Otto Strandman
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Template:Cleanup-date Otto August Strandman (30 November 1875 - 5 February 1941) was Prime Minister of Estonia and Head of State. He was born in Vanda, Undla rural municipality, Virumaa and died in Kadrina, Estonia.
He was Estonian Prime Minister 9 May 1919 - 18 November 1919 and Elder of State 9 July 1929 - 12 February 1931; one of the eleven men to serve as Estonian head of state during its period of independence (1918 to 1940).
In 1917-1918 he was Chairman of the Estonian Province Assembly (Eesti Maanõukogu), in 1918, Minister of Justice, and in 1918-1919 Minister of Agriculture of the Provisional Government. In 1918, he was arrested by the German occupation powers. In 1919, he was Prime Minister and also Minister of War, 1920-1921 Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1921 Chairman of I Riigikogu, 1924 Minister of Foreign Affairs, later Minister of Finances, 1927-1929 Estonian Envoy to Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania, 1933 Envoy to France, Belgium and the Vatican. 1917-1919 Member of the Estonian Province Assembly, 1919-1920 Member of the Constitutent Assembly (Asutav Kogu), 1920-1937, member of the I-V Riigikogu.
Has been a member of the Council of the theatre Estonia, the Tallinn Savings and Loans Society and other non-governmental organisations. He has been awared the Cross of Freedom III-1 and an honorary doctorate of Law of the University of Tartu.
In 1941 he shot and killed himself when the NKVD (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, here the Soviet State Secret Police) officers came to arrest him.
Early life
Strandman was educated at the Emperor Alexander State High School in Tallinn, the 5th and 7th High Schools in St. Petersburg, and he passed the final exams at the Estonian Province State High School in Tallinn. After this, he worked in the Tallinn Office of the Russian State Bank for three years. In 1899-1901 he studied at the University of St. Petersburg's law department and in 1901-1903 at the University of Tartu's law department.
Between 1903 and 1905 he worked as a lawyer in Narva and in Tallinn, 1904-1905 and 1917 a member of the Tallinn City Council. He participated in the Russian Revolution of 1905, after which he lived in Switzerland and other European countries as an exile from 1905-1909. He returned to Tallinn in 1909 ans resumed work as a barrister, becoming the prosecutor of the Tallinn District Court in 1917.
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Template:Estonia Presidentsde:Otto August Strandman et:Otto Strandman fi:Otto Strandman