. The last marriage was with Vilja Savisaar, who is also an Estonian politician. They have a daughter, Rosina. The last marriage also broke up in December 2009.
In March 2015, his hospitalization was reported. What made Edgar Savisaar sick? His illness was caused by a bacterial infection. She caused a serious complication and inflammation of the soft tissues of the right leg.
What eventually happened to such a famous person and politician as Edgar Savisaar? Amputation of the right leg above the knee. It goes without saying that it is not easy to withstand all the blows of fate that it inflicts. However, let's hope that Edgar Savisaar, whose he alth failed him at the most critical moment of his life, is still a strong nature, able to survive all the trials that befell him.
