The political debate about the land question in the Estonian area of the Baltic provinces, 1905–1914

ABSTRACT

The Revolution of 1905 launched a political debate about the land question in the Baltic provinces. At the end of 1905, the first legal political parties were formed in the Estonian area. This article examines the views of different Estonian and Baltic German political parties and ideological factions on the land question from 1905 to 1914. The article argues that the debate about the land question was part of a wider discussion about the efficiency of large-scale and small-scale agriculture. The article concludes that the arguments represented in the debate were influenced by several property theories from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

KEYWORDS:

• Land question
• Baltic provinces
• Estonia
• revolution of 1905
• political thought
• political parties

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Abbreviations of political parties

BCP:   Baltic Constitutional Party

Cadets: Russian Constitutional Democratic Party

CPE: Constitutional Party in Estland

EPPP: Estonian Progressive People’s Party

ESDWU: Estonian Social Democratic Workers’ Union

RSDWP: Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party

SPD: German Social Democratic Party

Notes

1. The adherents of the radical wing of the Estonian national movement called themselves käremeelsed (the radicals). Nevertheless, the term ‘social liberals’ is most appropriate to describe those authors who attempted to reconcile liberal values and social justice.

2. The agrarian laws adopted in the provinces of Livonia and Estonia foresaw that a certain proportion of the manorial farmland previously allocated for peasant use would be held back and left at the disposal of the manor lords. In the Livonian agrarian law of 1849, this was termed ‘quota land’, while in the Estonian agrarian law of 1856, it was called the Sechstel (‘sixth’).