Farmers' Assemblies

The Farmers' Assemblies (Estonian: Põllumeeste Kogud) was a conservative political party in Estonia. Led by Konstantin Päts, it was the ruling party for most of the inter-war period.

The Rural League (Maarahva Liit) was formed in 1917 following an article in the Postimees newspaper by members of the Southern Estonian Farmers' Central Society, which called for the rural population to form political groups to represent themselves. The new party published the Maalit newspaper. In the Provincial Assembly elections later in the year the League received 22% of the vote and emerged as the largest party in the Assembly, holding 13 of the 62 seats.

After the elections the party became part of the Democratic Bloc alongside the Estonian Democratic Party and the Estonian Radical Democratic Party. The Bloc received around 23% of the vote in the February 1918 Constituent Assembly elections, which was cancelled. At the time the League was considering inviting the German Army to occupy Estonia to ward off Russian Bolsheviks.Konstantin Päts then joined the League to prevent this idea being implemented, and became its leader.

In the 1919 Constituent Assembly elections, the League performed poorly, winning only eight of the 120 seats and finishing in fourth place. The Estonian Labour Party government subsequently enacted radical land reforms that redistributed land to landless farmers. This policy was opposed by the Rural League, who saw a large increase in support in the 1920 elections amongst the new landowners who had drifted to the right following their gains. The results saw the League finish second with 21 of the 100 seats in the Riigikogu, and Päts became Head of State.

...
Wikipedia