The Russian Provisional Government decreed that the provincial assembly be created with members elected by indirect universal suffrage.
In its last meeting on 15 November 1917, the Maapäev proclaimed itself the supreme legal authority of Estonia until the convening of the Constituent Assembly.
The council was then dissolved by force on 26 November by the Bolsheviks,[4] compelling leading politicians to go underground.
In the Constituent Assembly elections in early 1918, which were organised by the Bolsheviks, two-thirds of the voters supported the parties who stood for national statehood.
On 24 February, after the Bolsheviks abandoned Tallinn and one day before German forces occupied the country's capital city, the Salvation Committee issued a formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Estonia.