The Commune of the Working People of Estonia was a puppet state of Soviet Russia that existed from 29 November 1918 to 5 June 1919. The commune was established in Narva with the support of the Red Army, and Jaan Anvelt served as its chairman. The Commune closed churches, nationalized industry and banks, and outlawed representatives of the nationalist provisional government. From November 1918 to January 1919, around 500 clergymen, German estate owners, and other counter-revolutionaries were executed in a wave of terror. The communist offensive nearly took Tallinn, but a January 1919 counterattack by the Estonians under Johan Laidoner drove the Red Army out of Estonia. On 17 May 1919, the Commune created a government in exile in Staraya Russa, and it went defunct less than a month later.
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