NATION : Estonia Vows Full Independence

The Baltic republic of Estonia today declared 50 years of Soviet rule invalid and pledged to achieve full independence, the Tass news agency said.

Deputies of the Supreme Soviet parliament did not set a date for full independence from Moscow. They opted to debate that on a later date, Tass said.

The move put Estonia on the path toward a possible confrontation with Moscow, like that of its Baltic neighbor, Lithuania. Lithuania declared independence March 11.

“The Estonian parliament denied the legitimacy of the state power of the Soviet Union in Estonia from the moment the Soviet system of government was established here,” Tass said.

“It also proclaimed the beginning of restoration of the Estonian republic, announcing a transition period which will be completed with the formation of the Estonian Republic’s constitutional agencies of state power,” Tass said.

Estonia, like Lithuania and Latvia, gained independence from the ruins of the Russian Empire at the end of World War I. But the three republics were annexed by Josef Stalin in 1940.