Tallinn Uprising of Dec. 1, 1924

an armed action by workers that was directed by the Communist Party of Estonia in the context of a pressing revolutionary situation.

Armed combat groups and detachments of Communists, Komsomol members, and nonparty workers were organized in Tallinn, Tartu, Narva, and other cities and villages. In November 1924 these groups had about 1,000 members. At a combined meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia and the Young Communist League of Estonia on November 29, a Military Revolutionary Committee was created under the chairmanship of V. Klein. J. Anvel’t, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia, took general control of the preparations. According to the plan of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the uprising was to begin in Tallinn and Pärnu and was to spread to all the large centers of the country. During the course of the uprising, it was planned to create a revolutionary government that would reinstate Soviet power.

The uprising began on the morning of December 1 with the action of about 300 fighters in fighting druzhinas (armed workers’ detachments). They occupied the Baltic railroad station, the Tallinn-Väike railroad station, the main post office, the parliament building, and the military airfield; and they blew up two railroad bridges. However, they did not succeed in capturing the War Ministry or the barracks of a number of military units. The uprising was quelled; in the course of two or three months, several hundred workers were executed by firing squads, and more than 2,000 people were arrested. There was mass repression throughout Estonia.