The Board of Elders of the Estonian Provincial Assembly declared Estonia an independent republic. A Provisional Government was formed under the leadership of Konstantin Päts. Unfortunately, the territory of Estonia was soon occupied by the troops of the German Empire, who did not recognise Estonia’s independence or the Provisional Government.

Konstantin Päts, Chairman of the Salvation Committee and First Prime Minister of the Estonian Provisional Government. Photo: National Archives of Estonia

Representatives of the Estonian Provisional Government, Johan Jans and Heinrich Luht, also witnessed this historical event at the premises of the Riga City Theatre. A day later, the Provisional Government of Latvia was appointed, with Kārlis Ulmanis as Prime Minister and Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics as Minister of Foreign Affairs. As a skilled diplomat, Meierovics was able to gain de facto recognition from the British government for the Latvian National Council even before the the Republic of Latvia was proclaimed.

Estonian troops managed to liberate the North Latvian border area from the Bolsheviks and occupied it temporarily. Until the exact course of Estonian-Latvian state border was determined, the city of Valga and seven rural municipalities with mixed population remained under Estonian administration. It later turned out that the Latvian government considered this agreement invalid because it had been concluded without necessary authorisations.

He was born near Valga into Estonian-Latvian family and was fluent in Latvian. An Estonian consulate was also opened in Liepāja.

Polkovnik Jorgis Zemitāns, Commander of the Northern Latvia Brigade

This was followed by the Estonians’ impetuous advance towards Riga. A ceasefire was signed just in the outskirts of Riga under the pressure of the Western Allies’ military mission. The outcome of the Battle of Cēsis marked the end of the dominant position of Baltic Germans in Estonia and Latvia. The Latvian national government of Karlis Ulmanis returned to Riga on 8 July and took energetic steps in building up Latvian state institutions and strengthening country’s defence capabilities.

Tallmeister was the pastor of the Estonian Lutheran congregation in Riga and spoke Latvian. Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis had already proposed at the end of 1918 that Tallmeister should be appointed Estonia’s representative in Riga.

The agreement obliged Latvia to hold the front against the Red Army south of Lake Lubāns, while the northern section of Latvia’s eastern border had to be protected by the Estonian troops for some more time. The Latvian government undertook to bear the costs incurred by Estonia in connection with the establishment of Latvian national units and the presence of the Estonian troops on Latvian territory, and not to allow the formation of any hostile units in Latvia. According to another provision a mixed committee had to be set up in order to determine the Estonian-Latvian state border.

On 1 October 1919, high-ranking delegations were present in Tartu. On the photo from the left: Assistant to the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ants Piip, Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jaan Poska, Estonian Prime Minister Otto Strandman, Lithuanian Representative in Riga and Tallinn Jonas Šliupas, Lithuanian Deputy Prime Minister Petras Leonas, Head of the Political Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Dovas Zaunius, Finnish Representative in Tallinn Erkki Reijonen, Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs Rudolf Holsti, Finnish Prime Minister Juho Vennola, (Latvian representative in Tallinn Janis Ramans?), Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics, Latvian Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis (semi-profile).

On a couple of occasions, the Finnish and Polish delegations joined the representatives of the Baltic republics. However, it was not possible to agree on joint peace talks with the Bolsheviks.

At the time, Estonia was already interested in concluding peace with Soviet Russia, whereas Latvia considered the reunification of Latgale, which had been occupied by the Red Army, to be a precondition for peace.

At a critical moment, the Estonian army command sent two armoured trains with infantry landing units to help Latvians, who were also supported by British and French warships. By November, the Latvian army had gained considerable strength, defeated Bermondt-Avalov’s regiments in fierce fighting, and forced them to leave the Latvian soil.

When the Estonian military authorities forcibly evacuated the Latvian institutions from Valga, Latvians also threatened to use military measures. Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics called on Estonians to resolve the situation diplomatically.

At the conference, an attempt was made to create a defence union of the Baltic states and prevent the conclusion of separate peace agreements with Soviet Russia. Estonia decided, however, to conclude the ongoing peace negotiations at Tartu, which had started in December. Due to the Lithuanian-Polish conflict over Vilnius, Lithuania stated that it would no longer be able to participate in the consultations with Poland.

The Estonian delegation in Helsinki was led by Prime Minister Jaan Tõnisson and the Latvian delegation by Minister of Foreign Affairs Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics.

.

Jaan Tõnisson in 1920. Tõnisson was the Estonian Prime Minister from November 1919 to October 1920. It was during his tenure when the foundations were laid for normal peace-time bilateral relations between Estonia and Latvia. Photo: Archives of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics (Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1918 to 1925) is considered the most prominent diplomat of the Baltic States of his time, playing also a central role in the development of Estonian-Latvian relations. Under his leadership, the most important meetings and negotiations were held and interstate agreements were signed. Photo: Ministers of Foreign Affairs Zigfrīds Meierovics and Karl Robert Pusta around 1925. Source: National Archives of Estonia

Neither country was satisfied with the decision of the court of arbitration, and disputes over the exact delimitation of the border lasted for some years. Still, with minor changes, the Tallents’ line has remained the basis of the Estonian-Latvian border to this day

As the conflict between Poland and Lithuania broke out again in October 1920 and Polish troops occupied Vilnius, the defence union treaty was not ratified.

On 17 March, a political agreement was signed and approved by the Estonian, Latvian, and Polish Parliaments, but the Parliament of Finland refused to ratify it, and thus the agreement did not enter into force. This marked the end of a whole phase in Baltic cooperation efforts – as the aspiration for a larger Baltic Union was not realized, political and economic cooperation was henceforth promoted through bilateral agreements.

The most important result of the Tallinn conference was the conclusion of the Treaty on Military Alliance between Estonia and Latvia, which obliged the parties to assist each other in the event of an unprovoked military attack by a foreign state. The agreement also set out common diplomatic and foreign policy directions for the two countries, promising full support to each other. The final impulse for conclusion of the agreement came from the preceding visit of a Soviet emissary to Tallinn, where some vague political demands were made that created uncertainty in the Baltic countries. Due to the recent communist coup attempt in Hamburg (Germany), Moscow’s representatives demanded that the Soviet Red Army be allowed to pass through the Baltic states if necessary.

The final border agreement between the two countries and the provisional agreement on the customs union were also signed in Tallinn. The Estonians had demanded the recognition of the Ruhnu island as part of Estonian territory, which the Latvians finally accepted at the conference. The parties waived claims for payment of costs incurred in 1919 in connection with the formation of Latvian national military units in Estonia and the activities of the Estonian Armed Forces on Latvian territory.

The state visits in 1925 were intended to confirm and deepen the friendly relations between the two countries.

See more

Estonia’s leading industrialists were in favour of a customs union, but small businesses and merchants feared competition from Latvia. There was also a concern that South Estonia would be more economically oriented towards Riga than Tallinn. The Latvians, on the other hand, considered the abolition of the customs border more beneficial for Estonia than for Latvia.

State Elder K. Päts also visited Latvia in May 1935, but only in transit while travelling to Poland for a holiday.

Source: Eero Medijainen, ‘Vilhelms Munters’. Journal “Kleio”, 1989, No. 2, p. 105–106.

Kārlis Zariņš, who i.a. had previously served as the Latvian Envoy to Estonia, remained in office in London until his death in 1963. Read more about his life here. August Torma continued to work as the Estonian Envoy in London until 1971.

In the United States, the Latvian Legation and the Estonian Consulate General continued to operate. From 1965, the Estonian Consul General in New York was Ernst Jaakson, who was born in Riga and had joined the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1919 as a junior office clerk in Riga. In 1991 Jaakson became Estonia’s first Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations.

Read more about how the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was liquidated and Estonian diplomats abroad were left to their own judgement on how to protect and maintain the state continuity.

The event was accompanied by a series of public events in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, which received a lot of attention in the international media and evoked angry protests from the Soviet representatives. The Baltic Tribunal held in Copenhagen condemned the Soviet occupation and its crimes committed in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

On 14 June 1987, the first major national demonstration took place at the Freedom Monument in Riga, where thousands of people brought flowers to commemorate the victims of the first Soviet mass deportation in June 1941. In the spring and summer of 1988, Estonian and Latvian national flags and other insignia, which had been banned during the Soviet occupation, were again publicly displayed. As many patriotic songs were sung at the gatherings, the period leading up to the restoration of independence has been referred to in both Estonia and Latvia as the Singing Revolution or the New Awakening (Laulev revolutsioon in Estonian, Atmoda in Latvian). From their inception, the Baltic liberation movements worked closely together.

Hundreds of thousands of Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians participated in the demonstration. The human chain connected the capitals of the three Baltic states on a 675.5 km Tallinn-Riga-Vilnius route. The Baltic Way had a tremendous political and psychological impact, both internationally and also in Moscow, as it became clear to everyone that the large majority of the Baltic peoples were behind the independence efforts.

This date is considered by Latvians the Day of the Restoration of Independence. A transition period of more than a year followed, which did not pass without tensions. There were continuous fears of military intervention by the Soviet army, and in January 1991 a confrontation in the centre of Riga resulted in human casualties when, after similar tragic events in Vilnius, people began to build barricades and special forces of the Soviet militia opened fire on demonstrators.

Anna Žigure is pictured above with Arnold Rüütel, Chairman of the Supreme Council, on the right, and Rein Müllerson, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, on the left.

Anna Žīgure handing over the credentials in Tallinn. From the left: Anna Žīgure; Kalle Ott, Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Rein Müllerson, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Arnold Rüütel, Chairman of the Supreme Council. Photo: Archives of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Before the accreditation of Ambassador Anna Žīgure, Aldis Bērziņš, Latvia’s chargé d’affaires ad interim, had been sent to Estonia and he presented his credentials to Deputy Foreign Minister Enn Liimets on 19 September 1991. Photo: Archives of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Leili Utno presented her credentials to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jānis Jurkāns and the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia Anatolijs Gorbunovs on 29 June 1992.