Edgar Savisaar: biography, photo

Edgar Savisaar (born May 31, 1950) is an Estonian politician, one of the founders of the Estonian Popular Front and the leader of the Centrist 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? His biography began in the prison of the Estonian village of Harku, where his mother Maria served a five-year term, which she received for her company with her husband Elmar for trying to sell his own horse instead of taking her to the collective farm. Edgar's parents lived in the Põlva County district bordering the Pskov region of Russia. The population there is generally mixed, many people with Russian surnames. So, Edgar's mother, in her maiden name, bore the last name of Bureshin, her father and grandfather were called Vasily and Matvey, respectively, and Alexei was the brother who was a policeman and party organizer of the collective farm.

This is the story that happened a lot in the then Soviet Union happened with Elmar and Maria Savisaar, who even got off cheaply (if you can talk at all!), Because her husband was given 15 years of camps. Maria saved 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 work in the Republican Clinical Hospital in Tartu. After work he studied at the evening school, which he graduated in 1968. Then Edgar Savisaar continued his studies at the University of Tartu at the Faculty of History, which he graduated in 1973. While studying, he worked as an instructor in the Tartu District Committee of the Estonian Komsomol since 1969, and from 1970 to 1973 as an archivist of the Estonian State Historical Archive.

The beginning of a career in Soviet Estonia

Where did Edgar Savisaar work after graduation? His biography continued in his home district of Põlvamaa, where he worked as a secondary school teacher. In those years in the country were very popular student construction teams. In Estonia, this movement was specific. Practically all senior pupils, students of vocational schools and technical schools went to local collective and state farms in summer to help agriculture. They were organized into detachments led by commanders and commissars, in the capacity of which Komsomol workers and young teachers spoke . One of these commissars was Edgar Savisaar. Supervised all this movement, of course, the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Estonia.

Research activity

Obviously, active public work helped the young teacher to enter the graduate school at the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR in 1977, where he studied until 1979. This time Edgar Savisaar spent not in vain, having managed to write a thesis, in which he examined 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 the 1980-1985 biennium. Savisaar works in the executive committee of the Tallinn City Council, is engaged in economic planning. At the same time since 1982 he works as an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy of the Estonian Academy of Sciences.

In the years 1985-1988. Savisaar is working in the State Planning Committee of Estonia. In the years 1988-1989. He was the research director of the consulting company "Minor".

Singing Revolution

With the beginning of Gorbachev's perestroika in the USSR, Savisaar publishes articles on the need to reform the society in the Estonian press. He is invited to television in the popular evening show "Let's think about it." Articles and speeches of Savisaar are 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 distinctive feature of which was the unification of Estonians at rallies in the many thousands traditional choirs performing folk songs.

The withdrawal of Estonia from the USSR

Since the end of 1988, the Supreme Council of the Estonian SSR has consistently pursued a policy aimed at seceding the republic from the union. First, in the fall of 1988, the Declaration of Sovereignty was adopted, which proclaimed the primacy of Estonian laws over the Union. A year later, a decree recognizing the illegal entry of Estonia into the USSR in July 1940 is issued.

In the same year 1989 Edgar Savisaar, being the leader of the Popular Front, becomes vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers of Estonia and the head of its State Planning Committee. In March 1990, elections to the Supreme Soviet are held, in which the Popular Front receives only 24% of the vote, but the formation of the government is entrusted to Savisaar. How could this happen? The matter is that the Estonian communists make a decision a week after the elections to withdraw from the CPSU, and their representatives in the Supreme Council are moving away from the administration of the republic. As a result, Savisaar forms a government from the members of the Popular Front, becoming chairman of the Council of Ministers of the still Estonian SSR.

However, a few days later the Supreme Soviet declared the very existence of the union republic illegal, and on May 8, 1990 renamed the Estonian SSR into the Republic of Estonia, with the abolition of the old hymn, flag and coat of arms and the restoration of the Constitution of 1938.

Confrontation on May 15, 1990

Not everyone in Estonia liked what was happening. After all, over 40% of its population were Russian and Russian-speaking citizens who linked their future and their 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 flooded the Lossi Square in front of the Supreme Council. A red flag was erected on its building (next to the three-colored Estonian flag), and hundreds of protesters broke through the police barrier and went inside. They demanded a meeting with Chairman Ruutel, but he did not appear before them.

At that time Edgar Savisaar was speaking in Estonian on Estonian radio. He repeatedly repeated the information about the supposed storming by the supporters of the Interfront Front of the Government House in Toompea Square and urged the Estonians to gather in this place. People responded to his appeal, and the city formed two centers of concentration of forces. A little more, and it could come to a direct collision. Under these conditions, the leaders of the Inter Front, Mikhail Lysenko and Vladimir Yarovoi, decided not to aggravate the situation and withdraw their supporters from the armed forces. His protection, as well as the protection of other state institutions, was replaced by militia units of the Estonian self-defense "Kaitsejliyt". On that day, Soviet power in Estonia was defeated, but not yet completely destroyed.

At the head of the Estonian government

Almost a year and a half until the attempted coup d'état in the USSR in August 1991, the Estonian authorities, headed by Savisaar and Rüütel, maneuvered, trying to get the allied leadership to recognize their independence. But the latter did not hurry to do this, especially since there were many parts of the Soviet Army in Estonia. And here, to help Estonian nationalists came not somebody, but Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin.

Arriving in Tallinn in January 1991, on behalf of the RSFSR, Yeltsin signed a treaty with Estonia recognizing her independence. Of course, this was a signal for the nationalists in all the other union republics, and they heard it, tearing at pieces from yet another Union, and eventually they gnawed at it after the failure of the August 1991 coup .

Career in a new country

Savisaar did not lead the government of independent Estonia for long. It was easier to break old than to create a new one. As a result of the collapse of economic ties with Russia in early 1992, an acute economic crisis broke out in the country, so the country even had to introduce grocery cards. On the wave 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 offices, was the mayor of the capital from 2001 to 2004, and then again returned to the government for a ministerial post. And finally, since 2007 Edgar Savisaar was elected mayor of Tallinn. His photo, referring to this period, is shown below.

A wide response was acquired by the story related to the transfer in 2007 from the center of Tallinn of the sculpture of a bronze soldier, a monument to the dead Soviet soldiers. Savisaar opposed this action, as a result of which he was accused by the Estonian radicals of 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 mayor's office of Tallinn, of taking bribes amounting to several hundred thousand euros, and the court dismissed the mayor for the investigation period.

Personal life

Edgar Savisaar was married three times and is the father of four children. From his marriage to Kaira Savisaar he has Erki's son, and from marriage with Liiz Savisaar he has a daughter Maria and 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, was reported on his hospitalization. How did Edgar Savisaar become ill? His illness was caused by a bacterial infection. She caused a serious complication and inflammation of the soft tissues of the right leg.

What happened with 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 sustain all the blows of fate that it strikes. However, we hope that Edgar Savisaar, whose health greatly deceived him at the most critical moment of his life, is still a strong person, able to survive all the trials that fell to his lot.