MOSCOW -- Estonia's non-communist Parliament voted for a transition to independence Friday, avoiding a Lithuania-like showdown with Moscow.
'The restoration of the republic of Estonia has begun,' said a document approved unanimously by 73 deputies with three absentions. The document was a pragmatic but pale shadow of Lithuania's bold assertion of sovereignty on March 11.
Algirdas Cekuolis, a Lithuanian People's Deputy, who was in Tallinn, praised the sober proceedings.
'I see they have learned from our bitter experience,' Cekuolis said.
Earlier, the entire communist government resigned as a prelude to the formation of a coalition Cabinet that will lead the Baltic republic to independence.
The vote on the declaration of a transition to sovereignty came after a long debate in which ethnic Russian deputies said such a measure should be submitted to the republic's voters in a referendum.
In its final passed form, the declaration said: 'The Supreme Soviet declares a beginning of a period of transition which will culminate in the formation of the constitutional organs of the state power of the republic of Estonia.'
The 105-member Estonian Parliament, elected March 18 and dominated by Popular Front members, spent all day on the document's wording.
The declaration stressed that largely Lutheran Estonia was not breaking from Moscow but was reinstituting its old state in a subtle attempt to avoid the mounting debacle of Lithuania's declaration of independence.
But it said, 'The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Socialist Republic does not recognize the legality of the power of the U.S.S.R. on the territory of Estonia.'
The three Baltic republics maintain they were annexed into the Soviet Union as part of a secret World War II deal betweenSoviet despot Josef Stalin and Nazi Fuhrer Adolf Hitler.
The Parliament, or Supreme Soviet, also debated recognition of Lithuanian independence and full support for Vilnius' battle for sovereignty.
As part of the orderly path Estonia has chosen, the entire communist government resigned with Premier Indrek Toome staying on as caretaker.
Observers described the atmosphere as 'electric' in the Parliament whose makeup mirrors the ethnic mix in the tiniest Baltic republic -- two-thirds Estonians and one-third Russians.
The deputies said unequivocally they supported Catholic Lithuania's bid to regain its pre-World War II independence and criticized Moscow's heavy-handed tactics.
'Despite the peaceful means of assuring sovereignty, the U.S.S.R. went on a path of ultimatums and military pressures in Lithuania -- the aim of which is to make permanent the occupation of the Lithuanian republic,' the draft document said.
'In this difficult time for the Lituthanian people, the Surpeme Soviet of Estonia expresses it full support for their striving and recognizes the independence and statehood of Lithuania,' it said.
The vote on the declaration of Lithuanian support is scheduled for Monday.
