the October Revolution, local communists disbanded the Provincial Assembly. On 28 November 1917, most of its members met in Toompea Castle and declared the assembly to be the highest legitimate power in Estonia. In a speech in the parliament, Tõnisson emphasized the situation of anarchy in Russia and supported the declaration, that eventually turned into a successful coup d'etat. Subsequently, Tõnisson was arrested by Bolshevik forces on 4 December 1917 for organizing a pro-Provincial Assembly meeting in Tartu. He was forced out of the country on 8 December. The Council of Elders of the assembly came together underground and decided to make him an Estonian delegate to Stockholm to find support for Estonian independence, or at least for its autonomy. Tõnisson and other members of the Russian Provincial Assembly were named Estonian delegates abroad and Tõnisson became the leader of Estonian Foreign Delegations, a position that would still be his when Estonia declared its independence on 24 February 1918. The delegations were eventually turned into embassies and in Stockholm, Tõnisson met with German and French ambassadors to find support for Estonian independence, but was later sent to Copenhagen, though several Estonian delegates eventually gathered in Stockholm. On 16 March 1918, Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs agreed to meet the delegates, but didn't grant any support. After the German Occupation of Estonia had ended, Tõnisson returned to Estonia on 16 November 1918. Independence From 12 November 1918, Tõnisson served as Minister without portfolio and from 27 November 1918 to 9 May 1919 as Minister plenipotentiary abroad of the Estonian Provisional Government, led by Konstantin Päts. Tõnisson's offices sent him abroad again, this time to Finland to seek weaponry and loans in the coming War of Independence. He was also part of the Estonian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference. For the elections to the Estonian Constituent Assembly, Tõnisson had yet again transformed his party, this time to the Estonian People's Party. In the elections of the Constituent Assembly in spring 1919, the centre-right (conservative-liberal) People's Party took 25 of the 120 seats, fewer than the Estonian Social Democratic Workers' Party (ESDTP) and the Labour Party. The shape of the new republic was to be determined by parties of the left and parties of the centre, including Tõnisson's People's Party. On 18 November 1919, Tõnisson became the Prime Minister of Estonia. Already on the next day, the government decided, that Estonia would