Autonomous Governorate of Estonia

The autonomous Governorate of Estonia was an autonomous governorate of the Russian state, that existed from April 1917 to February 1918, centered in Tallinn. It was established as a result of political and administrative reforms implemented by the Russian Provisional Government, after the Russian Revolution in March 1917. Responding to demands of Estonian political leaders, the Government in Petrograd agreed to integrate several northern, ethnically Estonian districts of the Governorate of Livonia into the Governorate of Estonia, thus creating the enlarged and autonomous Estonian governorate on 12 April (1917). Estonian politician Jaan Poska was appointed Commissar (governor) of Estonia. In July 1917, the Assembly of Autonomous Estonia was elected, initially chaired by Artur Vallner, and later by Otto Strandman.

After the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917, the Assembly refused to recognize political legitimacy and authority of the newly established Bolshevik Government in Petrovgrad, and proclaimed itself the supreme provisional and political authority in Estonia, but still without formal secession. Since local Bolsheviks succeeded in asserting full control in Tallinn, the Assembly was suppressed, but its leaders continued political activities in secret. They emerged in February 1918, and created the Estonian Salvation Committee, that issued the Estonian Declaration of Independence on 24 February, while the Imperial German Army was closing on Tallinn. The city was captured the next day, and the rest of Estonia fell by the beginning of March, thus establishing the German occupation of Estonia, that lasted until the end of 1918.