Vaino Väljas

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Vaino Väljas (b. March 28, 1931) was first secretary of communist party of Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic from June 16, 1988 to April, 1990 and chairman of the party from April, 1990 to August, 1991.

Väljas was considered to have Estonian nationalist inclinations and was therefore appointed as Soviet ambassador to Venezuela in 1980 and Nicaragua in 1986. As the Estonian independence movement gained momentum in 1988, the relatively liberal Väljas was recalled from Nicaragua and was appointed by Gorbachev as leader of the Estonian Communist Party. The Communist party lost its monopoly of power in February 1990.

Väljas was leader of former communist party, renamed leftist Democratic Estonian Workers Party until 1995.