Communist Party of Estonia was a political party in Estonia. The party, initially known as Communist Party of Estonia , and was formed in 1990 through a split in the original EKP. The split occurred at the 20th congress of EKP in March 1990, as a reaction against the decision of the congress to separate EKP from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Immediately after the independence decision of EKP, the pro-Soviet delegates left the congress venue. The convened their own rival 20th congress on March 26, 1990. EKP elected its own Central Committee, headed by its First SecretaryAlexander Gusev, and would function as a separate party from EKP. The party was often perceived, along with Intermovement, as representing the resistance of the Russian population in Estonia against independence. However unlike the split in the Communist Party of Latvia, the split in EKP did not follow ethnic lines. A study on the electoral patterns of the 1990 Estonian Supreme Soviet election showed that the EKP candidates had a support of just 13.3% of the non-Estonian voters. Notably, when the split in EKP occurred in 1990 party units in Russian-dominated towns like Narva, Sillamäe and Kohtla-Järve decided to retain their membership in EKP rather than joining EKP. Unlike the analogous split in the Communist Party of Latvia, EKP failed to gain control over any major portion of the resources and personnel of the EKP after the split. On 20 June 1990 the name of the party was changed to Communist Party of Estonia . EKP held its 21st Party Congress in the fall of 1990. The congress elected an Estonian, Lembit Annus, as the new First Secretary. With the new leadership followed a less confrontational approach that its Latvian counterpart. In April 1991 Annus expressed willingness to enter a coalition government in Estonia. Parallel to the March 3, 1991 referendum on Estonian independence, the party organized a referendum of its own. The vote took place in the cities of Kohtla-Järve, Sillamäe and Narva. The question of the referendum was "Do you want the sovereign Estonia to remain within the composition of the USSR?". Unlike the main referendum, all residents could take part. Only the results from Sillamäe were made public, with a turnout of 83%. 89% of the voters in Sillamäe had voted yes in the referendum. The party supported the August 1991 coup. Following the defeat of the coup, the party was declared illegal by the Estonian government on August 22, 1991. At the time Central Committee secretary of the party was Pavel Panfilov. Reportedly, a very small group named Communist Party of Estonia of former members carried on their cause, initially their grouping was affiliated with the Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union, but when SKP-KPSS split in 2001 they joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of Oleg Shenin. The party carried out a congress in 1999, and elected a Central Committee.
