[1] On 14 June 1940, the Soviet Union gave the Republic of Estonia an ultimatum to permit the entry of an unspecified number of Red Army troops into the country.
The formation of a new cabinet was supervised by Andrei Zhdanov, deputy of Vyacheslav Molotov and a close associate of Lavrentiy Beria, who selected Johannes Vares as the prime minister.
The sole list of candidates in the election came from the Estonian Working People's Union, a front organization of the Communist Party of Estonia, which until recently had been illegal in the country.
[2] According to official numbers, the Estonian Working People's Union won all 80 seats of the Riigivolikogu with 92.8% of the votes cast.
The Vares' Cabinet was then replaced by the Council of People's Commissars of the Estonian SSR, headed by Johannes Lauristin, on August 25.