Soviet Republic of Nargen

The Soviet Republic of Nargen (Soviet Republic of Soldiers and Fortress-Builders) was a revolutionary state that during the First World War controlled the Estonian island of Naissaar (Swedish: Nargö; German: Nargen) in 1917-1918 for a brief period after the October Revolution and prior to the German occupation.

History

On November 5, 1917, the October Revolution spread from Estonia to Russia. 28 November (15 November) 1917 the Maapäev (Provincial Diet) refused to recognize the new Bolshevik rule and proclaimed itself the supreme legal authority in Estonia.

At the time, the most important fortification system in the area, called Peter the Great's Naval Fortress, was located at the narrowest point of Gulf of Finland. It included heavy coastal artillery batteries in the area of Estonia's capital Tallinn (Reval) and the nearby island of Naissaar. At the time, the Russian revolutionary activist Stepan Petrichenko was transferred to Tallinn. In December 1917, the revolutionary sailors of the Russian Navy took power on the small island of Naissaar and proclaimed an independent "socialist republic" there. The Russian sailors, numbering about 80-90, formed a self-styled government and levied taxies on the local population.

The Republic of Estonia formally declared independence on 23 February 1918, only to be forcibly occupied and annexed by the German Empire. Between February and November 1918, the Germans - who had already occupied the Estonian islands (Hiiumaa, Muhu and Saaremaa) in 1917 - also occupied Tallinn and the rest of Estonia, for the time being putting an end to both the Republican and the Soviet regimes. On 26 February 1918, the government of Naissaar evacuated from the island.

See also

• Kronstadt rebellion
• Soviet Republic disambiguation page

External links

• F.F. Raskolnikov, "Tales of Sub-Lieutenant Ilyin. A prisoner of the British"
• "Naissaar, Former Soviet Navy Base" (photographs with captions)
• Map of Naissaar