Estonian Salvation Committee in the context of Konstantin Konik

The Estonian Declaration of Independence, formally titled the Manifesto to the Peoples of Estonia (Estonian: Manifest Eestimaa rahvastele), is the founding document which established the independent democratic Republic of Estonia in 1918. Issued during a period of intense political upheaval and foreign occupation in the wake of World War I and the 1917 Russian Revolution, the declaration asserted Estonia's national sovereignty and commitment to democratic governance. The declaration announces and explains the separation of Estonia from the former Russian Empire.

The Declaration was authored under the supervision of the Estonian Salvation Committee and adopted on 21 February 1918 unanimously by the Estonian Provincial Assembly's Council of Elders. It was read in public for the first time on 23 February 1918, at 8 p.m. from the balcony of the Endla Theatre in Pärnu by Hugo Kuusner, a delegate of the Provincial Assembly. The proclamation in Pärnu preceded the official declaration in Tallinn on 24 February 1918, when the Estonian Provisional Government assumed control.

The Estonian Provincial Assembly or Estonian State Diet, also known by its Estonian language name Maapäev, was elected in May–June 1917 during the Russian Revolution as the provincial parliament (diet) of the autonomous Governorate of Estonia. On 28 November 1917, after the Bolshevik coup in Petrograd (then Saint Petersburg, capital of Russia), the Assembly declared itself the sole sovereign power in the governorate of Estonia and called for the elections of Estonian Constituent Assembly. On the eve of the German occupation of Estonia during World War I the council of elders the Maapäev elected the Estonian Salvation Committee, who went on to issue the Estonian Declaration of Independence on 24 February 1918.

The Estonian Provisional Government (Estonian: Eesti Ajutine Valitsus) was formed on 24 February 1918, by the Salvation Committee appointed by Maapäev, the Estonian Province Assembly.