The 1924 December russian coup attempt in Estonia
How russian communist garbage failed to take over the young Estonian state
Today one hundred years ago, on December 1 1924, russian garbage did what it always does, and attempted to overthrow the democratic government of young Republic of Estonia with a violent armed communist coup.
TL;DR: the coup thankfully failed within hours. russian help did not arrive. The young republic was saved. 17 Estonian soldiers, military school cadets and policemen, and 7 civilians died defending their state. 18 commies were killed during their coup attempt. 76 commies participating in the coup attempt were captured, swiftly court-martialed and executed. (The numbers slightly vary between different sources.)
Above: funeral of the Tondi Military School cadets who died defending against the coup
Backstory
russian imperialism always tries to interfere with the governments of its democratic neighbors. This was also the case of young Estonian state, which had fought and won its War of Independence against russia. The war ended with Tartu Peace Treaty signed on February 2 1920, which said:
Russia unreservedly recognizes the independence and sovereignty of the State of Estonia, and renounces voluntarily and forever all sovereign rights possessed by Russia over the Estonian people and territory
Of course, for russia such treaties never mean anything, so it immediately started to look for ways to attack and undermine Estonia.
There was an illegal communist party in Estonia which started to think about the coup, and enlisted russian support. russia agreed to support and gave some weapons and sent its agents to Estonia throughout 1924 to prepare for the attack. It also prepared some troops on Estonian border and navy on the sea, under the pretext of training, which were to intervene, if the coup would be successful. (Amassing russian troops on the border for “training.” Where have I heard this before?)
Estonian security forces were aware of the illegal communist activity and constantly chased them. There was a big trial in 1924 where many coup organizers were tried and convicted, but not all were caught.
Estonian commie coup organizers tried to convince russians that Estonia is about to collapse, that the working class is open to the idea of a communist coup, and the population will welcome the coup and invaders with flowers. (Where have I heard this before?) The russians went along with the plan for a while and helped with the preparations.
In the end, russia calculated that it does not want to get involved with the coup. russia would have had to invade with its troops, which would have been bad PR at the time when Soviet russia was trying to break out of its international isolation. Also russia wasn’t convinced of the Estonian commies’ story that the local people would welcome the coup, and thought that there were too few people and weapons involved for the coup to be successful.
The following crucial fact is omitted from some sources: in the last days of November 1924, Soviet russia decided that it does not want to get involved with this coup, and sent a message to the Estonian commies to call it off. The local commies either did not receive the message, or received but ignored it, and decided to go ahead with the coup anyway.
This is also why the Estonian security forces were not fully prepared for the coup. They roughly knew that it would be coming, and knew the people involved, but thought that one would be stupid to attempt it with so few people and resources.
We are lucky that russians and their sympathizers were so stupid.
Events of the day
At 5:15 in the morning of December 1 1924, about 270 local commies and russian agents with relatively few weapons and explosives left their hideouts in various locations around Tallinn, and attempted to take over several military and government structures. Their plan was to gain the support of Estonian soldiers and/or obtain more weapons from the Estonian military storage, and expand the coup from that, also waiting for help from russian troops who they thought would come.
I won’t do a detailed rundown of the events of the day: please see the sources below for full timeline, interesting stories and details.
One story I like is about Tartu garrison head Ernst Põdder, who just happened to be in Tallinn in Linden restaurant (some sources say partying and drinking) in the early morning hours of Dec 1. Having heard of the coup attempt, he and his companions immediately rushed into the nearby Main Post Office in Tallinn Old Town, and shot and killed a bunch of commies trying to overtake it.
In short, the commies managed to kill some Estonian policemen, soldiers and civilians, including Minister of Transportation Karl Kark. But Estonian government re-established control in five hours, and the coup failed the same day. russian help thankfully never came. The young Republic of Estonia was saved that day.
Aftermath
18 communists were killed during the events. Another 76 were caught, court-martialed and swiftly executed for their treason and attacks against constitutional order. (There is a lesson in there somewhere for modern times, for how to deal with russian garbage that attacks the constitutional order of a democratic state.)
Communists had some politicial influence in Estonia in 1920s, but completely lost it after this coup attempt, as Estonians were reminded of the true nature of russia. russia and communists did not have any politicial influence in Estonia until they again invaded and occupied Estonia in 1940.
It pains me to write this, but Soviet russia turned out to be right with its cynical calculus that getting directly involved in this coup would expose its true evil nature to the Western world too quickly. Instead, for the next few decades, it would concentrate on spreading its poison and lies in the West, and conceal its mass crimes like Holodomor in Ukraine with the help of its propaganda spreaders in Western journalism, until in 1940 it finally had the strength to attack, invade and occupy an even larger portion of Eastern Europe for several decades.
Jaan Anvelt and his legacy
Jaan Anvelt was the main organizer of the coup, and one of the leaders of the illegal Estonian communists in 1920s. After the coup attempt, he was one of the few people that successfully escaped to russia.
Do you think russia was thankful to him for his contribution and he lived in russia happily ever after?
Oh my sweet summer child. In 1937, an NKVD agent in russia beat him to death during an interrogation that happened as part of Stalin’s Great Purges.
This didn’t prevent russia from later using him as part of its propaganda in occupied Estonia. He was commemorated as a communist martyr, had monuments for him, and several streets named after him throughout the occupied country.
Jaan Anvelt’s grandson Andres Anvelt is alive and well today in free Estonia. He has worked as a prominent police officer and held several government minister positions. More recently, he was the original author and script consultant for the Estonian TV series “Traitor,” which is a well produced (and I’d say highly educational) series about russian spycraft in contemporary Estonia, and deserves its own post in my newsletter. Do watch the trailer on IMDB. I hope the series will be distributed more widely, but again, more on that in a future post.
Was producing this series, and other work he did in service of modern Estonia, a way for mr Anvelt to atone for his grandfather’s crimes against Republic of Estonia a hundred years ago? I don’t know if anyone ever asked him that, or how he thinks about it, but that’s one way to look at it. The world must know more about how russia distributed its poison then and does it today, and this TV series is one way to learn about it.
The battle of memorials
It’s instructive to look at the memorials around this coup attempt, to understand how cultural heritage and memories get twisted and repurposed based on who’s in power.
In 1928, an impressive monument was opened to the four Tondi Military School cadets who died when defending against the coup attempt. russian occupiers destroyed it in 1941.
On December 1 1974, the above monument was opened near main Baltic train station in Tallinn (which was one of the sites attacked in the coup) by the occupying Soviet authorities, to remember the communists who attempted the coup. The coup attempt had become a part of the russian lies and propaganda myth about fighting for the working class, and the monument was a physical expression of these russian lies.
People of Estonia secretly joked that this is the only memorial in the world to a coup where all the coup participants are present on the monument, since in reality there were so few of them. In 1990 as Estonia was regaining its independence, the monument was dismantled into pieces that are currently located in the outdoors area of Estonian History Museum’s Maarjamäe Palace.
This replica of the original monument to the deceased cadets was opened in 2009 at its original site near Tondi barracks buildings, where you can also see it today. The base is less impressive than the original, but the sculpture is an exact replica.
Sources and further reading
TÄNA 100 AASTAT TAGASI | Kas kommunistide ootamatu riigipöördekatse oleks võinud läbi minna?
History: The 1924 December coup attempt in Estonia
Meelis Maripuu: Lessons from coup attempts December 1924 and February 2022
Fragments from the Attack on Estonia’s Military School at the Time of the Communist Coup Attempt on 1 December 1924, and full version in Estonian for machine translation