Although EKP had dropped much below from their popularity of 1917, it still had remarkable support mostly amongst the industrial proletariat, but occasionally also amongst the landless peasants, unemployed, teachers and students. Especially in the 1920s it had strong positions in the trade union movement. In the parliamentary elections EKP front organisations took always more than 5% of the vote. However, following the failed coup attempt by the Estonian communists on December 1, 1924, the party lost this support and membership fell to around 70 to 200 people and remained low until 1940. According to the ECP's own records, there were only 150 party members at the time of the Soviet occupation in July 1940.