Aadu (Ado) Birk

* 14.11.1883 in the Tarvastu rural municipality
† 02.02.1942 in Sosva, Oblast of Sverdlovsk, Russia

Prime Minister
28.07.1920-30.07.1920

1917 provisional secretary of the Estonian Province Assembly (Eesti Maanõukogu), 1918 representative of Estonia in Helsinki, 1918-1919 Chairman of the Estonian Province Assembly and Chairman of the General Committee for the election of the Constituent Assembly (Asutav Kogu), 1919-1920 Assistant Chairman of the Constituent Assembly, 1919- 1920, 1920, 1925 Minister of Foreign Affairs. 1917-1919 member of the Estonian Province Assembly, 1919?1920 member of the Constituent Assembly, 1920-1922 member of the Riigikogu. 1922-1926 Estonian Ambassador to the Soviet Union.

Graduated from the Theological (Orthodox) Seminary in Riga, studied in the St. Petersburg (Orthodox) Theological Academy, and in the law departments of the Tartu (1907-1908), St. Petersburg (1908-1911) and Leipzig (1911) universities.

1911-12 Head of the Tallinn Statistical Bureau. 1912-1917 solicitor to barrister Jaan Poska. As an Ambassador to the Soviet Union, had in the beginning of 1926 a conflict with the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, refused to return after his demotion. In summer 1926 fell victim to the provocation of the Soviet secret service GPU, was imprisoned in Russia, returned to Estonia in 1927. Was accused of forwarding secret information to the USSR and was in pretrial imprisonment, in November 1927 was acquitted by the Tallinn-Haapsalu Peace Council (Rahukogu). After that a businessman in Tallinn.

In 1917-1924 chairman of the Tallinn Voluntary Society of Firemen, in 1919-1922 chairman of the All-Estonian Union of Firemen. On the second half of 1920s and in the 1930s active in the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (EAOC), 1939-1940 the Ecumenical Secretary of the EAOC.

Arrested by the NKVD (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, here the Soviet State Secret Police) 14.06.1941, was in the Sosva prison camp, was sentenced to death but died before the execution.