Background
Paul Kulbusch was born on 25 July 1869 in Pootsi, Pärnumaa, in the southwest of present-day Estonia (then part of Imperial Russia).
Paul Kulbusch was born on 25 July 1869 in Pootsi, Pärnumaa, in the southwest of present-day Estonia (then part of Imperial Russia).
In 1917 a plenary council in Riga elected Kulbusch to be bishop of Reval (modern Tallinn, then a vicariate of the Riga diocese). He was consecrated as Bishop Platon on 31 December 1917. lieutenant was a tumultuous time.
World War I was raging on, Russia"s emperor had been overthrown, and Estonia yearned for independence, which Platon staunchly supported.
Under the threat of German invasion, Russian troops withdrew from Estonia, enabling the declaration of Estonian independence on 24 February 1918, only to be ended by German occupation days later. During the occupation Platon traveled extensively through Estonia, visiting parishes by horse.
Following the German Revolution, in November 1918 Germany formally handed over political power to the Estonian national government. In response, Bolshevik Russia invaded, attempting to regain control over the territory.
At this time, Platon was in Tartu (Dorpat), having fallen ill with pneumonia.
The Bolsheviks took Tartu on 24 December, and on 2 January Platon was arrested and imprisoned in a cellar. On 14 January 1919, he was executed along with two other priests, Michael Bleive and Nikolai Bezhanitsky, just before the city was retaken by the Estonian Army.