Edgar Savisaar (born May 31, 1950) is an Estonian politician, one of the founders of the Popular Front of Estonia and the 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 Economics 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 term, which she received for the company with her husband Elmar for trying to sell his own horse instead of putting it on the collective farm. Parents of Edgar lived in the district of Pylvamaa, bordering the Pskov region of Russia. The population there is actually mixed, many people with Russian surnames. So Edgar’s mother, as a girl, bore the name of Bureshin, her father and grandfather were called Vasily and Matvey, respectively, and his brother, who was a police officer and party organizer of the collective farm, was called Alexei.
Such is the story that there were many in the then USSR that happened to Elmar and Maria Savisaar, who got off cheaply (if you can say so at all!), Because my husband was given 15 years in camps. Maria saved the 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 began working early, starting to 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. During his studies, from 1969 he worked as an instructor in the Tartu District Committee of the Komsomol of Estonia, and from 1970 to 1973 - as the archivist of the Estonian State Historical Archive.
Career start in Soviet Estonia
Where did Edgar Savisaar work after graduation? His biography continued in the native district of Põlvamaa, where he worked as a high school teacher. In those years, student construction teams were very popular in the country. In Estonia, this movement had certain specifics. Almost all high school students, students of vocational schools and technical schools went to local collective and state farms in the summer to help agriculture. They were organized into units led by commanders and commissars, which were Komsomol workers and young teachers. One of these commissioners was Edgar Savisaar. He led the whole movement, of course, the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Estonia.
Scientific activity
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. This time Edgar Savisaar did not spend 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, and is engaged in economic planning. 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 Commission of Estonia. In 1988-1989 he was Research Director of the Minor Consulting Company.
The 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 show “Think Another.” Articles and speeches of Savisaar are actively discussed in the republic.
In April 1988, he, together with a group of like-minded people, created the Popular Front (Rahvarinne), which became the first mass political organization in the Soviet Union since 1920 that was not controlled by the Communist Party. The Popular Front, originally created to support perestroika, began to develop more and more the ideas of Estonian national independence and created the phenomenon of the so-called singing revolution, the hallmark of which was the unification of Estonians at rallies in thousands of traditional choirs performing folk songs.
Estonian exit from the USSR
Since the end of 1988, the Supreme Council of the Estonian SSR has consistently pursued a policy aimed at leaving the republic from the union. First, in the autumn of 1988, the Declaration of Sovereignty was adopted, which proclaimed the supremacy of Estonian laws over Union laws. A year later, a decree is issued recognizing the unlawful 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 Council of Ministers of Estonia and the head of its State Planning Commission. In March 1990, elections to the Supreme Council are held, at which the Popular Front receives only 24% of the vote, but it is Savisaaru who is tasked with forming the government. How could this happen? The fact is that the Estonian communists, a week after the election, decide to quit the CPSU, and their representatives in the Supreme Council are self-removed from the administration of the republic. As a result, Savisaar forms a government from 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 existence of the union republic illegal, and on May 8 of the same 1990 renamed the Estonian SSR to the Republic of Estonia with the abolition of the former anthem, flag and coat of arms and the restoration of the 1938 Constitution.
Confrontation May 15, 1990
Not everyone in Estonia liked what was happening. Indeed, over 40% of its population at that time were Russian and Russian-speaking citizens, who linked their future and its guarantees precisely with the preservation of the Soviet Union. In contrast to the Popular Front, they created the Interfront movement.
On May 15, 1990, thousands of his supporters flooded Lossi Square in front of the Supreme Council. A red flag was hoisted on its building (next to the three-color Estonian flag), and hundreds of protesters, breaking through the police barrier, went inside. They demanded a meeting with the chairman of the armed forces, Ruutel, but he did not appear in front of them.
At this time, Edgar Savisaar spoke on Estonian radio in Estonian. He repeated information about the alleged assault by supporters of the Interfront Government House on Toompea Square and urged 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, the leaders of the Interfront Mikhail Lysenko and Vladimir Yarovoy decided not to aggravate the situation and withdraw their supporters from the aircraft building. Instead of militia, its guard, as well as that of other state institutions, was taken over by the Estonian Defense League "Keitseliit". On that day, Soviet power in Estonia was defeated, but was not yet completely knocked down.
At the 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 its independence. But the latter was not in a hurry to do this, especially since many parts of the Soviet Army were on the territory of Estonia. And here, not anyone came to the aid of the Estonian nationalists, but Boris Yeltsin, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR.
Arriving in Tallinn in January 1991, Yeltsin, on behalf of the RSFSR, signs an agreement with Estonia recognizing its independence. Of course, this was a signal for the nationalists in all the other Union republics, and they heard it, beginning to nibble pieces from another united Union, and in the end they bit it after the failure of the August putsch of 1991 .
Career in a new country
Savisaar briefly led the government of independent Estonia. Breaking the old turned out to be easier than creating the new. As a result of the collapse of economic ties with Russia in early 1992, an acute economic crisis erupted in the country, so that the country even had to introduce grocery cards. In the wake of general discontent at the end of January 1992, the government of Savisaar resigned.
After that, he was vice-president of parliament for several years, held ministerial posts in various offices, was the mayor of the capital from 2001 to 2004, then returned to the government to the ministerial post. And finally, again since 2007, Edgar Savisaar was elected mayor of Tallinn. A photo of him relating to this period is shown below.
The story associated with the transfer in 2007 of a bronze soldier sculpture from the center of Tallinn, a monument to the fallen Soviet soldiers, gained wide resonance. Savisaar opposed this action, as a result of which he was accused by Estonian radicals of pro-Russian views.
It would seem that what could threaten such an experienced and sophisticated politician as Edgar Savisaar? 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 receiving bribes in the amount of several hundred thousand euros, and the court dismissed the mayor for the period of the investigation.
Personal life
Edgar Savisaar was married three times and is the father of four children. From his marriage to Kaira Savisaar, he has a son, Erka, and from marriage to Liis Savisaar, he has a daughter, Maria, and a son, Edgar. The last marriage was with Villa 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. It caused serious complication and inflammation of the soft tissues of the right leg.
What ultimately happened to such a famous person and politician as Edgar Savisaar? Amputation of the right leg above the knee. It goes without saying that to withstand all the blows of fate that it inflicts is not easy. However, we hope that Edgar Savisaar, whose health greatly let him down at the most critical moment of his life, is still a strong nature, able to survive all the trials that fell to his lot.