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Estonia

Coordinates: 59°N 26°E / 59°N 26°E / 59; 26

Estonia,[a] formally the Republic of Estonia,[b] is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia. The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland, the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and over 2,200 other islands and islets on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea,[9] covering a total area of 45,339 square kilometres (17,505 sq mi).[2] The capital city Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest urban areas of the country. The Estonian language is the autochthonous and the official language of Estonia; it is the first language of the majority of its population, as well as the world's second most spoken Finnic language.

Republic of Estonia
Eesti Vabariik (Estonian)
Anthem: 
Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm
(English: "My fatherland, my happiness and joy")
Location of Estonia (dark green)

– in Europe (green & dark grey)
– in the European Union (green)  –  [Legend]

Capital
and largest city
Tallinn
59°25′N 24°45′E / 59.417°N 24.750°E / 59.417; 24.750
Official language
and national language
Estoniana
Ethnic groups (2022)
Religion
(2011[1])
Demonym(s)Estonian
GovernmentUnitary parliamentary republic
• President
Alar Karis
Kaja Kallas
LegislatureRiigikogu
Independence 
24 February 1918
2 February 1920
1940–1991
20 August 1991
1 May 2004
Area
• Total
45,339[2] km2 (17,505 sq mi) (129thd)
• Water
2,339 km2 (903 sq mi)
• Water (%)
5.16 (2015)[3]
Population
• 2022 estimate
1,331,796[4]
• 2021 census
1,331,824[5]
• Density
30.6/km2 (79.3/sq mi) (148th)
GDP (PPP)2022 estimate
• Total
$61.389  billion[6] (113th)
• Per capita
$46,126[6] (39th)
GDP (nominal)2022 estimate
• Total
$39.054  billion[6] (101th)
• Per capita
$29,344[6] (35th)
Gini (2021) 30.6[7]
medium
HDI (2021) 0.890[8]
very high · 31st
CurrencyEuro () (EUR)
Time zoneUTC+02:00 (EET)
• Summer (DST)
UTC+03:00 (EEST)
Driving sideright
Calling code+372
ISO 3166 codeEE
Internet TLD.eeb
  1. According to the Constitution of Estonia, Estonian is the sole official language.
  2. Also .eu, shared with other member states of the European Union.

The land of what is now modern Estonia has been inhabited by Homo sapiens since at least 9,000 BC. The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last "pagan" civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Papal-sanctioned Livonian Crusade in the 13th century.[10] After centuries of successive rule by the Teutonic Order, Denmark, Sweden, and the Russian Empire, a distinct Estonian national identity began to emerge in the mid-19th century. This culminated in the 24 February 1918 Estonian Declaration of Independence from the then warring Russian and German Empires. After the end of World War I, in the 1918–1920 War of Independence, Estonians were able to repel the Bolshevik Russian invasion and successfully defended their newborn freedom. Democratic throughout most of the interwar period, Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, but the country was repeatedly contested, invaded and occupied, first by Stalinist Soviet Union in 1940, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and ultimately reoccupied in 1944 by, and annexed into, the USSR as an administrative subunit (Estonian SSR). After the loss of its de facto independence to the Soviet Union, Estonia's de jure state continuity was preserved by diplomatic representatives and the government-in-exile. Following the bloodless Estonian "Singing Revolution" of 1988–1990, the nation's de facto independence was restored on 20 August 1991.

Estonia is a developed country, with a high-income advanced economy, ranking very highly in the Human Development Index.[11] The sovereign state of Estonia is a democratic unitary parliamentary republic, administratively subdivided into 15 maakond (counties). With a population of just over 1.3 million, it is one of the least populous members of the European Union, the Eurozone, the OECD, the Schengen Area, and NATO. Estonia is nowadays often considered to be one of the three "Baltic countries" or "Baltic states" — a geopolitical grouping which also includes Latvia and Lithuania. Estonia has consistently ranked highly in international rankings for quality of life,[12] education,[13] press freedom, digitalisation of public services[14][15] and the prevalence of technology companies.[16]

Name

The name Estonia (Estonian: Eesti [ˈeːsʲti] ( listen)) has been connected to Aesti, a people first mentioned by Roman historian Tacitus around 98 AD. Some historians have suggested that Tacitus was referring to speakers of Baltic languages (i.e., not Finnic-speaking Estonians), while others have proposed that the name Aesti may have been applied to the entire eastern Baltic Sea region.[17] The Viking runestones[18] and Scandinavian sagas referring to Eistland are the earliest known sources to use the name indisputably for a geographic area overlapping with what is now Estonia.[19] The toponym Estland/Eistland has been linked to Old Norse eist, austr meaning "the east".[20]

History

Prehistory and Viking Age

 
Bronze Age stone-cist graves in north Estonia

Human settlement in Estonia became possible 13,000-11,000 years ago, when the ice from the last glacial era melted. The oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement, which was on the banks of the river Pärnu, near the town of Sindi, in southwest Estonia. According to radiocarbon dating, it was settled around 11,000 years ago.[21]

The earliest human habitation during the Mesolithic period is connected to the Kunda culture. At that time the country was covered with forests, and people lived in semi-nomadic communities near bodies of water. Subsistence activities consisted of hunting, gathering and fishing.[22] Around 4900 BC, ceramics appear of the neolithic period, known as Narva culture.[23] Starting from around 3200 BC the Corded Ware culture appeared; this included new activities like primitive agriculture and animal husbandry.[24]

 
Iron Age artefacts of a hoard from Kumna[25]

The Bronze Age started around 1800 BC, and saw the establishment of the first hill fort settlements.[26] A transition from hunter-fisher subsistence to single-farm-based settlement started around 1000 BC, and was complete by the beginning of the Iron Age around 500 BC.[21][27] The large amount of bronze objects indicate the existence of active communication with Scandinavian and Germanic tribes.[28]

The middle Iron Age produced threats appearing from different directions. Several Scandinavian sagas referred to major confrontations with Estonians, notably when "Estonian Vikings" defeated and killed the Swedish King Ingvar.[29][30] Similar threats appeared to the east, where East Slavic principalities were expanding westward. In ca 1030 the troops of Kievan Rus led by Yaroslav the Wise defeated Estonians and established a fort in modern-day Tartu. This foothold may have lasted until ca 1061 when an Estonian tribe, the Sosols, destroyed it, followed by their raid on Pskov.[31][32][33][34] Around the 11th century, the Scandinavian Viking era around the Baltic Sea was succeeded by the Baltic Viking era, with seaborne raids by Curonians and by Estonians from the island of Saaremaa, known as Oeselians. In 1187 Estonians (Oeselians), Curonians or/and Karelians sacked Sigtuna, which was a major city of Sweden at the time.[35][36]

Estonia could be divided into two main cultural areas. The coastal areas of Northern and Western Estonia had close overseas contacts with Scandinavia and Finland, while inland Southern Estonia had more contacts with Balts and Pskov.[37] The landscape of Ancient Estonia featured numerous hillforts.[38] Prehistoric or medieval harbour sites have been found on the coast of Saaremaa.[38] Estonia also has a number of graves from the Viking Age, both individual and collective, with weapons and jewellery including types found commonly throughout Northern Europe and Scandinavia.[38][39]

 
Independent counties of Ancient Estonia in the beginning of the 13th century

In the early centuries AD, political and administrative subdivisions began to emerge in Estonia. Two larger subdivisions appeared: the parish (Estonian: kihelkond) and the county (Estonian: maakond), which consisted of multiple parishes. A parish was led by elders and centered on a hill fort; in some rare cases a parish had multiple forts. By the 13th century, Estonia consisted of eight major counties: Harjumaa, Järvamaa, Läänemaa, Revala, Saaremaa, Sakala, Ugandi, and Virumaa; and six minor, single-parish counties: Alempois, Jogentagana, Mõhu, Nurmekund, Soopoolitse, and Vaiga. Counties were independent entities and engaged only in a loose cooperation against foreign threats.[40][41]

Little is known of medieval Estonians' spiritual and religious practices before Christianization. The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia mentions Tharapita as the superior deity of the then inhabitants of Saaremaa (Oeselians). There is some historical evidence about sacred groves, especially groves of oak trees, having served as places of "pagan" worship.[42][43]

Crusades and the Catholic Era

 
Medieval Estonia and Livonia after the crusade

In 1199, Pope Innocent III declared a crusade to "defend the Christians of Livonia".[44] Fighting reached Estonia in 1206, when Danish King Valdemar II unsuccessfully invaded Saaremaa. The German Livonian Brothers of the Sword, who had previously subjugated Livonians, Latgalians, and Selonians, started campaigning against the Estonians in 1208, and over next few years both sides made numerous raids and counter-raids. A major leader of the Estonian resistance was Lembitu, an elder of Sakala County, but in 1217 the Estonians suffered a significant defeat in the Battle of St. Matthew's Day, where Lembitu was killed. In 1219, Valdemar II landed at Lindanise, defeated the Estonians in the Battle of Lyndanisse, and started conquering Northern Estonia.[45][46] The next year, Sweden invaded Western Estonia, but were repelled by the Oeselians. In 1223, a major revolt ejected the Germans and Danes from the whole of Estonia, except Reval, but the crusaders soon resumed their offensive, and in 1227, Saaremaa was the last maakond (county) to surrender.[47][48]

After the crusade, the territory of present-day Southern Estonia and Latvia was named Terra Mariana, but later it became known simply as Livonia.[49] Northern Estonia became the Danish Duchy of Estonia, while the rest was divided between the Sword Brothers and prince-bishoprics of Dorpat and Ösel–Wiek. In 1236, after suffering a major defeat, the Sword Brothers merged into the Teutonic Order becoming the Livonian Order.[50] In the next decades there were several uprisings against the Teutonic rulers in Saaremaa. In 1343, a major rebellion started, known as the St. George's Night Uprising, encompassing the whole area of northern Estonia and Saaremaa. The Teutonic Order finished suppressing the rebellion in 1345, and the next year the Danish king sold his possessions in Estonia to the Order.[51][52] The unsuccessful rebellion led to a consolidation of power for the upper-class German minority.[53] For the subsequent centuries Low German remained the language of the ruling elite in both Estonian cities and the countryside.[54]

 
Kuressaare Castle in Saaremaa dates back to the 1380s

Reval (Tallinn), the capital of Danish Estonia founded on the site of Lindanise, adopted the Lübeck law and received full town rights in 1248.[55] The Hanseatic League controlled trade on the Baltic Sea, and overall the four largest towns in Estonia became members: Reval, Dorpat (Tartu), Pernau (Pärnu), and Fellin (Viljandi). Reval acted as a trade intermediary between Novgorod and western Hanseatic cities, while Dorpat filled the same role with Pskov. Many artisans' and merchants guilds were formed during the period.[56] Protected by their stone walls and membership in the Hansa, prosperous cities like Reval and Dorpat repeatedly defied other rulers of medieval Livonia.[57] After the decline of the Teutonic Order after its defeat in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, and the defeat of the Livonian Order in the Battle of Swienta on 1 September 1435, the Livonian Confederation Agreement was signed on 4 December 1435.[58]

Post-Reformation Era

 
"Academia Dorpatensis" (now University of Tartu) was founded in 1632 by King Gustavus as the second university in the kingdom of Sweden. After the king's death it became known as "Academia Gustaviana".

The Reformation began in central Europe in 1517, and soon spread northward to Livonia despite some opposition by the Livonian Order.[59] Towns were the first to embrace Protestantism in the 1520s, and by the 1530s the majority of the landowners and rural population had adopted Lutheranism as well.[60][61] Church services were now conducted in vernacular language, which initially meant Low German, but already from the 1530s onward the regular religious services were also held in the Estonian language.[60][62]

During the 16th century, the expansionist monarchies of Muscovy, Sweden, and Poland–Lithuania consolidated power, posing a growing threat to decentralised Livonia weakened by disputes between cities, nobility, bishops, and the Order.[60][63]

In 1558, Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia (Muscovy) invaded Livonia, starting the Livonian War. The Livonian Order was decisively defeated in 1560, prompting Livonian factions to seek foreign protection. The majority of Livonia accepted Polish rule, while Reval and the nobles of Northern Estonia swore loyalty to the Swedish king, and the Bishop of Ösel-Wiek sold his lands to the Danish king. Russian forces gradually conquered the majority of Livonia, but in the late 1570s the Polish-Lithuanian and Swedish armies started their own offensives and the bloody war finally ended in 1583 with Russian defeat.[63][64] As a result of the war, Northern Estonia became Swedish Duchy of Estonia, Southern Estonia became Polish Duchy of Livonia, and Saaremaa remained under Danish control.[65]

In 1600, the Polish–Swedish War broke out, causing further devastation. The protracted war ended in 1629 with Sweden gaining Livonia, including the regions of Southern Estonia and Northern Latvia.[66] Danish Saaremaa was transferred to Sweden in 1645.[67] The wars had halved the population of Estonia from about 250–270,000 people in the mid 16th century to 115–120,000 in the 1630s.[68]

While many peasants remained in the status of serfdom during the Swedish rule, legal reforms strengthened both serfs' and free tenant farmers' land usage and inheritance rights – hence this period got the reputation of "The Good Old Swedish Time" in people's historical memory.[69] Swedish King Gustaf II Adolf established gymnasiums in Reval and Dorpat; the latter was upgraded to Tartu University in 1632. Printing presses were also established in both towns. In the 1680s the beginnings of Estonian elementary education appeared, largely due to efforts of Bengt Gottfried Forselius, who also introduced orthographical reforms to written Estonian.[70] The population of Estonia grew rapidly for a 60–70-year period, until the Great Famine of 1695–97 in which some 70,000–75,000 people died – about 20% of the population.[71]

In 1700, the Great Northern War started, and by 1710 the whole of Estonia was conquered by the Russian Empire.[72] The war again devastated the population of Estonia, with the 1712 population estimated at only 150,000–170,000.[73] In 1721, Estonia was divided into two governorates: the governorate of Estonia, which includes the northern part of Estonia (such as the Tallinn area), and the southern governorate of Livonia, which extends to the northern part of Latvia.[74] Russian administration restored all the political and landholding rights of Baltic Germans.[75] The rights of local farmers reached their lowest point, as serfdom completely dominated agricultural relations during the 18th century.[76] Serfdom was formally abolished in 1816–1819, but this initially had very little practical effect; major improvements in farmers' rights started with reforms in the mid-19th century.[77]

National Awakening

The Estonian national awakening began in the 1850s as several leading figures started promoting an Estonian national identity among the general populace. Widespread farm buyouts by Estonians and the resulting rapidly growing class of land-owning farmers provided the economic basis for the formation of this new "Estonian identity". In 1857 Johann Voldemar Jannsen started publishing the first Estonian language daily newspaper and began popularising the denomination of oneself as eestlane (Estonian).[78] Schoolmaster Carl Robert Jakobson and clergyman Jakob Hurt became leading figures in a national movement, encouraging Estonian farmers to take pride in their ethnic Estonian identity.[79] The first nationwide movements formed, such as a campaign to establish the Estonian language Alexander School, the founding of the Society of Estonian Literati and the Estonian Students' Society, and the first national song festival, held in 1869 in Tartu.[80][81][82] Linguistic reforms helped to develop the Estonian language.[83] The national epic Kalevipoeg was published in 1862, and 1870 saw the first performances of Estonian theatre.[84][85] In 1878 a major split happened in the national movement. The moderate wing led by Hurt focused on development of culture and Estonian education, while the radical wing led by Jacobson started demanding increased political and economical rights.[81]

At the end of the 19th century, Russification began, as the central government initiated various administrative and cultural measures to tie Baltic governorates more closely to the empire.[80] The Russian language replaced German and Estonian in most secondary schools and universities, and many social and cultural activities in local languages were suppressed.[85] Still, some administrative changes aimed at reducing the power of Baltic German institutions did prove useful to Estonians.[80] In the late 1890s, there was a new surge of nationalism with the rise of prominent figures like Jaan Tõnisson and Konstantin Päts. In the early 20th century, Estonians started taking over control of local governments in towns from Germans.[86]

During the 1905 Revolution, the first legal Estonian political parties were founded. An Estonian national congress was convened and demanded the unification of Estonian areas into a single autonomous territory and an end to Russification. The unrest was accompanied by both peaceful political demonstrations and violent riots with looting in the commercial district of Tallinn and in a number of wealthy landowners' manors in the Estonian countryside. The Tsarist government responded with a brutal crackdown; some 500 people were executed and hundreds more jailed or deported to Siberia.[87][88]

Independence

 
The tricolour flags of Estonia on display during the public announcement of the Declaration of Independence of Estonia in Pärnu on 23 February 1918. One of the very first images of the independent republic.

In 1917, after the February Revolution, the governorate of Estonia was expanded by the Russian Provisional Government to include Estonian-speaking areas of Livonia and was granted autonomy, enabling the formation of the Estonian Provincial Assembly.[89] Bolsheviks seized power in Estonia in November 1917, and disbanded the Provincial Assembly. However, the Provincial Assembly established the Salvation Committee, and during the short interlude between Russian retreat and German arrival, the committee declared the independence of Estonia on 24 February 1918, and formed the Estonian Provisional Government. German occupation immediately followed, but after their defeat in World War I the Germans were forced to hand over power to the Provisional Government on 19 November 1918.[90][91]

On 28 November 1918 Soviet Russia invaded, starting the Estonian War of Independence.[92] The Red Army came within 30 km of Tallinn, but in January 1919, the Estonian Army, led by Johan Laidoner, went on a counter-offensive, ejecting Bolshevik forces from Estonia within a few months. Renewed Soviet attacks failed, and in spring, the Estonian army, in co-operation with White Russian forces, advanced into Russia and Latvia.[93][94] In June 1919, Estonia defeated the German Landeswehr which had attempted to dominate Latvia, restoring power to the government of Kārlis Ulmanis there. After the collapse of the White Russian forces, the Red Army launched a major offensive against Narva in late 1919, but failed to achieve a breakthrough. On 2 February 1920, the Tartu Peace Treaty was signed by Estonia and Soviet Russia, with the latter pledging to permanently give up all sovereign claims to Estonia.[93][95]

In April 1919, the Estonian Constituent Assembly was elected. The Constituent Assembly passed a sweeping land reform expropriating large estates, and adopted a new highly liberal constitution establishing Estonia as a parliamentary democracy.[96][97] In 1924, the Soviet Union organised a communist coup attempt, which quickly failed.[98] Estonia's cultural-autonomy law for ethnic minorities, adopted in 1925, is widely recognised as one of the most liberal in the world at that time.[99] The Great Depression put heavy pressure on Estonia's political system, and in 1933, the right-wing Vaps movement spearheaded a constitutional reform establishing a strong presidency.[100][101] On 12 March 1934 the acting head of state, Konstantin Päts, declared a state of emergency, under the pretext that the Vaps movement had been planning a coup. Päts, together with general Johan Laidoner and Kaarel Eenpalu, established an authoritarian régime during the "era of silence", when the parliament did not reconvene and the newly established Patriotic League became the only legal political movement for the time being.[102] A new constitution was adopted in a referendum, and elections were held in 1938. Both pro-government and opposition candidates were allowed to participate, but only as independents, as all political parties remained suspended under continued state of emergency.[103] The Päts régime was relatively benign compared to other authoritarian régimes in interwar Europe, and the régime never used violence against political opponents.[104]

Estonia joined the League of Nations in 1921.[105] Attempts to establish a larger alliance together with Finland, Poland, and Latvia failed, with only a mutual-defence pact being signed with Latvia in 1923, and later was followed up with the Baltic Entente of 1934.[106][107] In the 1930s, Estonia also engaged in secret military co-operation with Finland.[108] Non-aggression pacts were signed with the Soviet Union in 1932, and with Germany in 1939.[105][109] In 1939, Estonia declared neutrality, but this proved futile in World War II.[110]

World War II, Soviet and German Occupations

 
According to the 23 August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact "the Baltic States (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)" were divided into German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (German copy)

A week before the outbreak of World War II, on 23 August 1939, Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In the Nazi-Soviet pact's secret protocol Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland were divided between USSR and Germany into "spheres of influence", with Estonia assigned to the Soviet "sphere".[111] On 24 September 1939, the Soviet Union presented an ultimatum, demanding that Estonia sign a treaty of "mutual assistance" which would allow the Soviet Union to establish military bases in the country. The Estonian government felt that it had no choice but to comply, and the treaty was signed on 28 September 1939.[112] In May 1940, Red Army forces in bases were set in combat readiness and, on 14 June, the Soviet Union instituted a full naval and air blockade on Estonia. On the same day, the airliner Kaleva was shot down by the Soviet Air Force. On 16 June, the USSR presented an ultimatum demanding completely free passage of the Red Army into Estonia and the establishment of a pro-Soviet government. Feeling that resistance was hopeless, the Estonian government complied and, on the next day, the whole country was occupied.[113][114] On 6 August 1940, Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union as the Estonian SSR.[115]

 
The Red Army troops crossing Soviet-Estonian border in October 1939 after Estonia had been forced to sign the Bases Treaty

The USSR established an oppressive regime. Most of the high-ranking civil and military officials, intelligentsia and industrialists were arrested, and usually executed soon afterwards. Soviet repressions culminated on 14 June 1941 with mass deportation of around 11,000 people to Siberia, among whom more than half perished in inhumane conditions.[116][117] When Operation Barbarossa (accompanied by Estonian guerrilla soldiers called "Forest Brothers"[118]) began against the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 in the form of the "Summer War" (Estonian: Suvesõda), around 34,000 young Estonian men were forcibly drafted into the Red Army, fewer than 30% of whom survived the war. Soviet destruction battalions initiated a scorched earth policy. Political prisoners who could not be evacuated were executed by the NKVD.[119][120] Many Estonians went into the forest, starting an anti-Soviet guerrilla campaign. In July, German Wehrmacht reached south Estonia. The USSR evacuated Tallinn in late August with massive losses, and capture of the Estonian islands was completed by German forces in October.[121]

 
The capital Tallinn after bombing by the Soviet Air Force during the war on the Eastern Front in March 1944

Initially, many Estonians were hopeful that Germany would help to restore Estonia's independence, but this soon proved to be in vain. Only a puppet collaborationist administration was established, and occupied Estonia was merged into Reichskommissariat Ostland, with its economy being fully subjugated to German military needs.[122] About a thousand Estonian Jews who had not managed to leave were almost all quickly killed in 1941. Numerous forced labour camps were established where thousands of Estonians, foreign Jews, Romani, and Soviet prisoners of war perished.[123] German occupation authorities started recruiting men into small volunteer units but, as these efforts provided meagre results and military situation worsened, a forced conscription was instituted in 1943, eventually leading to formation of the Estonian Waffen-SS division.[124] Thousands of Estonians who did not want to fight in the German military secretly escaped to Finland, where many volunteered to fight together with Finns against Soviets.[125]

The Red Army reached the Estonian borders again in early 1944, but its advance into Estonia was stopped in heavy fighting near Narva for six months by German forces, including numerous Estonian units.[126] In March, the Soviet Air Force carried out heavy bombing raids against Tallinn and other Estonian towns.[127] In July, the Soviets started a major offensive from the south, forcing the Germans to abandon mainland Estonia in September, with the Estonian islands being abandoned in November.[126] As German forces were retreating from Tallinn, the last pre-war prime minister Jüri Uluots appointed a government headed by Otto Tief in an unsuccessful attempt to restore Estonia's independence.[128] Tens of thousands of people, including most of the Estonian Swedes, fled westwards to avoid the new Soviet occupation.[129]

Overall, Estonia lost about 25% of its population through deaths, deportations and evacuations in World War II.[130] Estonia also suffered some irrevocable territorial losses, as the Soviet Union transferred border areas comprising about 5% of Estonian pre-war territory from the Estonian SSR to the Russian SFSR.[131]

Second Soviet occupation (1944–1991)

 
Estonian Swedes fleeing the Soviet occupation to Sweden (1944)

Thousands of Estonians opposing the second Soviet occupation joined a guerrilla movement known as the "Forest Brothers". The armed resistance was heaviest in the first few years after the war, but Soviet authorities gradually wore it down through attrition, and resistance effectively ceased to exist in the mid-1950s.[132] The Soviets initiated a policy of collectivisation, but as farmers remained opposed to it a campaign of terror was unleashed. In March 1949 about 20,000 Estonians were deported to Siberia. Collectivization was fully completed soon afterwards.[116][133]

The Russian-dominated occupation authorities under the Soviet Union began Russification, with hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians and other "Soviet people" being induced to settle in occupied Estonia, in a process which eventually threatened to turn indigenous Estonians into a minority in their own native land.[134] In 1945 Estonians formed 97% of the population, but by 1989 their share of the population had fallen to 62%.[135] Occupying authorities carried out campaigns of ethnic cleansing, mass deportation of indigenous populations, and mass colonization by Russian settlers which led to Estonia losing 3% of its native population.[136] By March 1949, 60,000 people were deported from Estonia and 50,000 from Latvia to slave labor camps in Siberia, where death rates were 30%. The occupying regime established an Estonian Communist Party, where Russians were the majority in party membership.[137] Economically, heavy industry was strongly prioritised, but this did not improve the well-being of the local population, and caused massive environmental damage through pollution.[138] Living standards under the Soviet occupation kept falling further behind nearby independent Finland.[134] The country was heavily militarised, with closed military areas covering 2% of territory.[139] Islands and most of the coastal areas were turned into a restricted border zone which required a special permit for entry.[140] That is why Estonia was quite closed until the second half of the 1960s, when gradually Estonians began to watch Finnish television in the northern parts of the country due to a good signal range, thus getting a better picture of the way of life behind the Iron Curtain. Watching Finnish television was unauthorized, but nevertheless it was watched with a special device made for this purpose.[141]

The United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the majority of other Western countries considered the annexation of Estonia by the Soviet Union illegal.[142] Legal continuity of the Estonian state was preserved through the government-in-exile and the Estonian diplomatic representatives which Western governments continued to recognise.[143][144]

Restoration of independence

 
The blue-black-white flag of Estonia was raised again on the top of the Pikk Hermann tower on February 24, 1989.

The introduction of perestroika by the central government of the Soviet Union in 1987 made open political activity possible again in Estonia, which triggered an independence restoration process later known as Laulev revolutsioon ("Singing revolution").[145] The environmental Fosforiidisõda ("Phosphorite war") campaign became the first major protest movement against the central government.[146] In 1988, new political movements appeared, such as the Popular Front of Estonia, which came to represent the moderate wing in the independence movement, and the more radical Estonian National Independence Party, which was the first non-communist party in the Soviet Union and demanded full restoration of independence.[147] On 16 November 1988, after the first non-rigged multi-candidate elections in half a century, the parliament of Soviet-controlled Estonia issued the Sovereignty Declaration, asserting the primacy of Estonian laws over laws of the Soviet Union. Over the next two years, many other administrative parts (or "republics") of the USSR followed the Estonian example, issuing similar declarations.[148][149] On 23 August 1989, about 2 million Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians participated in a mass demonstration, forming the Baltic Way human chain across the three countries.[150] In 1990, the Congress of Estonia was formed as the representative body of Estonian citizens.[151] In March 1991, a referendum was held where 78.4% of voters supported full independence. During the coup attempt in Moscow, Estonia declared restoration of independence on 20 August 1991.[152]

 
Baltic Way in Estonia

Soviet authorities recognised Estonian independence on 6 September, and on 17 September Estonia was admitted into the United Nations.[153] The last units of the Russian army left Estonia in 1994.[154]

In 1992 radical economic reforms were launched for switching over to a market economy, including privatisation and currency reform.[155] Estonia has been a member of the WTO since 13 November 1999.[156]

21st century

 
The foreign ministers of the NATO countries in Tallinn in April 2010

Since regaining independence in 1991, Estonian foreign policy has been aligned with other Western democracies, and in 2004 Estonia joined both the European Union and NATO.[157] On 9 December 2010, Estonia became a member of OECD.[158] On 1 January 2011, Estonia joined the eurozone and adopted the euro, the single currency of EU.[159] Estonia was a member of the UN Security Council 2020–2021.[160]

In 2021, during the 2021–2022 Belarus–European Union border crisis, Estonia strengthened its border with Russia by fencing it with 40 kilometres (25 mi) of barbed wire and inviting almost 1,700 reservists to a preparedness exercise.[161][162]

In August 2022, half a year later after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Estonia began removing Soviet-era monuments, beginning with a T-34 tank in Narva, saying it was necessary for public order and internal security.[163][164]

Geography

Estonia lies on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea immediately across the Gulf of Finland, on the level northwestern part of the East European Plain between 57.3° and 59.5° N and 21.5° and 28.1° E. Average elevation reaches only 50 metres (164 ft) and the country's highest point is the Suur Munamägi in the southeast at 318 metres (1,043 ft). There are 3,794 kilometres (2,357 mi) of coastline marked by numerous bays, straits, and inlets. Estonia's number of islands and islets in the Baltic Sea is estimated at some 2,222, and the country has 2,355 including those in lakes. Two of them are large enough to constitute separate counties: Saaremaa and Hiiumaa.[165][166] A small, recent cluster of meteorite craters, the largest of which is called Kaali, is found on Saaremaa.

Estonia has over 1,400 lakes. Most are very small, with the largest, Lake Peipus, being 3,555 km2 (1,373 sq mi); it is the fifth largest lake in Europe,[167] and also the largest trans-boundary lake in the whole continent. There are many rivers in the country. The longest of them are Võhandu (162 km or 101 mi), Pärnu (144 km or 89 mi), and Põltsamaa (135 km or 84 mi).[165] Estonia has numerous fens and bogs. Forest land covers 50% of Estonia.[168] The most common tree species are pine, spruce and birch.[169]

Phytogeographically, Estonia is shared between the Central European and Eastern European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the WWF, the territory of Estonia belongs to the ecoregion of Sarmatic mixed forests.[170]

Geopolitically, Estonia is often considered to be one of the three Baltic countries or "Baltic states" — an unofficial geopolitical grouping which also includes Latvia and Lithuania. However, the term "Baltic states" ("countries", "nations", "lands", or similar) cannot be used unambiguously in the context of cultural areas, national identity, or language. While the majority of the population both in Lithuania and neighbouring Latvia are indeed Baltic peoples (Lithuanians and Latvians), the majority in Estonia (Estonians) are culturally and linguistically Finnic.[171]

Climate

Estonia is situated in the northern part of the temperate climate zone and in the transition zone between maritime and continental climate. The climate is more continental in the eastern part of the country and more maritime in the western part, especially on the islands. Estonia has four seasons of near-equal length. Average temperatures range from 17.8 °C (64.0 °F) on the islands to 18.4 °C (65.1 °F) inland in July, the warmest month, and from −1.4 °C (29.5 °F) on the islands to −5.3 °C (22.5 °F) inland in February, the coldest month. The average annual temperature in Estonia is 6.4 °C (43.5 °F).[172] Annual average precipitation is 662 mm.[173] The average for the year is 1829.6 hours of sunshine.[174] The duration of sunshine is highest in coastal areas and lowest inland in northern Estonia.[citation needed]

Biodiversity

 
The barn swallow (H. r. rustica) is the national bird of Estonia.

Many species extinct in most other European countries can be still found in Estonia. Large mammals present in Estonia include the grey wolf, lynx, brown bear, red fox, badger, wild boar, moose, red deer, roe deer, beaver, otter, grey seal, and ringed seal. The critically endangered European mink has been successfully reintroduced to the island of Hiiumaa, and the rare Siberian flying squirrel is present in east Estonia.[175][176] Introduced species, such as the sika deer, raccoon dog and muskrat, can now be found throughout the country.[177] Over 300 bird species have been found in Estonia, including the white-tailed eagle, lesser spotted eagle, golden eagle, western capercaillie, black and white stork, numerous species of owls, waders, geese and many others.[178] The barn swallow is the national bird of Estonia.[179]

Protected areas cover 18% of Estonian land and 26% of its territorial sea. There are 6 national parks, 159 nature reserves, and many other protection areas.[180] It had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 3.05/10, ranking it 152nd globally out of 172 countries.[181]

 
Estonia Endla Nature Reserve 07 Forest

Clearcutting is the dominant logging method in Estonia, used in 95% of total felling. And logging, in part for biomass, is contributing to the devastation of some of the world's most precious conservation areas. Between 2001 and 2019, Estonia's Natura 2000 areas lost an area more than twice the size of Manhattan, due in part to demand for biomass. Investigations show that companies like Graanul Invest—Europe's biggest pellet producer—and its subsidiaries (including Valga Puu), have clearcut large areas (the size of 17 football fields) of forests in both Estonia's Haanja and Otepää nature reserves. Estonian NGOs also report that industry actively lobbies for the weakening of Estonian regulations protecting these reserves.[182] At the same time, Estonia's current Minister of the Environment Erki Savisaar has announced that the Estonian government intends to dispute Estonia's obligations to reduce logging in accordance with the European Commission's climate package.[183]

As a result of loss of biodiversity, there are around 100,000 breeding pairs of birds less in Estonia than in previous years. Approximately half of Estonia's territory is covered with forests, but in fact, only one to two per cent of it can be considered truly natural old-growth forests – the rest is young and managed.[184] Species that need old forest habitats are also not doing well, with lynx and the flying squirrel moved down one endangerment category. Species that require wild meadow habitats are not doing well either.[185]

Across Estonia, between 2001 and 2019, Natura 2000 areas lost more than 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of forest cover. The last five years account for 80% of that loss. Further alterations to rules in other Estonian national parks are planned. This practice is also being pursued by RMK,[186] the state forest management company, which manages around half of Estonian forests.[187]

 
Haanja Nature reserve where violations of Natura 2000 area logging is taking place.

European Commission recently initiated infringement proceedings against Estonia for failing to properly implement the environmental impact assessment requirements laid down in EU law when permitting logging at Natura 2000 sites. Foreign media has also drawn attention to increasingly extensive logging in protected Estonian forests. For example, an investigative article published in Ingenioren, a Danish weekly newspaper specializing in engineering topics, highlighted that Estonian and Latvian wood pellets come from Natura 2000 protected areas and the annual increase in felling volumes is due to demand from other countries, including Denmark, for heating with CO2-neutral biomass.[188] The activities of the Estonian Ministry of the Environment directly violate EU measures to restrict protected forests, in particular the requirements and principles of the European Habitats Directive.[189]

Amidst the other concern with regards to loss of biodiversity, there are now proposals put forward by the Estonian Ministry of Environment to slash water body shoreline protected zones to 20 meters.[190] The legal amendment, if it were to pass, would particularly affect Estonia's islands, where protected zones are 200 meters from the shore, causing concern in nature conservationists.[191]

Politics

Estonia is a unitary parliamentary republic. The unicameral parliament Riigikogu serves as the legislative and the government as the executive.[192]

Estonian parliament Riigikogu is elected by citizens over 18 years of age for a four-year term by proportional representation, and has 101 members. Riigikogu's responsibilities include approval and preservation of the national government, passing legal acts, passing the state budget, and conducting parliamentary supervision. On proposal of the president Riigikogu appoints the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the chairman of the board of the Bank of Estonia, the Auditor General, the Legal Chancellor, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces.[193][194]

The Government of Estonia is formed by the Prime Minister of Estonia at recommendation of the President, and approved by the Riigikogu. The government, headed by the Prime Minister, represent the political leadership of the country and carry out domestic and foreign policy. Ministers head ministries and represent its interests in the government. Sometimes ministers with no associated ministry are appointed, known as ministers without portfolio.[195] Estonia has been ruled by coalition governments because no party has been able to obtain an absolute majority in the parliament.[192]

 
The seat of the Parliament of Estonia in Toompea Castle

The head of the state is the President who has primarily representative and ceremonial role. There are no referendums on the election of the president, but the president is elected by the Riigikogu, or by a special electoral college.[196] The President proclaims the laws passed in the Riigikogu, and has right to refuse proclamation and return law in question for a new debate and decision. If Riigikogu passes the law unamended, then the President has right to propose to the Supreme Court to declare the law unconstitutional. The President also represents the country in international relations.[192][197]

The Constitution of Estonia also provides possibility for direct democracy through referendum, although since adoption of the constitution in 1992 the only referendum has been the referendum on European Union membership in 2003.[198]

Estonia has pursued the development of the e-government, with 99 percent of the public services being available on the web 24 hours a day.[199] In 2005 Estonia became the first country in the world to introduce nationwide binding Internet voting in local elections of 2005.[200] In 2019 parliamentary elections 44% of the total votes were cast over the internet.[201]

In the most recent parliamentary elections of 2019, five parties gained seats at Riigikogu. The head of the Centre Party, Jüri Ratas, formed the government together with Conservative People's Party and Isamaa, while Reform Party and Social Democratic Party became the opposition.[202] In January 2021 Ratas resigned as prime minister in the wake of a corruption scandal,[203] and Reform Party leader Kaja Kallas became Estonia's first female prime minister. The new government was a two-party coalition between the country's two biggest political parties Reform Party and Centre Party.[204] In July 2022, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas formed a new three-party coalition by her liberal Reform Party, the Social Democrats, and the conservative Isamaa party. Her previous government had lost its parliamentary majority after the centre-left Centre Party left the coalition.[205]

Law

 
Building of the Supreme Court of Estonia in Tartu

The Constitution of Estonia is the fundamental law, establishing the constitutional order based on five principles: human dignity, democracy, rule of law, social state, and the Estonian identity.[206] Estonia has a civil law legal system based on the Germanic legal model.[207] The court system has a three-level structure. The first instance are county courts which handle all criminal and civil cases, and administrative courts which hear complaints about government and local officials, and other public disputes. The second instance are district courts which handle appeals about the first instance decisions.[208] The Supreme Court is the court of cassation, and also conducts constitutional review, it has 19 members.[209] The judiciary is independent, judges are appointed for life, and can be removed from office only when convicted by court for a criminal deed.[210] The Estonian justice system has been rated among the most efficient in the European Union by the EU Justice Scoreboard.[211]

Foreign relations

 
US President Barack Obama giving a speech in Tallinn (2014)

Estonia was a member of the League of Nations from 22 September 1921, and became a member of the United Nations on 17 September 1991.[212][213] Since restoration of independence Estonia has pursued close relations with the Western countries, and has been member of NATO since 29 March 2004, as well as the European Union since 1 May 2004.[213] In 2007, Estonia joined the Schengen Area, and in 2011 the Eurozone.[213] The European Union Agency for large-scale IT systems is based in Tallinn, which started operations at the end of 2012.[214] Estonia held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2017.[215]

Since the early 1990s, Estonia has been involved in active trilateral Baltic states co-operation with Latvia and Lithuania, and Nordic-Baltic co-operation with the Nordic countries. Estonia is a member of the interparliamentary Baltic Assembly, the intergovernmental Baltic Council of Ministers and the Council of the Baltic Sea States.[216] Estonia has built close relationship with the Nordic countries, especially Finland and Sweden, and is a member of Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB-8) uniting Nordic and Baltic countries.[213][217] Joint Nordic-Baltic projects include the education programme Nordplus[218] and mobility programmes for business and industry[219] and for public administration.[220] The Nordic Council of Ministers has an office in Tallinn with a subsidiaries in Tartu and Narva.[221][222] The Baltic states are members of Nordic Investment Bank, European Union's Nordic Battle Group, and in 2011 were invited to co-operate with Nordic Defence Cooperation in selected activities.[223][224][225][226]

 
Foreign ministers of the Nordic and Baltic countries in Riga, 2016

The beginning of the attempt to redefine Estonia as "Nordic" was seen in December 1999, when then Estonian foreign minister (and President of Estonia from 2006 until 2016) Toomas Hendrik Ilves delivered a speech entitled "Estonia as a Nordic Country" to the Swedish Institute for International Affairs,[227] with potential political calculation behind it being wish to distinguish Estonia from more slowly progressing southern neighbours, which could have postponed early participation in European Union enlargement for Estonia too.[228] Andres Kasekamp argued in 2005, that relevance of identity discussions in Baltic states decreased with their entrance into EU and NATO together, but predicted, that in the future, attractiveness of Nordic identity in Baltic states will grow and eventually, five Nordic states plus three Baltic states will become a single unit.[228]

Other Estonian international organisation memberships include OECD, OSCE, WTO, IMF, the Council of the Baltic Sea States,[213][229][230] and on 7 June 2019, was elected a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for a two-year term that began on 1 January 2020.[231]

Relations with Russia remain generally cold, though there is some practical co-operation.[232]

Estonia has very actively supported Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, providing highest support relative to its gross domestic product.[233]

Military

 
Estonian soldiers during a NATO exercise in 2015

The Estonian Defence Forces consist of land forces, navy, and air force. The current national military service is compulsory for healthy men between ages of 18 and 28, with conscripts serving 8 or 11-month tours of duty, depending on their education and position provided by the Defence Forces.[234] The peacetime size of the Estonian Defence Forces is about 6,000 persons, with half of those being conscripts. The planned wartime size of the Defence Forces is 60,000 personnel, including 21,000 personnel in high readiness reserve.[235] Since 2015 the Estonian defence budget has been over 2% of GDP, fulfilling its NATO defence spending obligation.[236]

The Estonian Defence League is a voluntary national defence organisation under management of Ministry of Defence. It is organised based on military principles, has its own military equipment, and provides various different military training for its members, including in guerilla tactics. The Defence League has 16,000 members, with additional 10,000 volunteers in its affiliated organisations.[237][238]

Estonia co-operates with Latvia and Lithuania in several trilateral Baltic defence co-operation initiatives. As part of Baltic Air Surveillance Network (BALTNET) the three countries manage the Baltic airspace control center, Baltic Battalion (BALTBAT) has participated in the NATO Response Force, and a joint military educational institution Baltic Defence College is located in Tartu.[239]

Estonia joined NATO in 2004. NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence was established in Tallinn in 2008.[240] In response to Russian war in Ukraine, since 2017 a NATO Enhanced Forward Presence battalion battle group has been based in Tapa Army Base.[241] Also part of NATO Baltic Air Policing deployment has been based in Ämari Air Base since 2014.[242] In European Union Estonia participates in Nordic Battlegroup and Permanent Structured Cooperation.[243][244]

Since 1995 Estonia has participated in numerous international security and peacekeeping missions, including: Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Kosovo, and Mali.[245] The peak strength of Estonian deployment in Afghanistan was 289 soldiers in 2009.[246] 11 Estonian soldiers have been killed in missions of Afghanistan and Iraq.[247]

Administrative divisions

 
Administrative divisions of Estonia

Estonia is a unitary country with a single-tier local government system. Local affairs are managed autonomously by local governments. Since administrative reform in 2017, there are in total 79 local governments, including 15 towns and 64 rural municipalities. All municipalities have equal legal status and form part of a maakond (county), which is an administrative subunit of the state.[248] Representative body of local authorities is municipal council, elected at general direct elections for a four-year term. The council appoints local government, headed by a mayor. For additional decentralization the local authorities may form municipal districts with limited authority, currently those have been formed in Tallinn and Hiiumaa.[249]

Separately from administrative units, there are also settlement units: village, small borough, borough, and town. Generally, villages have less than 300, small boroughs have between 300 and 1000, boroughs and towns have over 1000 inhabitants.[249]

Economy

 
A proportional representation of Estonia exports, 2019

As a member of the European Union, Estonia is considered a high-income economy by the World Bank. The GDP (PPP) per capita of the country was $29,312 in 2016 according to the International Monetary Fund.[6] Because of its rapid growth, Estonia has often been described as a Baltic Tiger beside Lithuania and Latvia. Beginning 1 January 2011, Estonia adopted the euro and became the 17th eurozone member state.[250]

According to Eurostat, Estonia had the lowest ratio of government debt to GDP among EU countries at 6.7% at the end of 2010.[251] A balanced budget, almost non-existent public debt, flat-rate income tax, free trade regime, competitive commercial banking sector, innovative e-Services and even mobile-based services are all hallmarks of Estonia's market economy.

Estonia produces about 75% of its consumed electricity.[252] In 2011, about 85% of it was generated with locally mined oil shale.[253] Alternative energy sources such as wood, peat, and biomass make up approximately 9% of primary energy production. Renewable wind energy was about 6% of total consumption in 2009.[254] Estonia imports petroleum products from western Europe and Russia. Estonia imports 100% of its natural gas from Russia.[255] Oil shale energy, telecommunications, textiles, chemical products, banking, services, food and fishing, timber, shipbuilding, electronics, and transportation are key sectors of the economy.[256] The ice-free port of Muuga, near Tallinn, is a modern facility featuring good transshipment capability, a high-capacity grain elevator, chill/frozen storage, and new oil tanker off-loading capabilities.[citation needed] The railroad serves as a conduit between the West, Russia, and other points.[citation needed]

 
The central business district of Tallinn

Because of the global economic recession that began in 2007, the GDP of Estonia decreased by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter of 2008, over 3% in the 3rd quarter of 2008, and over 9% in the 4th quarter of 2008. The Estonian government made a supplementary negative budget, which was passed by Riigikogu. The revenue of the budget was decreased for 2008 by EEK 6.1 billion and the expenditure by EEK 3.2 billion.[257] In 2010, the economic situation stabilised and started a growth based on strong exports. In the fourth quarter of 2010, Estonian industrial output increased by 23% compared to the year before. The country has been experiencing economic growth ever since.[258]

According to Eurostat data, Estonian PPS GDP per capita stood at 67% of the EU average in 2008.[259] In 2017, the average monthly gross salary in Estonia was €1221.[260]

However, there are vast disparities in GDP between different areas of Estonia; currently, over half of the country's GDP is created in Tallinn.[261] In 2008, the GDP per capita of Tallinn stood at 172% of the Estonian average,[262] which makes the per capita GDP of Tallinn as high as 115% of the European Union average, exceeding the average levels of other counties.

The unemployment rate in March 2016 was 6.4%, which is below the EU average,[260] while real GDP growth in 2011 was 8.0%,[263] five times the euro-zone average. In 2012, Estonia remained the only euro member with a budget surplus, and with a national debt of only 6%, it is one of the least indebted countries in Europe.[264]

Economic indicators

Estonia's economy continues to benefit from a transparent government and policies that sustain a high level of economic freedom, ranking 6th globally and 2nd in Europe.[265][266] The rule of law remains strongly buttressed and enforced by an independent and efficient judicial system. A simplified tax system with flat rates and low indirect taxation, openness to foreign investment, and a liberal trade regime have supported the resilient and well-functioning economy.[267] As of May 2018, the Ease of Doing Business Index by the World Bank Group places the country 16th in the world.[268] The strong focus on the IT sector through its e-Estonia program has led to much faster, simpler and efficient public services where for example filing a tax return takes less than five minutes and 98% of banking transactions are conducted through the internet.[269][270] Estonia has the 13th lowest business bribery risk in the world, according to TRACE Matrix.[271]

Estonia is a developed country with an advanced, high-income economy that was among the fastest-growing in the EU since its entry in 2004.[272] The country ranks very high in the Human Development Index,[273] and compares well in measures of economic freedom, civil liberties, education,[274] and press freedom.[275] Estonian citizens receive universal health care,[276] free education,[277] and the longest paid maternity leave in the OECD.[278] One of the world's most digitally-advanced societies,[279] in 2005 Estonia became the first state to hold elections over the Internet, and in 2014, the first state to provide e-residency.[280]

Historic development

 
Real GDP per capita development of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

In 1928, a stable currency, the kroon, was established. It is issued by the Bank of Estonia, the country's central bank. The word kroon (Estonian pronunciation: [ˈkroːn], "crown") is related to that of the other Nordic currencies (such as the Swedish krona and the Danish and Norwegian krone). The kroon succeeded the mark in 1928 and was used until 1940. After Estonia regained its independence, the kroon was reintroduced in 1992.[citation needed]

 
Estonia's GDP growth from 2000 until 2012

Since re-establishing independence, Estonia has styled itself as the gateway between East and West and aggressively pursued economic reform and integration with the West. Estonia's market reforms put it among the economic leaders in the former COMECON area.[citation needed] In 1994, based on the economic theories of Milton Friedman, Estonia became one of the first countries to adopt a flat tax, with a uniform rate of 26% regardless of personal income. This rate has since been reduced three times, to 24% in January 2005, 23% in January 2006, and most recently to 21% by January 2008.[281] The Government of Estonia finalised the design of Estonian euro coins in late 2004, and adopted the euro as the country's currency on 1 January 2011, later than planned due to continued high inflation.[250][282] A Land Value Tax is levied which is used to fund local municipalities. It is a state-level tax, but 100% of the revenue is used to fund Local Councils. The rate is set by the Local Council within the limits of 0.1–2.5%. It is one of the most important sources of funding for municipalities.[283] The Land Value Tax is levied on the value of the land only with improvements and buildings not considered. Very few exemptions are considered on the land value tax and even public institutions are subject to the tax.[283] The tax has contributed to a high rate (~90%)[283] of owner-occupied residences within Estonia, compared to a rate of 67.4% in the United States.[284]

In 1999, Estonia experienced its worst year economically since it regained independence in 1991, largely because of the impact of the 1998 Russian financial crisis.[citation needed] Estonia joined the WTO in November 1999. With assistance from the European Union, the World Bank and the Nordic Investment Bank, Estonia completed most of its preparations for European Union membership by the end of 2002 and now has one of the strongest economies of the new member states of the European Union.[citation needed] Estonia joined the OECD in 2010.[285]

Transport

The Port of Tallinn, taking into account both cargo and passenger traffic, is one of the largest port enterprises of the Baltic Sea. In 2018, the enterprise was listed in Tallinn Stock Exchange. It was the first time in nearly 20 years in Estonia when a state-owned company went public in Estonia. It was also the 2nd largest IPO in Nasdaq Tallinn in the number of retail investors participating. The Republic of Estonia remains the largest shareholder and holds 67% of the company.[286]

Owned by AS Eesti Raudtee, there are many significant railroad connections in Estonia, such as Tallinn–Narva railway, which is 209.6 km (130.2 mi) long main connection to St. Petersburg. The most important highways in Estonia, in other hand, includes Narva Highway (E20), Tartu Highway (E263) and Pärnu Highway (E67).

The Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport in Tallinn is the largest airport in Estonia and serves as a hub for the national airline Nordica, as well as the secondary hub for AirBaltic[287] and LOT Polish Airlines.[288] Total passengers using the airport has increased on average by 14.2% annually since 1998. On 16 November 2012 Tallinn Airport has reached two million passenger landmark for the first time in its history.[289]

Resources

 
The oil shale industry in Estonia is one of the most developed in the world.[290] In 2012, oil shale supplied 70% of Estonia's total primary energy and accounted for 4% of Estonia's gross domestic product.[291][292]

Although Estonia is in general resource-poor, the land still offers a large variety of smaller resources. The country has large oil shale and limestone deposits, along with forests that cover 48% of the land.[293] In addition to oil shale and limestone, Estonia also has large reserves of phosphorite, pitchblende, and granite that currently are not mined, or not mined extensively.[294]

Significant quantities of rare-earth oxides are found in tailings accumulated from 50 years of uranium ore, shale and loparite mining at Sillamäe.[295] Because of the rising prices of rare earths, extraction of these oxides has become economically viable. The country currently exports around 3000 tonnes per annum, representing around 2% of world production.[296]

Since 2008, public debate has discussed whether Estonia should build a nuclear power plant to secure energy production after closure of old units in the Narva Power Plants, if they are not reconstructed by 2016.[297][298]

Industry and environment

 
Rõuste wind farm in Lääneranna Parish

Food, construction, and electronic industries are currently among the most important branches of Estonia's industry.[citation needed] In 2007, the construction industry employed more than 80,000 people, around 12% of the entire country's workforce.[299] Another important industrial sector is the machinery and chemical industry, which is mainly located in Ida-Viru county and around Tallinn.

The oil shale-based mining industry, also concentrated in East Estonia, produces around 90% of the entire country's electricity.[citation needed] Although the number of pollutants emitted has been falling since the 1980s,[300] the air is still contaminated with sulphur dioxide from the mining industry the Soviet Union rapidly developed in the early 1950s. In some areas, coastal seawater is polluted, mainly around the Sillamäe industrial complex.[301]

Estonia is dependent on other countries for energy. In recent years, many local and foreign companies have been investing in renewable energy sources.[citation needed] Wind power has been increasing steadily in Estonia and the total current amount of energy produced from wind is nearly 60 MW; another roughly 399 MW worth of projects are currently being developed and more than 2800 MW being proposed in the Lake Peipus area and coastal areas of Hiiumaa.[302][303][304]

Currently[when?], there are plans to renovate some older units of the Narva Power Plants, establish new power stations, and provide higher efficiency in oil shale-based energy production.[305] Estonia liberalised 35% of its electricity market in April 2010; the electricity market as whole was to be liberalised by 2013.[306]

Together with Lithuania, Poland, and Latvia, the country considered participating in constructing the Visaginas nuclear power plant in Lithuania to replace the Ignalina nuclear plant.[307][308] However, due to the slow pace of the project and problems with the nuclear sector (like the Fukushima disaster and bad example of Olkiluoto plant), Eesti Energia shifted its main focus to shale oil production, seen as far more profitable.[309]

The Estonian electricity network forms a part of the Nord Pool Spot network.[310]

Estonia has a strong information technology sector, partly owing to the Tiigrihüpe project undertaken in the mid-1990s, and has been mentioned as the most "wired" and advanced country in Europe in the terms of e-Government of Estonia.[311] The 2014 e-residency program began offering those services to non-residents in Estonia.

Skype was written by Estonia-based developers Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn, who had also originally developed Kazaa.[312] Other notable startups that originated from Estonia include Bolt, GrabCAD, Fortumo and Wise (formerly known as TransferWise). It has been reported that Estonia has the highest startups per person ratio in the world.[313] As of January 2022, there are 1,291 startups from Estonia, seven of which are unicorns, equalling nearly 1 startup per 1,000 Estonians.[314][315]

Trade

 
Graphical depiction of Estonia's product exports in 28 colour-coded categories

Estonia has had a market economy since the end of the 1990s and one of the highest per capita income levels in Eastern Europe.[316] Proximity to the Scandinavian and Finnish markets, its location between the East and West, competitive cost structure and a highly skilled labour force have been the major Estonian comparative advantages in the beginning of the 2000s (decade). As the largest city, Tallinn has emerged as a financial centre and the Tallinn Stock Exchange joined recently with the OMX system. Several cryptocurrency trading platforms are officially recognised by the government, such as CoinMetro.[317] The current government has pursued tight fiscal policies, resulting in balanced budgets and low public debt.

In 2007, however, a large current account deficit and rising inflation put pressure on Estonia's currency, which was pegged to the Euro, highlighting the need for growth in export-generating industries. Estonia exports mainly machinery and equipment, wood and paper, textiles, food products, furniture, and metals and chemical products.[318] Estonia also exports 1.562 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually.[318] At the same time Estonia imports machinery and equipment, chemical products, textiles, food products and transportation equipment.[318] Estonia imports 200 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually.[318]

Between 2007 and 2013, Estonia received 53.3 billion kroons (3.4 billion euros) from various European Union Structural Funds as direct supports, creating the largest foreign investments into Estonia.[319] Majority of the European Union financial aid will be invested into the following fields: energy economies, entrepreneurship, administrative capability, education, information society, environment protection, regional and local development, research and development activities, healthcare and welfare, transportation and labour market.[320] Main sources of foreign direct investments to Estonia are Sweden and Finland (As of 31 December 2016 48.3%).[321]

Demographics

Residents of Estonia by ethnicity (2021)[322]
Estonians
69.1%
Russians
23.7%
Ukrainians
2.1%
Belarusians
0.9%
Finns
0.6%
Others
3.1%
Unknown
0.5%
 
Population of Estonia 1960–2019. The changes are largely attributed to Soviet immigration and emigration.[323]

Before World War II, ethnic Estonians made up 88% of the population, with national minorities constituting the remaining 12%.[324] The largest minority groups in 1934 were Russians, Germans, Swedes, Latvians, Jews, Poles, and Finns.

The share of Baltic Germans in Estonia had fallen from 5.3% (~46,700) in 1881 to 1.3% (16,346) by 1934,[324][325] mainly due to emigration to Germany in the light of general Russification at the end of the 19th century[citation needed] and the independence of Estonia in the 20th century.

Between 1945 and 1989, the share of ethnic Estonians in the population resident within the currently defined boundaries of Estonia dropped to 61%, caused primarily by the Soviet occupation and programme promoting mass immigration of urban industrial workers from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, as well as by wartime emigration and Joseph Stalin's mass deportations and executions.[326] By 1989, minorities constituted more than one-third of the population, as the number of non-Estonians had grown almost fivefold.

At the end of the 1980s, Estonians perceived their demographic change as a national catastrophe. This was a result of the migration policies essential to the Soviet Nationalisation Programme aiming to russify Estonia – administrative and military immigration of non-Estonians from the USSR coupled with the deportation of Estonians to the USSR.[citation needed] In the decade after the reconstitution of independence, large-scale emigration by ethnic Russians and the removal of the Russian military bases in 1994 caused[citation needed] the proportion of ethnic Estonians in Estonia to increase from 61% to 69% in 2006.

Modern Estonia is a fairly ethnically homogeneous country, but this historical homogeneity is a feature of 13 of the country's 15 maakond (counties). The mostly Russian-speaking immigrant population is concentrated in urban areas which administratively belong to two counties. Thus 13 of Estonia's 15 counties are over 80% ethnic Estonian, the most homogeneous being Hiiumaa, where Estonians account for 98.4% of the population. In the counties of Harju (including the capital city Tallinn) and Ida-Viru, however, ethnic Estonians make up 60% and 20% of the population, respectively. The ethnic Russian immigrant minority makes up about 24% of the country's total population now, but accounts for 35% of the population in Harju county and for a near 70% majority in Ida-Viru county.

The Estonian Cultural Autonomy law that was passed in 1925 was unique in Europe at that time.[327] Cultural autonomies could be granted to minorities numbering more than 3,000 people with longstanding ties to the Republic of Estonia. Before the Soviet occupation, the Germans and Jewish minorities managed to elect a cultural council. The Law on Cultural Autonomy for National Minorities was reinstated in 1993. Historically, large parts of Estonia's northwestern coast and islands have been populated by the indigenous ethnic group of rannarootslased ("Coastal Swedes").

In recent years the number of Swedish residents in Estonia has risen again, numbering in 2008 almost 500 people, owing to the property reforms at the beginning of the 1990s. In 2004, the Ingrian Finnish minority in Estonia elected a cultural council and was granted cultural autonomy. The Estonian Swedes minority similarly received cultural autonomy in 2007.[328] During the Russo-Ukrainian war of 2022, tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Estonia.

Society

 
Estonian folk dancers

Among Post-Soviet states, Estonia is one of the strongest Westernised countries.[329] Estonian society has undergone considerable changes over the last twenty years, one of the most notable being the increasing level of stratification, and the distribution of family income. The Gini coefficient has held steadily higher than the European Union average (31 in 2009),[330] although it has clearly dropped. The registered unemployment rate in January 2021 was 6.9%.[331]

Modern Estonia is a multinational country in which 109 languages are spoken, according to a 2000 census. 67.3% of Estonian citizens speak Estonian as their native language, 29.7% Russian, and 3% speak other languages.[332] As of 2 July 2010, 84.1% of Estonian residents are Estonian citizens, 8.6% are citizens of other countries and 7.3% are "citizens with undetermined citizenship".[333] Since 1992, roughly 140,000 people have acquired Estonian citizenship by passing naturalisation exams.[334] Estonia has also accepted quota refugees under the migrant plan agreed upon by EU member states in 2015.[335]

Ethnic distribution in Estonia is very homogeneous at a county level; in most counties, over 90% of residents are ethnic Estonians. In contrast, in the capital city Tallinn and the urban areas of Ida-Viru county (which neighbours Russia) ethnic Estonians account for around 60% of the population and the remainder is mostly composed of Russian and Ukrainian immigrants, who mostly arrived in Estonia during the period of Soviet occupation (1944–1991), however now also includes over 30,000 (ca 3% of total population) war refugees from Ukraine who have settled in Estonia in 2022.[citation needed]

 
A Russian Old Believer village with a church on Piirissaar island

The 2008 United Nations Human Rights Council report called "extremely credible" the description of the citizenship policy of Estonia as "discriminatory".[336] According to surveys, only 5% of the Russian community have considered returning to Russia in the near future. Estonian Russians have developed their own identity – more than half of the respondents recognized that Estonian Russians differ noticeably from the Russians in Russia. When compared with results from a 2000 survey, Russians had a more positive attitude toward the future.[337]

Estonia was the first post-Soviet republic to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples, with a law approved in October 2014.[338] Political disagreements delayed adoption of the necessary implementing legislation, and same-sex couples were not able to sign cohabitation agreements until January 1, 2016.

Urbanization

Tallinn is the capital and the largest city of Estonia, and lies on the northern coast of Estonia, along the Gulf of Finland. There are 33 cities and several town-parish towns in the country. In total, there are 47 linna, with "linn" in English meaning both "cities" and "towns". More than 70% of the population lives in towns.

 
 
Largest cities or towns in Estonia
Rank Name County Pop. Rank Name County Pop.
1 Tallinn Harju 438,341 11 Sillamäe Ida-Viru 12,230
2 Tartu Tartu 95,430 12 Valga Valga 11,792
3 Narva Ida-Viru 53,424 13 Võru Võru 11,533
4 Pärnu Pärnu 40,228 14 Paide Järva 10,285
5 Kohtla-Järve Ida-Viru 32,577 15 Jõhvi Ida-Viru 10,130
6 Viljandi Viljandi 16,875 16 Keila Harju 10,078
7 Maardu Harju 15,284 17 Saue Harju 5,831
8 Rakvere Lääne-Viru 14,984 18 Elva Tartu 5,616
9 Haapsalu Lääne 12,883 19 Tapa Lääne-Viru 5,168
10 Kuressaare Saare 12,698 20 Põlva Põlva 5,115

Religion

Religion in Estonia (2011)[340][341]

  Unaffiliated (64.87%)
  Eastern Orthodox (19.87%)
  Lutheran (12.02%)
  Other Christian (1.20%)
  Pentecostal and other neoprotestant denominations (0.93%)
  Other religions (1.10%)

Estonia has a diverse religious history, but in recent years it has become increasingly secular, with either a plurality or a majority of the population declaring themselves nonreligious in recent censuses, followed by those who identify as religiously "undeclared". The largest minority groups are the various Christian denominations, principally Lutheran and Orthodox Christians, with very small numbers of adherents in non-Christian faiths, namely Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. Other polls suggest the country is broadly split between Christians and the non-religious / religiously undeclared.

In ancient Estonia, prior to Christianization and according to Livonian Chronicle of Henry, Tharapita was the predominant deity for the Oeselians.[342]

Estonia was Christianised by the Catholic Teutonic Knights in the 13th century. The Protestant Reformation led to the establishment of the Lutheran church in 1686. Before the Second World War, Estonia was approximately 80% Protestant, overwhelmingly Lutheran,[343][344][345] followed by Calvinism and other Protestant branches. Many Estonians profess not to be particularly religious because religion through the 19th century was associated with German feudal rule.[346] There has historically been a small but noticeable minority of Russian Old-believers near the Lake Peipus area in Tartu county.

Today, Estonia's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, separation of church and state, and individual rights to privacy of belief and religion.[347] According to the Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Estonia is one of the least religious countries in the world, with 75.7% of the population claiming to be irreligious. The Eurobarometer Poll 2005 found that only 16% of Estonians profess a belief in a god, the lowest belief of all countries studied.[348] A 2009 Gallup poll found similar results, with only 16% of Estonians describing religion as "important" in their daily lives, making Estonia the most irreligious of the nations surveyed.[349]

 
Ruhnu stave church, built in 1644, is the oldest surviving wooden building in Estonia

New polls about religiosity in the European Union in 2012 by Eurobarometer found that Christianity is the largest religion in Estonia accounting for 45% of Estonians.[350] Eastern Orthodox are the largest Christian group in Estonia, accounting for 17% of Estonia citizens,[350] while Protestants make up 6%, and Other Christian make up 22%. Non believer/Agnostic account 22%, Atheist accounts for 15%, and undeclared accounts for 15%.[350]

The most recent Pew Research Center, found that in 2015, 51% of the population of Estonia declared itself Christian, 45% religiously unaffiliated—a category which includes atheists, agnostics and those who describe their religion as "nothing in particular", while 2% belonged to other faiths.[351] The Christians divided between 25% Eastern Orthodox, 20% Lutherans, 5% other Christians and 1% Roman Catholic.[352] While the religiously unaffiliated divided between 9% as atheists, 1% as agnostics and 35% as Nothing in Particular.[353]

Traditionally, the largest religious denomination in the country was Lutheranism, which was adhered to by 160,000 Estonians (or 13% of the population) according to the 2000 census, principally ethnic Estonians. According to the Lutheran World Federation, the historic Lutheran denomination has 180,000 registered members.[354] Other organisations, such as the World Council of Churches, report that there are as many as 265,700 Estonian Lutherans.[355] Additionally, there are between 8,000 and 9,000 members abroad. However, the 2011 census indicated that Eastern Orthodoxy had surpassed Lutheranism, accounting for 16.5% of the population (176,773 people).

Eastern Orthodoxy is practised chiefly by the Russian minority. The Estonian Orthodox Church, affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church, is the primary Orthodox denomination. The Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church, under the Greek-Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate, claims another 20,000 members.[citation needed]

Roman Catholics are a small minority in Estonia. They are organised under the Latin Apostolic Administration of Estonia.

According to the census of 2000 (data in table to the right), there were about 1,000 adherents of the Taara faith[356][357][358] or Maausk in Estonia (see Maavalla Koda). The Jewish community has an estimated population of about 1,900 (see History of the Jews in Estonia), and the Muslim community numbers just over 1,400. Around 68,000 people consider themselves atheists.[359]

Languages

 

The official language, Estonian is a Finnic language, and is conventionally classified as a member of the Uralic language family. Estonian is closely related to Finnish and one of the few languages of Europe that is not considered Indo-European. Unlike Estonian and Finnish, the languages of their nearest geographical neighbouring countries, Swedish, Latvian, and Russian, are all Indo-European languages.

Although the Estonian and Germanic languages are of different origins, one can identify many similar words in Estonian and German. This is primarily because the Estonian language has borrowed nearly one-third of its vocabulary from Germanic languages, mainly from Low Saxon (Middle Low German) during the period of German rule, and High German (including standard German). The percentage of Low Saxon and High German loanwords can be estimated at 22–25 percent, with Low Saxon making up about 15 percent.

South Estonian languages are spoken by 100,000 people and include the dialects of Võro and Seto. The languages are spoken in South-Eastern Estonia, are genealogically distinct from northern Estonian: but are traditionally and officially considered as dialects and "regional forms of the Estonian language", not separate language(s).[360]

Russian is the most spoken minority language in the country. There are towns in Estonia with large concentrations of Russian speakers and there are towns where Estonian speakers are in the minority (especially in the northeast, e.g. Narva). Russian is spoken as a secondary language by forty- to seventy-year-old ethnic Estonians, because Russian was the unofficial language of the Estonian SSR from 1944 to 1990 and was taught as a compulsory second language during the Soviet era. In the period between 1990 and 1995, the Russian language was granted an official special status according to Estonian language laws.[361] In 1995 it lost its official status. In 1998, most first- and second-generation industrial immigrants from the former Soviet Union (mainly the Russian SFSR) did not speak Estonian.[362] However, by 2010, 64.1% of non-ethnic Estonians spoke Estonian.[363] The latter, mostly Russian-speaking ethnic minorities, reside predominantly in the capital city of Tallinn and the industrial urban areas in Ida-Viru county.

From the 13th to the 20th century, there were Swedish-speaking communities in Estonia, particularly in the coastal areas and on the islands (e.g., Hiiumaa, Vormsi, Ruhnu; in Swedish, known as Dagö, Ormsö, Runö, respectively) along the Baltic sea, communities which today have almost disappeared. From 1918 to 1940, when Estonia was independent, the small Swedish community was well treated. Municipalities with a Swedish majority, mainly found along the coast, used Swedish as the administrative language and Swedish-Estonian culture saw an upswing. However, most Swedish-speaking people fled to Sweden before the end of World War II, before the invasion of Estonia by the Soviet army in 1944. Only a handful of older speakers remain. Apart from many other areas the influence of Swedish is distinct in the Noarootsi Parish of Lääne county where there are many villages with bilingual Estonian and/or Swedish names and street signs.[364][365]

The most common foreign languages learned by Estonian students are English, Russian, German, and French. Other popular languages include Finnish, Spanish, and Swedish.[366]

Education and science

 
The University of Tartu is one of the oldest universities in Northern Europe and the highest-ranked university in Estonia. According to the Top Universities website, the University of Tartu ranks 285th in the QS Global World Ranking.[367]

The history of formal education in Estonia dates back to the 13th and 14th centuries when the first monastic and cathedral schools were founded.[368] The first primer in the Estonian language was published in 1575. The oldest university is the University of Tartu, established by the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf in 1632. In 1919, university courses were first taught in the Estonian language.

Today's education in Estonia is divided into general, vocational, and hobby. The education system is based on four levels: pre-school, basic, secondary, and higher education.[369] A wide network of schools and supporting educational institutions have been established. The Estonian education system consists of state, municipal, public, and private institutions. There are currently 589 schools in Estonia.[370]

Estonia started connecting all its schools to the internet very early. Tiigrihüpe (Estonian for Tiger Leap) was a project undertaken by the state to heavily invest in the development and expansion of computer and network infrastructure in Estonia, with a particular emphasis on education.[371]

In the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, Estonia's students rank 1st in Europe. In the world, Estonia's students rank 5th in reading, 8th in mathematics and 4th in sciences.[372][373] Additionally, around 89% of Estonian adults aged 25–64 have earned the equivalent of a high-school degree, one of the highest rates in the industrialised world.[374]

 
House of the Estonian Students' Society, built in 1901–1902 in Tartu, and considered the first example of the Estonian style of urban architecture.[375]

Academic higher education in Estonia is divided into three levels: bachelor's, master's, and doctoral studies. In some specialties (basic medical studies, veterinary, pharmacy, dentistry, architect-engineer, and a classroom teacher programme) the bachelor's and master's levels are integrated into one unit.[376] Estonian public universities have significantly more autonomy than applied higher education institutions. In addition to organising the academic life of the university, universities can create new curricula, establish admission terms and conditions, approve the budget, approve the development plan, elect the rector, and make restricted decisions in matters concerning assets.[377] Estonia has a moderate number of public and private universities. The largest public universities are the University of Tartu, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn University, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonian Academy of Arts; the largest private university is Estonian Business School.

 
ESTCube-1 is the first Estonian satellite.

The Estonian Academy of Sciences is the national academy of science. The strongest public non-profit research institute that carries out fundamental and applied research is the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics (NICPB; Estonian KBFI). The first computer centres were established in the late 1950s in Tartu and Tallinn. Estonian specialists contributed in the development of software engineering standards for ministries of the Soviet Union during the 1980s.[378][379] As of 2015, Estonia spends around 1.5% of its GDP on Research and Development, compared to an EU average of around 2.0%.[380] Estonia was ranked 18th in the Global Innovation Index in 2022.[381]

Some of the best-known scientists related to Estonia include astronomers Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, Ernst Öpik and Jaan Einasto, biologist Karl Ernst von Baer, Jakob von Uexküll, chemists Wilhelm Ostwald and Carl Schmidt, economist Ragnar Nurkse, mathematician Edgar Krahn, medical researchers Ludvig Puusepp and Nikolay Pirogov, physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck, political scientist Rein Taagepera, psychologist Endel Tulving and Risto Näätänen, semiotician Juri Lotman.

According to New Scientist, Estonia will be the first nation to provide personal genetic information service sponsored by the state. They aim to minimise and prevent future ailments for those whose genes make them extra prone to conditions like adult-onset diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The government plans to provide lifestyle advice based on the DNA for 100,000 of its 1.3 million citizens.[382]

Culture

 

The culture of Estonia incorporates indigenous heritage, as represented by the Estonian language and the sauna, with mainstream Nordic and European cultural aspects. Because of its history and geography, Estonia's culture has been influenced by the traditions of the adjacent area's various Finnic, Baltic, Slavic and Germanic peoples as well as the cultural developments in the former dominant powers Germany, Sweden and Russia, for this reason it aspires more to be considered a Nordic state.[383][384]

Today, Estonian society encourages liberty and liberalism, with a popular commitment to the ideals of the limited government, discouraging centralised power and corruption. The Protestant work ethic remains a significant cultural staple, and free education is a highly prized institution. As the mainstream culture in the Nordic countries, Estonian culture can be seen to build upon the ascetic environmental realities and traditional livelihoods, a heritage of comparatively widespread egalitarianism out of practical reasons (see: Everyman's right and universal suffrage), and the ideals of closeness to nature and self-sufficiency (see: summer cottage).

The Estonian Academy of Arts (Estonian: Eesti Kunstiakadeemia, EKA) is providing higher education in art, design, architecture, media, art history and conservation while the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy has an approach to popularise native culture through such curricula as native construction, native blacksmithing, native textile design, traditional handicraft and traditional music, but also jazz and church music. In 2010, there were 245 museums in Estonia whose combined collections contain more than 10 million objects.[385]

Music

The earliest mention of Estonian singing dates back to Saxo Grammaticus Gesta Danorum (ca. 1179).[386] Saxo speaks of Estonian warriors who sang at night while waiting for a battle. The older folk songs are also referred to as regilaulud, songs in the traditional regivärss poetic metre shared by all Baltic Finns. Runic singing was widespread among Estonians until the 18th century, when rhythmic folk songs began to replace them.[387]

Traditional wind instruments derived from those used by shepherds were once widespread, and are now becoming more commonly played once more. Other instruments, including the fiddle, zither, concertina, and accordion are used to play polka or other dance music. The kannel is a native instrument that is again becoming more popular in Estonia. A Native Music Preserving Centre was opened in 2008 in Viljandi.[388]

 
Arvo Pärt was the world's most performed living composer from 2010 to 2018.

The tradition of Estonian Song Festivals (Laulupidu) started at the height of the Estonian national awakening in 1869. Today, it is one of the largest amateur choral events in the world. In 2004, about 100,000 people participated in the Song Festival. Since 1928, the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds (Lauluväljak) have hosted the event every five years in July. The last festival took place in July 2019. In addition, Youth Song Festivals are also held every four or five years, the latest taking place in 2017.[389]

Professional Estonian musicians and composers such as Aleksander Eduard Thomson, Rudolf Tobias, Miina Härma, Mart Saar, Artur Kapp, Juhan Aavik, Aleksander Kunileid, Artur Lemba and Heino Eller emerged in the late 19th century. Currently, the most well-known Estonian composers are Arvo Pärt, Eduard Tubin, and Veljo Tormis.[390] In 2014, Arvo Pärt was the world's most performed living composer for the fourth year in a row.[391]

In the 1950s, Estonian baritone Georg Ots rose to worldwide prominence as an opera singer.[392]

In popular music, Estonian artist Kerli Kõiv has become popular in Europe, also gaining in popularity in North America. She provided music for the 2010 Disney film Alice in Wonderland and the television series Smallville in the United States of America.[citation needed]

Estonia won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2001 with the song "Everybody" performed by Tanel Padar and Dave Benton. In 2002, Estonia hosted the event. Maarja-Liis Ilus competed for Estonia in 1996 and 1997, while Eda-Ines Etti, Koit Toome and Evelin Samuel partly owe their popularity to the song contest. Lenna Kuurmaa gained recognition in Europe performing with her band Vanilla Ninja. "Rändajad" by Urban Symphony was the first song in Estonian to chart in the UK, Belgium and Switzerland.[citation needed]

Literature

 
Jaan Kross is the most translated Estonian writer.

Estonian literature refers to literature written in the Estonian language (ca. 1 million speakers).[393] The domination of Estonia after the Northern Crusades, from the 13th century to 1918 by Germany, Sweden, and Russia, resulted in few early literary works being written in the Estonian language. The oldest records of written Estonian date from the 13th century. Originates Livoniae in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia contains Estonian place names, words and sentence fragments. The Liber Census Daniae (1241) contains Estonian place and family names.[394] Many folk tales are told to this day and some have been written down and translated to make them accessible to an international readership.[395] ABD ehk Luggemise-Ramat Lastele, an Estonian-language alphabet book by Otto Wilhelm Masing, was published in 1795.[396][397]

The cultural stratum of Estonian was originally characterised by a largely lyrical form of folk poetry based on syllabic quantity. Apart from a few, albeit remarkable, exceptions, this archaic form has not been widely employed in later times. One of the most outstanding achievements in the field is the national epic Kalevipoeg. At a professional level, the traditional folk song reached its new heyday during the last quarter of the 20th century, primarily thanks to the work of composer Veljo Tormis.

Oskar Luts was the most prominent prose writer of early Estonian literature and is still widely read today, particularly his lyrical school novel Kevade (Spring).[398] A. H. Tammsaare's social epic and psychological realist pentalogy, Truth and Justice, captured the evolution of Estonian society from a poor farmer community to an independent nation.[399][400] In modern times, Jaan Kross and Jaan Kaplinski are Estonia's best-known and most-translated writers.[401] Among the most popular writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries are Tõnu Õnnepalu and Andrus Kivirähk, who uses elements of Estonian folklore and mythology, deforming them into the absurd and grotesque.[402]

Media

The cinema of Estonia started in 1908 with the production of a newsreel about Swedish King Gustav V's visit to Tallinn.[403] The first public TV broadcast in Estonia was in July 1955. Regular, live radio broadcasts began in December 1926. Deregulation in the field of electronic media has brought radical changes compared to the beginning of the 1990s. The first licences for private TV broadcasters were issued in 1992. The first private radio station went on the air in 1990.

The most internationally known Estonian films include Those Old Love Letters, The Heart of the Bear, Names in Marble, The Singing Revolution, Autumn Ball, 1944, and The Fencer. Internationally known Estonian film actors include Lembit Ulfsak, Jaan Tätte, and Elmo Nüganen, who also known as a film director.

Estonian media sector has a large number of weekly newspapers and magazines, and Estonians have a choice of 9 domestic TV channels and a host of radio stations. Estonia has been internationally recognised for its high rate of press freedom, having been ranked 3rd in the 2012 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.[404]

Estonia has two news agencies. The Baltic News Service (BNS), founded in 1990, is a private regional news agency covering Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The ETV24 is an agency owned by Eesti Rahvusringhääling which is a publicly funded radio and television organisation created on 30 June 2007 to take over the functions of the formerly separate Eesti Raadio and Eesti Televisioon under the terms of the Estonian National Broadcasting Act.[405][406]

Architecture

 
A traditional farmhouse built in the Estonian vernacular style

The architectural history of Estonia mainly reflects its contemporary development in northern Europe. Worth mentioning is especially the architectural ensemble that makes out the medieval old town of Tallinn, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.[407] In addition, the country has several unique, more or less preserved hill forts dating from pre-Christian times,[408][409] a large number of still intact medieval castles and churches,[410][411][412] while the countryside is still shaped by the presence of a vast number of wooden manor houses from earlier centuries.

Holidays

The Estonian National Day is the Independence Day celebrated on 24 February, the day the Estonian Declaration of Independence was issued. As of 2013, there are 12 public holidays (which come with a day off) and 12 national holidays celebrated annually.[413][414]

Cuisine

 
Mulgipuder, a national dish of Estonia made with potatoes, groats, and meat. It is very traditional food in the southern part of Estonia.[415]

Historically, the cuisine of Estonia has been dependent on seasons and the simple food from the local farms and the sea. Today, it also includes many "global" foods. The most typical foods in modern Estonia are black bread, pork, potatoes, and dairy products.[416] Traditionally in summer and spring, Estonians like to eat everything fresh – berries, herbs, vegetables, and everything else that comes straight from the garden. Hunting and fishing have also been very common, although currently hunting and fishing are enjoyed mostly as hobbies. Today, it is also very popular to grill outside in summer.

A cardamom-spiced bread roll with almond paste vastlakukkel is a traditional Estonian sweet roll, especially popular from Christmas to Easter.[417]

Traditionally in winter, jams, preserves, and pickles are brought to the table. Gathering and preserving fruits, mushrooms, and vegetables for winter has always been popular, but today gathering and preserving is becoming less common because everything can be bought from stores. However, preparing food for winter is still very popular in the countryside.

Sports

Estonia first competed as an independent nation at the 1920 Summer Olympics. Estonian athletes took part in the 1952–1988 Olympic Games under the Soviet flag, as the country had been occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. The 1980 Summer Olympics Sailing regatta was held in the capital city Tallinn. After regaining independence in 1991, Estonia has participated in all Olympics. Estonia has won most of its medals in athletics, weightlifting, wrestling, and cross-country skiing. Estonia has been one of the most successful nations at the Olympics in terms of medals won per capita.[418] Estonia's best results were being ranked 13th in the total medals' table at the 1936 Summer Olympics, and 12th at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Estonia has many indoor and outdoor facilities dedicated to various sports branches.[419]

Kiiking, a relatively new sport, was invented in 1993 by Ado Kosk in Estonia. Kiiking involves a modified swing in which the rider of the swing tries to go around 360 degrees.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Estonian: Eesti [ˈeːsʲti] ( listen)
  2. ^ Estonian: Eesti Vabariik

References

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estonia, eesti, redirects, here, language, language, other, uses, disambiguation, coordinates, formally, republic, country, baltic, northern, europe, bordered, north, gulf, finland, across, from, finland, west, across, from, sweden, south, latvia, east, lake, . Eesti redirects here For the language see Estonian language For other uses see Estonia disambiguation Coordinates 59 N 26 E 59 N 26 E 59 26 Estonia a formally the Republic of Estonia b is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland to the west by the sea across from Sweden to the south by Latvia and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa and over 2 200 other islands and islets on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea 9 covering a total area of 45 339 square kilometres 17 505 sq mi 2 The capital city Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest urban areas of the country The Estonian language is the autochthonous and the official language of Estonia it is the first language of the majority of its population as well as the world s second most spoken Finnic language Republic of EstoniaEesti Vabariik Estonian Flag Coat of armsAnthem Mu isamaa mu onn ja room English My fatherland my happiness and joy source source track track track track track track track track Show globeShow map of EuropeLocation of Estonia dark green in Europe green amp dark grey in the European Union green Legend Capitaland largest cityTallinn59 25 N 24 45 E 59 417 N 24 750 E 59 417 24 750Official languageand national languageEstonianaEthnic groups 2022 69 4 Estonians23 6 Russians7 OthersReligion 2011 1 64 9 No religion34 0 Christianity 19 9 Orthodoxy 12 0 Lutheranism 2 1 Other Christian1 1 OthersDemonym s EstonianGovernmentUnitary parliamentary republic PresidentAlar Karis Prime MinisterKaja KallasLegislatureRiigikoguIndependence from Russian and German Empires Declaration of independence24 February 1918 Independence recognized2 February 1920 German and Soviet occupations1940 1991 Independence restored20 August 1991 Joined the European Union1 May 2004Area Total45 339 2 km2 17 505 sq mi 129thd Water2 339 km2 903 sq mi Water 5 16 2015 3 Population 2022 estimate1 331 796 4 2021 census1 331 824 5 Density30 6 km2 79 3 sq mi 148th GDP PPP 2022 estimate Total 61 389 billion 6 113th Per capita 46 126 6 39th GDP nominal 2022 estimate Total 39 054 billion 6 101th Per capita 29 344 6 35th Gini 2021 30 6 7 mediumHDI 2021 0 890 8 very high 31stCurrencyEuro EUR Time zoneUTC 02 00 EET Summer DST UTC 03 00 EEST Driving siderightCalling code 372ISO 3166 codeEEInternet TLD eebAccording to the Constitution of Estonia Estonian is the sole official language Also eu shared with other member states of the European Union The land of what is now modern Estonia has been inhabited by Homo sapiens since at least 9 000 BC The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last pagan civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Papal sanctioned Livonian Crusade in the 13th century 10 After centuries of successive rule by the Teutonic Order Denmark Sweden and the Russian Empire a distinct Estonian national identity began to emerge in the mid 19th century This culminated in the 24 February 1918 Estonian Declaration of Independence from the then warring Russian and German Empires After the end of World War I in the 1918 1920 War of Independence Estonians were able to repel the Bolshevik Russian invasion and successfully defended their newborn freedom Democratic throughout most of the interwar period Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II but the country was repeatedly contested invaded and occupied first by Stalinist Soviet Union in 1940 then by Nazi Germany in 1941 and ultimately reoccupied in 1944 by and annexed into the USSR as an administrative subunit Estonian SSR After the loss of its de facto independence to the Soviet Union Estonia s de jure state continuity was preserved by diplomatic representatives and the government in exile Following the bloodless Estonian Singing Revolution of 1988 1990 the nation s de facto independence was restored on 20 August 1991 Estonia is a developed country with a high income advanced economy ranking very highly in the Human Development Index 11 The sovereign state of Estonia is a democratic unitary parliamentary republic administratively subdivided into 15 maakond counties With a population of just over 1 3 million it is one of the least populous members of the European Union the Eurozone the OECD the Schengen Area and NATO Estonia is nowadays often considered to be one of the three Baltic countries or Baltic states a geopolitical grouping which also includes Latvia and Lithuania Estonia has consistently ranked highly in international rankings for quality of life 12 education 13 press freedom digitalisation of public services 14 15 and the prevalence of technology companies 16 Contents 1 Name 2 History 2 1 Prehistory and Viking Age 2 2 Crusades and the Catholic Era 2 3 Post Reformation Era 2 4 National Awakening 2 5 Independence 2 6 World War II Soviet and German Occupations 2 7 Second Soviet occupation 1944 1991 2 8 Restoration of independence 2 9 21st century 3 Geography 3 1 Climate 3 2 Biodiversity 4 Politics 4 1 Law 4 2 Foreign relations 4 3 Military 4 4 Administrative divisions 5 Economy 5 1 Economic indicators 5 2 Historic development 5 3 Transport 5 4 Resources 5 5 Industry and environment 5 6 Trade 6 Demographics 6 1 Society 6 2 Urbanization 6 3 Religion 6 4 Languages 6 5 Education and science 7 Culture 7 1 Music 7 2 Literature 7 3 Media 7 4 Architecture 7 5 Holidays 7 6 Cuisine 7 7 Sports 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links 12 1 Government 12 2 Travel 12 3 Maps 12 4 General informationName EditMain article Name of Estonia The name Estonia Estonian Eesti ˈeːsʲti listen has been connected to Aesti a people first mentioned by Roman historian Tacitus around 98 AD Some historians have suggested that Tacitus was referring to speakers of Baltic languages i e not Finnic speaking Estonians while others have proposed that the name Aesti may have been applied to the entire eastern Baltic Sea region 17 The Viking runestones 18 and Scandinavian sagas referring to Eistland are the earliest known sources to use the name indisputably for a geographic area overlapping with what is now Estonia 19 The toponym Estland Eistland has been linked to Old Norse eist austr meaning the east 20 History EditMain article History of Estonia Prehistory and Viking Age Edit Main articles Ancient Estonia and Viking Age in Estonia Bronze Age stone cist graves in north Estonia Human settlement in Estonia became possible 13 000 11 000 years ago when the ice from the last glacial era melted The oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement which was on the banks of the river Parnu near the town of Sindi in southwest Estonia According to radiocarbon dating it was settled around 11 000 years ago 21 The earliest human habitation during the Mesolithic period is connected to the Kunda culture At that time the country was covered with forests and people lived in semi nomadic communities near bodies of water Subsistence activities consisted of hunting gathering and fishing 22 Around 4900 BC ceramics appear of the neolithic period known as Narva culture 23 Starting from around 3200 BC the Corded Ware culture appeared this included new activities like primitive agriculture and animal husbandry 24 Iron Age artefacts of a hoard from Kumna 25 The Bronze Age started around 1800 BC and saw the establishment of the first hill fort settlements 26 A transition from hunter fisher subsistence to single farm based settlement started around 1000 BC and was complete by the beginning of the Iron Age around 500 BC 21 27 The large amount of bronze objects indicate the existence of active communication with Scandinavian and Germanic tribes 28 The middle Iron Age produced threats appearing from different directions Several Scandinavian sagas referred to major confrontations with Estonians notably when Estonian Vikings defeated and killed the Swedish King Ingvar 29 30 Similar threats appeared to the east where East Slavic principalities were expanding westward In ca 1030 the troops of Kievan Rus led by Yaroslav the Wise defeated Estonians and established a fort in modern day Tartu This foothold may have lasted until ca 1061 when an Estonian tribe the Sosols destroyed it followed by their raid on Pskov 31 32 33 34 Around the 11th century the Scandinavian Viking era around the Baltic Sea was succeeded by the Baltic Viking era with seaborne raids by Curonians and by Estonians from the island of Saaremaa known as Oeselians In 1187 Estonians Oeselians Curonians or and Karelians sacked Sigtuna which was a major city of Sweden at the time 35 36 Estonia could be divided into two main cultural areas The coastal areas of Northern and Western Estonia had close overseas contacts with Scandinavia and Finland while inland Southern Estonia had more contacts with Balts and Pskov 37 The landscape of Ancient Estonia featured numerous hillforts 38 Prehistoric or medieval harbour sites have been found on the coast of Saaremaa 38 Estonia also has a number of graves from the Viking Age both individual and collective with weapons and jewellery including types found commonly throughout Northern Europe and Scandinavia 38 39 Independent counties of Ancient Estonia in the beginning of the 13th century In the early centuries AD political and administrative subdivisions began to emerge in Estonia Two larger subdivisions appeared the parish Estonian kihelkond and the county Estonian maakond which consisted of multiple parishes A parish was led by elders and centered on a hill fort in some rare cases a parish had multiple forts By the 13th century Estonia consisted of eight major counties Harjumaa Jarvamaa Laanemaa Revala Saaremaa Sakala Ugandi and Virumaa and six minor single parish counties Alempois Jogentagana Mohu Nurmekund Soopoolitse and Vaiga Counties were independent entities and engaged only in a loose cooperation against foreign threats 40 41 Little is known of medieval Estonians spiritual and religious practices before Christianization The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia mentions Tharapita as the superior deity of the then inhabitants of Saaremaa Oeselians There is some historical evidence about sacred groves especially groves of oak trees having served as places of pagan worship 42 43 Crusades and the Catholic Era Edit Main articles Livonian Crusade Terra Mariana and Danish Estonia Medieval Estonia and Livonia after the crusade In 1199 Pope Innocent III declared a crusade to defend the Christians of Livonia 44 Fighting reached Estonia in 1206 when Danish King Valdemar II unsuccessfully invaded Saaremaa The German Livonian Brothers of the Sword who had previously subjugated Livonians Latgalians and Selonians started campaigning against the Estonians in 1208 and over next few years both sides made numerous raids and counter raids A major leader of the Estonian resistance was Lembitu an elder of Sakala County but in 1217 the Estonians suffered a significant defeat in the Battle of St Matthew s Day where Lembitu was killed In 1219 Valdemar II landed at Lindanise defeated the Estonians in the Battle of Lyndanisse and started conquering Northern Estonia 45 46 The next year Sweden invaded Western Estonia but were repelled by the Oeselians In 1223 a major revolt ejected the Germans and Danes from the whole of Estonia except Reval but the crusaders soon resumed their offensive and in 1227 Saaremaa was the last maakond county to surrender 47 48 After the crusade the territory of present day Southern Estonia and Latvia was named Terra Mariana but later it became known simply as Livonia 49 Northern Estonia became the Danish Duchy of Estonia while the rest was divided between the Sword Brothers and prince bishoprics of Dorpat and Osel Wiek In 1236 after suffering a major defeat the Sword Brothers merged into the Teutonic Order becoming the Livonian Order 50 In the next decades there were several uprisings against the Teutonic rulers in Saaremaa In 1343 a major rebellion started known as the St George s Night Uprising encompassing the whole area of northern Estonia and Saaremaa The Teutonic Order finished suppressing the rebellion in 1345 and the next year the Danish king sold his possessions in Estonia to the Order 51 52 The unsuccessful rebellion led to a consolidation of power for the upper class German minority 53 For the subsequent centuries Low German remained the language of the ruling elite in both Estonian cities and the countryside 54 Kuressaare Castle in Saaremaa dates back to the 1380s Reval Tallinn the capital of Danish Estonia founded on the site of Lindanise adopted the Lubeck law and received full town rights in 1248 55 The Hanseatic League controlled trade on the Baltic Sea and overall the four largest towns in Estonia became members Reval Dorpat Tartu Pernau Parnu and Fellin Viljandi Reval acted as a trade intermediary between Novgorod and western Hanseatic cities while Dorpat filled the same role with Pskov Many artisans and merchants guilds were formed during the period 56 Protected by their stone walls and membership in the Hansa prosperous cities like Reval and Dorpat repeatedly defied other rulers of medieval Livonia 57 After the decline of the Teutonic Order after its defeat in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and the defeat of the Livonian Order in the Battle of Swienta on 1 September 1435 the Livonian Confederation Agreement was signed on 4 December 1435 58 Post Reformation Era Edit Main articles Swedish Estonia Governorate of Estonia and Governorate of Livonia Academia Dorpatensis now University of Tartu was founded in 1632 by King Gustavus as the second university in the kingdom of Sweden After the king s death it became known as Academia Gustaviana The Reformation began in central Europe in 1517 and soon spread northward to Livonia despite some opposition by the Livonian Order 59 Towns were the first to embrace Protestantism in the 1520s and by the 1530s the majority of the landowners and rural population had adopted Lutheranism as well 60 61 Church services were now conducted in vernacular language which initially meant Low German but already from the 1530s onward the regular religious services were also held in the Estonian language 60 62 During the 16th century the expansionist monarchies of Muscovy Sweden and Poland Lithuania consolidated power posing a growing threat to decentralised Livonia weakened by disputes between cities nobility bishops and the Order 60 63 In 1558 Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia Muscovy invaded Livonia starting the Livonian War The Livonian Order was decisively defeated in 1560 prompting Livonian factions to seek foreign protection The majority of Livonia accepted Polish rule while Reval and the nobles of Northern Estonia swore loyalty to the Swedish king and the Bishop of Osel Wiek sold his lands to the Danish king Russian forces gradually conquered the majority of Livonia but in the late 1570s the Polish Lithuanian and Swedish armies started their own offensives and the bloody war finally ended in 1583 with Russian defeat 63 64 As a result of the war Northern Estonia became Swedish Duchy of Estonia Southern Estonia became Polish Duchy of Livonia and Saaremaa remained under Danish control 65 In 1600 the Polish Swedish War broke out causing further devastation The protracted war ended in 1629 with Sweden gaining Livonia including the regions of Southern Estonia and Northern Latvia 66 Danish Saaremaa was transferred to Sweden in 1645 67 The wars had halved the population of Estonia from about 250 270 000 people in the mid 16th century to 115 120 000 in the 1630s 68 While many peasants remained in the status of serfdom during the Swedish rule legal reforms strengthened both serfs and free tenant farmers land usage and inheritance rights hence this period got the reputation of The Good Old Swedish Time in people s historical memory 69 Swedish King Gustaf II Adolf established gymnasiums in Reval and Dorpat the latter was upgraded to Tartu University in 1632 Printing presses were also established in both towns In the 1680s the beginnings of Estonian elementary education appeared largely due to efforts of Bengt Gottfried Forselius who also introduced orthographical reforms to written Estonian 70 The population of Estonia grew rapidly for a 60 70 year period until the Great Famine of 1695 97 in which some 70 000 75 000 people died about 20 of the population 71 In 1700 the Great Northern War started and by 1710 the whole of Estonia was conquered by the Russian Empire 72 The war again devastated the population of Estonia with the 1712 population estimated at only 150 000 170 000 73 In 1721 Estonia was divided into two governorates the governorate of Estonia which includes the northern part of Estonia such as the Tallinn area and the southern governorate of Livonia which extends to the northern part of Latvia 74 Russian administration restored all the political and landholding rights of Baltic Germans 75 The rights of local farmers reached their lowest point as serfdom completely dominated agricultural relations during the 18th century 76 Serfdom was formally abolished in 1816 1819 but this initially had very little practical effect major improvements in farmers rights started with reforms in the mid 19th century 77 National Awakening Edit Main article Estonian national awakening Carl Robert Jakobson played a key role in the Estonian national awakening The Estonian national awakening began in the 1850s as several leading figures started promoting an Estonian national identity among the general populace Widespread farm buyouts by Estonians and the resulting rapidly growing class of land owning farmers provided the economic basis for the formation of this new Estonian identity In 1857 Johann Voldemar Jannsen started publishing the first Estonian language daily newspaper and began popularising the denomination of oneself as eestlane Estonian 78 Schoolmaster Carl Robert Jakobson and clergyman Jakob Hurt became leading figures in a national movement encouraging Estonian farmers to take pride in their ethnic Estonian identity 79 The first nationwide movements formed such as a campaign to establish the Estonian language Alexander School the founding of the Society of Estonian Literati and the Estonian Students Society and the first national song festival held in 1869 in Tartu 80 81 82 Linguistic reforms helped to develop the Estonian language 83 The national epic Kalevipoeg was published in 1862 and 1870 saw the first performances of Estonian theatre 84 85 In 1878 a major split happened in the national movement The moderate wing led by Hurt focused on development of culture and Estonian education while the radical wing led by Jacobson started demanding increased political and economical rights 81 At the end of the 19th century Russification began as the central government initiated various administrative and cultural measures to tie Baltic governorates more closely to the empire 80 The Russian language replaced German and Estonian in most secondary schools and universities and many social and cultural activities in local languages were suppressed 85 Still some administrative changes aimed at reducing the power of Baltic German institutions did prove useful to Estonians 80 In the late 1890s there was a new surge of nationalism with the rise of prominent figures like Jaan Tonisson and Konstantin Pats In the early 20th century Estonians started taking over control of local governments in towns from Germans 86 During the 1905 Revolution the first legal Estonian political parties were founded An Estonian national congress was convened and demanded the unification of Estonian areas into a single autonomous territory and an end to Russification The unrest was accompanied by both peaceful political demonstrations and violent riots with looting in the commercial district of Tallinn and in a number of wealthy landowners manors in the Estonian countryside The Tsarist government responded with a brutal crackdown some 500 people were executed and hundreds more jailed or deported to Siberia 87 88 Independence Edit Main articles Estonian Declaration of Independence Estonian War of Independence and History of Estonia Interwar period 1920 1939 The tricolour flags of Estonia on display during the public announcement of the Declaration of Independence of Estonia in Parnu on 23 February 1918 One of the very first images of the independent republic In 1917 after the February Revolution the governorate of Estonia was expanded by the Russian Provisional Government to include Estonian speaking areas of Livonia and was granted autonomy enabling the formation of the Estonian Provincial Assembly 89 Bolsheviks seized power in Estonia in November 1917 and disbanded the Provincial Assembly However the Provincial Assembly established the Salvation Committee and during the short interlude between Russian retreat and German arrival the committee declared the independence of Estonia on 24 February 1918 and formed the Estonian Provisional Government German occupation immediately followed but after their defeat in World War I the Germans were forced to hand over power to the Provisional Government on 19 November 1918 90 91 On 28 November 1918 Soviet Russia invaded starting the Estonian War of Independence 92 The Red Army came within 30 km of Tallinn but in January 1919 the Estonian Army led by Johan Laidoner went on a counter offensive ejecting Bolshevik forces from Estonia within a few months Renewed Soviet attacks failed and in spring the Estonian army in co operation with White Russian forces advanced into Russia and Latvia 93 94 In June 1919 Estonia defeated the German Landeswehr which had attempted to dominate Latvia restoring power to the government of Karlis Ulmanis there After the collapse of the White Russian forces the Red Army launched a major offensive against Narva in late 1919 but failed to achieve a breakthrough On 2 February 1920 the Tartu Peace Treaty was signed by Estonia and Soviet Russia with the latter pledging to permanently give up all sovereign claims to Estonia 93 95 Estonian armoured train during the Estonian War of Independence In April 1919 the Estonian Constituent Assembly was elected The Constituent Assembly passed a sweeping land reform expropriating large estates and adopted a new highly liberal constitution establishing Estonia as a parliamentary democracy 96 97 In 1924 the Soviet Union organised a communist coup attempt which quickly failed 98 Estonia s cultural autonomy law for ethnic minorities adopted in 1925 is widely recognised as one of the most liberal in the world at that time 99 The Great Depression put heavy pressure on Estonia s political system and in 1933 the right wing Vaps movement spearheaded a constitutional reform establishing a strong presidency 100 101 On 12 March 1934 the acting head of state Konstantin Pats declared a state of emergency under the pretext that the Vaps movement had been planning a coup Pats together with general Johan Laidoner and Kaarel Eenpalu established an authoritarian regime during the era of silence when the parliament did not reconvene and the newly established Patriotic League became the only legal political movement for the time being 102 A new constitution was adopted in a referendum and elections were held in 1938 Both pro government and opposition candidates were allowed to participate but only as independents as all political parties remained suspended under continued state of emergency 103 The Pats regime was relatively benign compared to other authoritarian regimes in interwar Europe and the regime never used violence against political opponents 104 Estonia joined the League of Nations in 1921 105 Attempts to establish a larger alliance together with Finland Poland and Latvia failed with only a mutual defence pact being signed with Latvia in 1923 and later was followed up with the Baltic Entente of 1934 106 107 In the 1930s Estonia also engaged in secret military co operation with Finland 108 Non aggression pacts were signed with the Soviet Union in 1932 and with Germany in 1939 105 109 In 1939 Estonia declared neutrality but this proved futile in World War II 110 World War II Soviet and German Occupations Edit Main articles Estonia in World War II and Occupation of the Baltic states According to the 23 August 1939 Nazi Soviet Pact the Baltic States Finland Estonia Latvia Lithuania were divided into German and Soviet spheres of influence German copy A week before the outbreak of World War II on 23 August 1939 Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union signed the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact In the Nazi Soviet pact s secret protocol Poland Lithuania Latvia Estonia and Finland were divided between USSR and Germany into spheres of influence with Estonia assigned to the Soviet sphere 111 On 24 September 1939 the Soviet Union presented an ultimatum demanding that Estonia sign a treaty of mutual assistance which would allow the Soviet Union to establish military bases in the country The Estonian government felt that it had no choice but to comply and the treaty was signed on 28 September 1939 112 In May 1940 Red Army forces in bases were set in combat readiness and on 14 June the Soviet Union instituted a full naval and air blockade on Estonia On the same day the airliner Kaleva was shot down by the Soviet Air Force On 16 June the USSR presented an ultimatum demanding completely free passage of the Red Army into Estonia and the establishment of a pro Soviet government Feeling that resistance was hopeless the Estonian government complied and on the next day the whole country was occupied 113 114 On 6 August 1940 Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union as the Estonian SSR 115 The Red Army troops crossing Soviet Estonian border in October 1939 after Estonia had been forced to sign the Bases Treaty The USSR established an oppressive regime Most of the high ranking civil and military officials intelligentsia and industrialists were arrested and usually executed soon afterwards Soviet repressions culminated on 14 June 1941 with mass deportation of around 11 000 people to Siberia among whom more than half perished in inhumane conditions 116 117 When Operation Barbarossa accompanied by Estonian guerrilla soldiers called Forest Brothers 118 began against the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 in the form of the Summer War Estonian Suvesoda around 34 000 young Estonian men were forcibly drafted into the Red Army fewer than 30 of whom survived the war Soviet destruction battalions initiated a scorched earth policy Political prisoners who could not be evacuated were executed by the NKVD 119 120 Many Estonians went into the forest starting an anti Soviet guerrilla campaign In July German Wehrmacht reached south Estonia The USSR evacuated Tallinn in late August with massive losses and capture of the Estonian islands was completed by German forces in October 121 The capital Tallinn after bombing by the Soviet Air Force during the war on the Eastern Front in March 1944 Initially many Estonians were hopeful that Germany would help to restore Estonia s independence but this soon proved to be in vain Only a puppet collaborationist administration was established and occupied Estonia was merged into Reichskommissariat Ostland with its economy being fully subjugated to German military needs 122 About a thousand Estonian Jews who had not managed to leave were almost all quickly killed in 1941 Numerous forced labour camps were established where thousands of Estonians foreign Jews Romani and Soviet prisoners of war perished 123 German occupation authorities started recruiting men into small volunteer units but as these efforts provided meagre results and military situation worsened a forced conscription was instituted in 1943 eventually leading to formation of the Estonian Waffen SS division 124 Thousands of Estonians who did not want to fight in the German military secretly escaped to Finland where many volunteered to fight together with Finns against Soviets 125 The Red Army reached the Estonian borders again in early 1944 but its advance into Estonia was stopped in heavy fighting near Narva for six months by German forces including numerous Estonian units 126 In March the Soviet Air Force carried out heavy bombing raids against Tallinn and other Estonian towns 127 In July the Soviets started a major offensive from the south forcing the Germans to abandon mainland Estonia in September with the Estonian islands being abandoned in November 126 As German forces were retreating from Tallinn the last pre war prime minister Juri Uluots appointed a government headed by Otto Tief in an unsuccessful attempt to restore Estonia s independence 128 Tens of thousands of people including most of the Estonian Swedes fled westwards to avoid the new Soviet occupation 129 Overall Estonia lost about 25 of its population through deaths deportations and evacuations in World War II 130 Estonia also suffered some irrevocable territorial losses as the Soviet Union transferred border areas comprising about 5 of Estonian pre war territory from the Estonian SSR to the Russian SFSR 131 Second Soviet occupation 1944 1991 Edit Main articles Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic Occupation of the Baltic states and Baltic states under Soviet rule 1944 1991 Estonian Swedes fleeing the Soviet occupation to Sweden 1944 Thousands of Estonians opposing the second Soviet occupation joined a guerrilla movement known as the Forest Brothers The armed resistance was heaviest in the first few years after the war but Soviet authorities gradually wore it down through attrition and resistance effectively ceased to exist in the mid 1950s 132 The Soviets initiated a policy of collectivisation but as farmers remained opposed to it a campaign of terror was unleashed In March 1949 about 20 000 Estonians were deported to Siberia Collectivization was fully completed soon afterwards 116 133 The Russian dominated occupation authorities under the Soviet Union began Russification with hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians and other Soviet people being induced to settle in occupied Estonia in a process which eventually threatened to turn indigenous Estonians into a minority in their own native land 134 In 1945 Estonians formed 97 of the population but by 1989 their share of the population had fallen to 62 135 Occupying authorities carried out campaigns of ethnic cleansing mass deportation of indigenous populations and mass colonization by Russian settlers which led to Estonia losing 3 of its native population 136 By March 1949 60 000 people were deported from Estonia and 50 000 from Latvia to slave labor camps in Siberia where death rates were 30 The occupying regime established an Estonian Communist Party where Russians were the majority in party membership 137 Economically heavy industry was strongly prioritised but this did not improve the well being of the local population and caused massive environmental damage through pollution 138 Living standards under the Soviet occupation kept falling further behind nearby independent Finland 134 The country was heavily militarised with closed military areas covering 2 of territory 139 Islands and most of the coastal areas were turned into a restricted border zone which required a special permit for entry 140 That is why Estonia was quite closed until the second half of the 1960s when gradually Estonians began to watch Finnish television in the northern parts of the country due to a good signal range thus getting a better picture of the way of life behind the Iron Curtain Watching Finnish television was unauthorized but nevertheless it was watched with a special device made for this purpose 141 The United States United Kingdom France Germany and the majority of other Western countries considered the annexation of Estonia by the Soviet Union illegal 142 Legal continuity of the Estonian state was preserved through the government in exile and the Estonian diplomatic representatives which Western governments continued to recognise 143 144 Restoration of independence Edit Main article Singing Revolution The blue black white flag of Estonia was raised again on the top of the Pikk Hermann tower on February 24 1989 The introduction of perestroika by the central government of the Soviet Union in 1987 made open political activity possible again in Estonia which triggered an independence restoration process later known as Laulev revolutsioon Singing revolution 145 The environmental Fosforiidisoda Phosphorite war campaign became the first major protest movement against the central government 146 In 1988 new political movements appeared such as the Popular Front of Estonia which came to represent the moderate wing in the independence movement and the more radical Estonian National Independence Party which was the first non communist party in the Soviet Union and demanded full restoration of independence 147 On 16 November 1988 after the first non rigged multi candidate elections in half a century the parliament of Soviet controlled Estonia issued the Sovereignty Declaration asserting the primacy of Estonian laws over laws of the Soviet Union Over the next two years many other administrative parts or republics of the USSR followed the Estonian example issuing similar declarations 148 149 On 23 August 1989 about 2 million Estonians Latvians and Lithuanians participated in a mass demonstration forming the Baltic Way human chain across the three countries 150 In 1990 the Congress of Estonia was formed as the representative body of Estonian citizens 151 In March 1991 a referendum was held where 78 4 of voters supported full independence During the coup attempt in Moscow Estonia declared restoration of independence on 20 August 1991 152 Baltic Way in Estonia Soviet authorities recognised Estonian independence on 6 September and on 17 September Estonia was admitted into the United Nations 153 The last units of the Russian army left Estonia in 1994 154 In 1992 radical economic reforms were launched for switching over to a market economy including privatisation and currency reform 155 Estonia has been a member of the WTO since 13 November 1999 156 21st century Edit See also COVID 19 pandemic in Estonia The foreign ministers of the NATO countries in Tallinn in April 2010 Since regaining independence in 1991 Estonian foreign policy has been aligned with other Western democracies and in 2004 Estonia joined both the European Union and NATO 157 On 9 December 2010 Estonia became a member of OECD 158 On 1 January 2011 Estonia joined the eurozone and adopted the euro the single currency of EU 159 Estonia was a member of the UN Security Council 2020 2021 160 In 2021 during the 2021 2022 Belarus European Union border crisis Estonia strengthened its border with Russia by fencing it with 40 kilometres 25 mi of barbed wire and inviting almost 1 700 reservists to a preparedness exercise 161 162 In August 2022 half a year later after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine Estonia began removing Soviet era monuments beginning with a T 34 tank in Narva saying it was necessary for public order and internal security 163 164 Geography EditMain article Geography of Estonia Estonia lies on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea immediately across the Gulf of Finland on the level northwestern part of the East European Plain between 57 3 and 59 5 N and 21 5 and 28 1 E Average elevation reaches only 50 metres 164 ft and the country s highest point is the Suur Munamagi in the southeast at 318 metres 1 043 ft There are 3 794 kilometres 2 357 mi of coastline marked by numerous bays straits and inlets Estonia s number of islands and islets in the Baltic Sea is estimated at some 2 222 and the country has 2 355 including those in lakes Two of them are large enough to constitute separate counties Saaremaa and Hiiumaa 165 166 A small recent cluster of meteorite craters the largest of which is called Kaali is found on Saaremaa Estonia has over 1 400 lakes Most are very small with the largest Lake Peipus being 3 555 km2 1 373 sq mi it is the fifth largest lake in Europe 167 and also the largest trans boundary lake in the whole continent There are many rivers in the country The longest of them are Vohandu 162 km or 101 mi Parnu 144 km or 89 mi and Poltsamaa 135 km or 84 mi 165 Estonia has numerous fens and bogs Forest land covers 50 of Estonia 168 The most common tree species are pine spruce and birch 169 Phytogeographically Estonia is shared between the Central European and Eastern European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom According to the WWF the territory of Estonia belongs to the ecoregion of Sarmatic mixed forests 170 Geopolitically Estonia is often considered to be one of the three Baltic countries or Baltic states an unofficial geopolitical grouping which also includes Latvia and Lithuania However the term Baltic states countries nations lands or similar cannot be used unambiguously in the context of cultural areas national identity or language While the majority of the population both in Lithuania and neighbouring Latvia are indeed Baltic peoples Lithuanians and Latvians the majority in Estonia Estonians are culturally and linguistically Finnic 171 Climate Edit Main article Climate of Estonia Estonia is situated in the northern part of the temperate climate zone and in the transition zone between maritime and continental climate The climate is more continental in the eastern part of the country and more maritime in the western part especially on the islands Estonia has four seasons of near equal length Average temperatures range from 17 8 C 64 0 F on the islands to 18 4 C 65 1 F inland in July the warmest month and from 1 4 C 29 5 F on the islands to 5 3 C 22 5 F inland in February the coldest month The average annual temperature in Estonia is 6 4 C 43 5 F 172 Annual average precipitation is 662 mm 173 The average for the year is 1829 6 hours of sunshine 174 The duration of sunshine is highest in coastal areas and lowest inland in northern Estonia citation needed Biodiversity Edit Main articles Fauna of Estonia and Protected areas of Estonia The barn swallow H r rustica is the national bird of Estonia Many species extinct in most other European countries can be still found in Estonia Large mammals present in Estonia include the grey wolf lynx brown bear red fox badger wild boar moose red deer roe deer beaver otter grey seal and ringed seal The critically endangered European mink has been successfully reintroduced to the island of Hiiumaa and the rare Siberian flying squirrel is present in east Estonia 175 176 Introduced species such as the sika deer raccoon dog and muskrat can now be found throughout the country 177 Over 300 bird species have been found in Estonia including the white tailed eagle lesser spotted eagle golden eagle western capercaillie black and white stork numerous species of owls waders geese and many others 178 The barn swallow is the national bird of Estonia 179 Protected areas cover 18 of Estonian land and 26 of its territorial sea There are 6 national parks 159 nature reserves and many other protection areas 180 It had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 3 05 10 ranking it 152nd globally out of 172 countries 181 Estonia Endla Nature Reserve 07 Forest Clearcutting is the dominant logging method in Estonia used in 95 of total felling And logging in part for biomass is contributing to the devastation of some of the world s most precious conservation areas Between 2001 and 2019 Estonia s Natura 2000 areas lost an area more than twice the size of Manhattan due in part to demand for biomass Investigations show that companies like Graanul Invest Europe s biggest pellet producer and its subsidiaries including Valga Puu have clearcut large areas the size of 17 football fields of forests in both Estonia s Haanja and Otepaa nature reserves Estonian NGOs also report that industry actively lobbies for the weakening of Estonian regulations protecting these reserves 182 At the same time Estonia s current Minister of the Environment Erki Savisaar has announced that the Estonian government intends to dispute Estonia s obligations to reduce logging in accordance with the European Commission s climate package 183 As a result of loss of biodiversity there are around 100 000 breeding pairs of birds less in Estonia than in previous years Approximately half of Estonia s territory is covered with forests but in fact only one to two per cent of it can be considered truly natural old growth forests the rest is young and managed 184 Species that need old forest habitats are also not doing well with lynx and the flying squirrel moved down one endangerment category Species that require wild meadow habitats are not doing well either 185 Across Estonia between 2001 and 2019 Natura 2000 areas lost more than 15 000 hectares 37 000 acres of forest cover The last five years account for 80 of that loss Further alterations to rules in other Estonian national parks are planned This practice is also being pursued by RMK 186 the state forest management company which manages around half of Estonian forests 187 Haanja Nature reserve where violations of Natura 2000 area logging is taking place European Commission recently initiated infringement proceedings against Estonia for failing to properly implement the environmental impact assessment requirements laid down in EU law when permitting logging at Natura 2000 sites Foreign media has also drawn attention to increasingly extensive logging in protected Estonian forests For example an investigative article published in Ingenioren a Danish weekly newspaper specializing in engineering topics highlighted that Estonian and Latvian wood pellets come from Natura 2000 protected areas and the annual increase in felling volumes is due to demand from other countries including Denmark for heating with CO2 neutral biomass 188 The activities of the Estonian Ministry of the Environment directly violate EU measures to restrict protected forests in particular the requirements and principles of the European Habitats Directive 189 Amidst the other concern with regards to loss of biodiversity there are now proposals put forward by the Estonian Ministry of Environment to slash water body shoreline protected zones to 20 meters 190 The legal amendment if it were to pass would particularly affect Estonia s islands where protected zones are 200 meters from the shore causing concern in nature conservationists 191 Politics EditMain articles Politics of Estonia List of political parties in Estonia and Elections in Estonia Alar KarisPresidentsince 2021 Kaja KallasPrime Ministersince 2021 Estonia is a unitary parliamentary republic The unicameral parliament Riigikogu serves as the legislative and the government as the executive 192 Estonian parliament Riigikogu is elected by citizens over 18 years of age for a four year term by proportional representation and has 101 members Riigikogu s responsibilities include approval and preservation of the national government passing legal acts passing the state budget and conducting parliamentary supervision On proposal of the president Riigikogu appoints the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court the chairman of the board of the Bank of Estonia the Auditor General the Legal Chancellor and the Commander in Chief of the Defence Forces 193 194 The Government of Estonia is formed by the Prime Minister of Estonia at recommendation of the President and approved by the Riigikogu The government headed by the Prime Minister represent the political leadership of the country and carry out domestic and foreign policy Ministers head ministries and represent its interests in the government Sometimes ministers with no associated ministry are appointed known as ministers without portfolio 195 Estonia has been ruled by coalition governments because no party has been able to obtain an absolute majority in the parliament 192 The seat of the Parliament of Estonia in Toompea Castle The head of the state is the President who has primarily representative and ceremonial role There are no referendums on the election of the president but the president is elected by the Riigikogu or by a special electoral college 196 The President proclaims the laws passed in the Riigikogu and has right to refuse proclamation and return law in question for a new debate and decision If Riigikogu passes the law unamended then the President has right to propose to the Supreme Court to declare the law unconstitutional The President also represents the country in international relations 192 197 The Constitution of Estonia also provides possibility for direct democracy through referendum although since adoption of the constitution in 1992 the only referendum has been the referendum on European Union membership in 2003 198 Estonia has pursued the development of the e government with 99 percent of the public services being available on the web 24 hours a day 199 In 2005 Estonia became the first country in the world to introduce nationwide binding Internet voting in local elections of 2005 200 In 2019 parliamentary elections 44 of the total votes were cast over the internet 201 In the most recent parliamentary elections of 2019 five parties gained seats at Riigikogu The head of the Centre Party Juri Ratas formed the government together with Conservative People s Party and Isamaa while Reform Party and Social Democratic Party became the opposition 202 In January 2021 Ratas resigned as prime minister in the wake of a corruption scandal 203 and Reform Party leader Kaja Kallas became Estonia s first female prime minister The new government was a two party coalition between the country s two biggest political parties Reform Party and Centre Party 204 In July 2022 Prime Minister Kaja Kallas formed a new three party coalition by her liberal Reform Party the Social Democrats and the conservative Isamaa party Her previous government had lost its parliamentary majority after the centre left Centre Party left the coalition 205 Law Edit Main articles Law of Estonia and Constitution of Estonia Building of the Supreme Court of Estonia in Tartu The Constitution of Estonia is the fundamental law establishing the constitutional order based on five principles human dignity democracy rule of law social state and the Estonian identity 206 Estonia has a civil law legal system based on the Germanic legal model 207 The court system has a three level structure The first instance are county courts which handle all criminal and civil cases and administrative courts which hear complaints about government and local officials and other public disputes The second instance are district courts which handle appeals about the first instance decisions 208 The Supreme Court is the court of cassation and also conducts constitutional review it has 19 members 209 The judiciary is independent judges are appointed for life and can be removed from office only when convicted by court for a criminal deed 210 The Estonian justice system has been rated among the most efficient in the European Union by the EU Justice Scoreboard 211 Foreign relations Edit Main articles Foreign relations of Estonia and Diplomatic missions of Estonia US President Barack Obama giving a speech in Tallinn 2014 Estonia was a member of the League of Nations from 22 September 1921 and became a member of the United Nations on 17 September 1991 212 213 Since restoration of independence Estonia has pursued close relations with the Western countries and has been member of NATO since 29 March 2004 as well as the European Union since 1 May 2004 213 In 2007 Estonia joined the Schengen Area and in 2011 the Eurozone 213 The European Union Agency for large scale IT systems is based in Tallinn which started operations at the end of 2012 214 Estonia held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2017 215 Since the early 1990s Estonia has been involved in active trilateral Baltic states co operation with Latvia and Lithuania and Nordic Baltic co operation with the Nordic countries Estonia is a member of the interparliamentary Baltic Assembly the intergovernmental Baltic Council of Ministers and the Council of the Baltic Sea States 216 Estonia has built close relationship with the Nordic countries especially Finland and Sweden and is a member of Nordic Baltic Eight NB 8 uniting Nordic and Baltic countries 213 217 Joint Nordic Baltic projects include the education programme Nordplus 218 and mobility programmes for business and industry 219 and for public administration 220 The Nordic Council of Ministers has an office in Tallinn with a subsidiaries in Tartu and Narva 221 222 The Baltic states are members of Nordic Investment Bank European Union s Nordic Battle Group and in 2011 were invited to co operate with Nordic Defence Cooperation in selected activities 223 224 225 226 Foreign ministers of the Nordic and Baltic countries in Riga 2016 The beginning of the attempt to redefine Estonia as Nordic was seen in December 1999 when then Estonian foreign minister and President of Estonia from 2006 until 2016 Toomas Hendrik Ilves delivered a speech entitled Estonia as a Nordic Country to the Swedish Institute for International Affairs 227 with potential political calculation behind it being wish to distinguish Estonia from more slowly progressing southern neighbours which could have postponed early participation in European Union enlargement for Estonia too 228 Andres Kasekamp argued in 2005 that relevance of identity discussions in Baltic states decreased with their entrance into EU and NATO together but predicted that in the future attractiveness of Nordic identity in Baltic states will grow and eventually five Nordic states plus three Baltic states will become a single unit 228 Other Estonian international organisation memberships include OECD OSCE WTO IMF the Council of the Baltic Sea States 213 229 230 and on 7 June 2019 was elected a non permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for a two year term that began on 1 January 2020 231 Relations with Russia remain generally cold though there is some practical co operation 232 Estonia has very actively supported Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine providing highest support relative to its gross domestic product 233 Military Edit Main articles Estonian Defence Forces and Estonian Defence League Estonian soldiers during a NATO exercise in 2015 The Estonian Defence Forces consist of land forces navy and air force The current national military service is compulsory for healthy men between ages of 18 and 28 with conscripts serving 8 or 11 month tours of duty depending on their education and position provided by the Defence Forces 234 The peacetime size of the Estonian Defence Forces is about 6 000 persons with half of those being conscripts The planned wartime size of the Defence Forces is 60 000 personnel including 21 000 personnel in high readiness reserve 235 Since 2015 the Estonian defence budget has been over 2 of GDP fulfilling its NATO defence spending obligation 236 The Estonian Defence League is a voluntary national defence organisation under management of Ministry of Defence It is organised based on military principles has its own military equipment and provides various different military training for its members including in guerilla tactics The Defence League has 16 000 members with additional 10 000 volunteers in its affiliated organisations 237 238 Estonia co operates with Latvia and Lithuania in several trilateral Baltic defence co operation initiatives As part of Baltic Air Surveillance Network BALTNET the three countries manage the Baltic airspace control center Baltic Battalion BALTBAT has participated in the NATO Response Force and a joint military educational institution Baltic Defence College is located in Tartu 239 Estonia joined NATO in 2004 NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence was established in Tallinn in 2008 240 In response to Russian war in Ukraine since 2017 a NATO Enhanced Forward Presence battalion battle group has been based in Tapa Army Base 241 Also part of NATO Baltic Air Policing deployment has been based in Amari Air Base since 2014 242 In European Union Estonia participates in Nordic Battlegroup and Permanent Structured Cooperation 243 244 Since 1995 Estonia has participated in numerous international security and peacekeeping missions including Afghanistan Iraq Lebanon Kosovo and Mali 245 The peak strength of Estonian deployment in Afghanistan was 289 soldiers in 2009 246 11 Estonian soldiers have been killed in missions of Afghanistan and Iraq 247 Administrative divisions Edit Main articles Administrative divisions of Estonia Counties of Estonia Municipalities of Estonia Boroughs of Estonia and Populated places in Estonia Administrative divisions of Estonia Estonia is a unitary country with a single tier local government system Local affairs are managed autonomously by local governments Since administrative reform in 2017 there are in total 79 local governments including 15 towns and 64 rural municipalities All municipalities have equal legal status and form part of a maakond county which is an administrative subunit of the state 248 Representative body of local authorities is municipal council elected at general direct elections for a four year term The council appoints local government headed by a mayor For additional decentralization the local authorities may form municipal districts with limited authority currently those have been formed in Tallinn and Hiiumaa 249 Separately from administrative units there are also settlement units village small borough borough and town Generally villages have less than 300 small boroughs have between 300 and 1000 boroughs and towns have over 1000 inhabitants 249 Economy EditMain article Economy of Estonia A proportional representation of Estonia exports 2019 As a member of the European Union Estonia is considered a high income economy by the World Bank The GDP PPP per capita of the country was 29 312 in 2016 according to the International Monetary Fund 6 Because of its rapid growth Estonia has often been described as a Baltic Tiger beside Lithuania and Latvia Beginning 1 January 2011 Estonia adopted the euro and became the 17th eurozone member state 250 According to Eurostat Estonia had the lowest ratio of government debt to GDP among EU countries at 6 7 at the end of 2010 251 A balanced budget almost non existent public debt flat rate income tax free trade regime competitive commercial banking sector innovative e Services and even mobile based services are all hallmarks of Estonia s market economy Estonia produces about 75 of its consumed electricity 252 In 2011 about 85 of it was generated with locally mined oil shale 253 Alternative energy sources such as wood peat and biomass make up approximately 9 of primary energy production Renewable wind energy was about 6 of total consumption in 2009 254 Estonia imports petroleum products from western Europe and Russia Estonia imports 100 of its natural gas from Russia 255 Oil shale energy telecommunications textiles chemical products banking services food and fishing timber shipbuilding electronics and transportation are key sectors of the economy 256 The ice free port of Muuga near Tallinn is a modern facility featuring good transshipment capability a high capacity grain elevator chill frozen storage and new oil tanker off loading capabilities citation needed The railroad serves as a conduit between the West Russia and other points citation needed The central business district of Tallinn Because of the global economic recession that began in 2007 the GDP of Estonia decreased by 1 4 in the 2nd quarter of 2008 over 3 in the 3rd quarter of 2008 and over 9 in the 4th quarter of 2008 The Estonian government made a supplementary negative budget which was passed by Riigikogu The revenue of the budget was decreased for 2008 by EEK 6 1 billion and the expenditure by EEK 3 2 billion 257 In 2010 the economic situation stabilised and started a growth based on strong exports In the fourth quarter of 2010 Estonian industrial output increased by 23 compared to the year before The country has been experiencing economic growth ever since 258 According to Eurostat data Estonian PPS GDP per capita stood at 67 of the EU average in 2008 259 In 2017 the average monthly gross salary in Estonia was 1221 260 However there are vast disparities in GDP between different areas of Estonia currently over half of the country s GDP is created in Tallinn 261 In 2008 the GDP per capita of Tallinn stood at 172 of the Estonian average 262 which makes the per capita GDP of Tallinn as high as 115 of the European Union average exceeding the average levels of other counties The unemployment rate in March 2016 was 6 4 which is below the EU average 260 while real GDP growth in 2011 was 8 0 263 five times the euro zone average In 2012 Estonia remained the only euro member with a budget surplus and with a national debt of only 6 it is one of the least indebted countries in Europe 264 Economic indicators Edit Estonia s economy continues to benefit from a transparent government and policies that sustain a high level of economic freedom ranking 6th globally and 2nd in Europe 265 266 The rule of law remains strongly buttressed and enforced by an independent and efficient judicial system A simplified tax system with flat rates and low indirect taxation openness to foreign investment and a liberal trade regime have supported the resilient and well functioning economy 267 As of May 2018 update the Ease of Doing Business Index by the World Bank Group places the country 16th in the world 268 The strong focus on the IT sector through its e Estonia program has led to much faster simpler and efficient public services where for example filing a tax return takes less than five minutes and 98 of banking transactions are conducted through the internet 269 270 Estonia has the 13th lowest business bribery risk in the world according to TRACE Matrix 271 Estonia is a developed country with an advanced high income economy that was among the fastest growing in the EU since its entry in 2004 272 The country ranks very high in the Human Development Index 273 and compares well in measures of economic freedom civil liberties education 274 and press freedom 275 Estonian citizens receive universal health care 276 free education 277 and the longest paid maternity leave in the OECD 278 One of the world s most digitally advanced societies 279 in 2005 Estonia became the first state to hold elections over the Internet and in 2014 the first state to provide e residency 280 Historic development Edit Real GDP per capita development of Estonia Latvia and Lithuania In 1928 a stable currency the kroon was established It is issued by the Bank of Estonia the country s central bank The word kroon Estonian pronunciation ˈkroːn crown is related to that of the other Nordic currencies such as the Swedish krona and the Danish and Norwegian krone The kroon succeeded the mark in 1928 and was used until 1940 After Estonia regained its independence the kroon was reintroduced in 1992 citation needed Estonia s GDP growth from 2000 until 2012 Since re establishing independence Estonia has styled itself as the gateway between East and West and aggressively pursued economic reform and integration with the West Estonia s market reforms put it among the economic leaders in the former COMECON area citation needed In 1994 based on the economic theories of Milton Friedman Estonia became one of the first countries to adopt a flat tax with a uniform rate of 26 regardless of personal income This rate has since been reduced three times to 24 in January 2005 23 in January 2006 and most recently to 21 by January 2008 281 The Government of Estonia finalised the design of Estonian euro coins in late 2004 and adopted the euro as the country s currency on 1 January 2011 later than planned due to continued high inflation 250 282 A Land Value Tax is levied which is used to fund local municipalities It is a state level tax but 100 of the revenue is used to fund Local Councils The rate is set by the Local Council within the limits of 0 1 2 5 It is one of the most important sources of funding for municipalities 283 The Land Value Tax is levied on the value of the land only with improvements and buildings not considered Very few exemptions are considered on the land value tax and even public institutions are subject to the tax 283 The tax has contributed to a high rate 90 283 of owner occupied residences within Estonia compared to a rate of 67 4 in the United States 284 In 1999 Estonia experienced its worst year economically since it regained independence in 1991 largely because of the impact of the 1998 Russian financial crisis citation needed Estonia joined the WTO in November 1999 With assistance from the European Union the World Bank and the Nordic Investment Bank Estonia completed most of its preparations for European Union membership by the end of 2002 and now has one of the strongest economies of the new member states of the European Union citation needed Estonia joined the OECD in 2010 285 Transport Edit Main article Transport in Estonia The Port of Tallinn taking into account both cargo and passenger traffic is one of the largest port enterprises of the Baltic Sea In 2018 the enterprise was listed in Tallinn Stock Exchange It was the first time in nearly 20 years in Estonia when a state owned company went public in Estonia It was also the 2nd largest IPO in Nasdaq Tallinn in the number of retail investors participating The Republic of Estonia remains the largest shareholder and holds 67 of the company 286 Owned by AS Eesti Raudtee there are many significant railroad connections in Estonia such as Tallinn Narva railway which is 209 6 km 130 2 mi long main connection to St Petersburg The most important highways in Estonia in other hand includes Narva Highway E20 Tartu Highway E263 and Parnu Highway E67 The Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport in Tallinn is the largest airport in Estonia and serves as a hub for the national airline Nordica as well as the secondary hub for AirBaltic 287 and LOT Polish Airlines 288 Total passengers using the airport has increased on average by 14 2 annually since 1998 On 16 November 2012 Tallinn Airport has reached two million passenger landmark for the first time in its history 289 Resources Edit The oil shale industry in Estonia is one of the most developed in the world 290 In 2012 oil shale supplied 70 of Estonia s total primary energy and accounted for 4 of Estonia s gross domestic product 291 292 Although Estonia is in general resource poor the land still offers a large variety of smaller resources The country has large oil shale and limestone deposits along with forests that cover 48 of the land 293 In addition to oil shale and limestone Estonia also has large reserves of phosphorite pitchblende and granite that currently are not mined or not mined extensively 294 Significant quantities of rare earth oxides are found in tailings accumulated from 50 years of uranium ore shale and loparite mining at Sillamae 295 Because of the rising prices of rare earths extraction of these oxides has become economically viable The country currently exports around 3000 tonnes per annum representing around 2 of world production 296 Since 2008 public debate has discussed whether Estonia should build a nuclear power plant to secure energy production after closure of old units in the Narva Power Plants if they are not reconstructed by 2016 297 298 Industry and environment Edit See also Oil shale in Estonia Narva Power Plants and Wind power in Estonia Rouste wind farm in Laaneranna Parish Food construction and electronic industries are currently among the most important branches of Estonia s industry citation needed In 2007 the construction industry employed more than 80 000 people around 12 of the entire country s workforce 299 Another important industrial sector is the machinery and chemical industry which is mainly located in Ida Viru county and around Tallinn The oil shale based mining industry also concentrated in East Estonia produces around 90 of the entire country s electricity citation needed Although the number of pollutants emitted has been falling since the 1980s 300 the air is still contaminated with sulphur dioxide from the mining industry the Soviet Union rapidly developed in the early 1950s In some areas coastal seawater is polluted mainly around the Sillamae industrial complex 301 Estonia is dependent on other countries for energy In recent years many local and foreign companies have been investing in renewable energy sources citation needed Wind power has been increasing steadily in Estonia and the total current amount of energy produced from wind is nearly 60 MW another roughly 399 MW worth of projects are currently being developed and more than 2800 MW being proposed in the Lake Peipus area and coastal areas of Hiiumaa 302 303 304 Currently when there are plans to renovate some older units of the Narva Power Plants establish new power stations and provide higher efficiency in oil shale based energy production 305 Estonia liberalised 35 of its electricity market in April 2010 the electricity market as whole was to be liberalised by 2013 306 Together with Lithuania Poland and Latvia the country considered participating in constructing the Visaginas nuclear power plant in Lithuania to replace the Ignalina nuclear plant 307 308 However due to the slow pace of the project and problems with the nuclear sector like the Fukushima disaster and bad example of Olkiluoto plant Eesti Energia shifted its main focus to shale oil production seen as far more profitable 309 The Estonian electricity network forms a part of the Nord Pool Spot network 310 Estonia has a strong information technology sector partly owing to the Tiigrihupe project undertaken in the mid 1990s and has been mentioned as the most wired and advanced country in Europe in the terms of e Government of Estonia 311 The 2014 e residency program began offering those services to non residents in Estonia Skype was written by Estonia based developers Ahti Heinla Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn who had also originally developed Kazaa 312 Other notable startups that originated from Estonia include Bolt GrabCAD Fortumo and Wise formerly known as TransferWise It has been reported that Estonia has the highest startups per person ratio in the world 313 As of January 2022 there are 1 291 startups from Estonia seven of which are unicorns equalling nearly 1 startup per 1 000 Estonians 314 315 Trade Edit Main article Tallinn Stock Exchange Graphical depiction of Estonia s product exports in 28 colour coded categories Estonia has had a market economy since the end of the 1990s and one of the highest per capita income levels in Eastern Europe 316 Proximity to the Scandinavian and Finnish markets its location between the East and West competitive cost structure and a highly skilled labour force have been the major Estonian comparative advantages in the beginning of the 2000s decade As the largest city Tallinn has emerged as a financial centre and the Tallinn Stock Exchange joined recently with the OMX system Several cryptocurrency trading platforms are officially recognised by the government such as CoinMetro 317 The current government has pursued tight fiscal policies resulting in balanced budgets and low public debt In 2007 however a large current account deficit and rising inflation put pressure on Estonia s currency which was pegged to the Euro highlighting the need for growth in export generating industries Estonia exports mainly machinery and equipment wood and paper textiles food products furniture and metals and chemical products 318 Estonia also exports 1 562 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually 318 At the same time Estonia imports machinery and equipment chemical products textiles food products and transportation equipment 318 Estonia imports 200 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually 318 Between 2007 and 2013 Estonia received 53 3 billion kroons 3 4 billion euros from various European Union Structural Funds as direct supports creating the largest foreign investments into Estonia 319 Majority of the European Union financial aid will be invested into the following fields energy economies entrepreneurship administrative capability education information society environment protection regional and local development research and development activities healthcare and welfare transportation and labour market 320 Main sources of foreign direct investments to Estonia are Sweden and Finland As of 31 December 2016 update 48 3 321 Demographics EditMain article Demographics of Estonia Residents of Estonia by ethnicity 2021 322 Estonians 69 1 Russians 23 7 Ukrainians 2 1 Belarusians 0 9 Finns 0 6 Others 3 1 Unknown 0 5 Population of Estonia 1960 2019 The changes are largely attributed to Soviet immigration and emigration 323 Before World War II ethnic Estonians made up 88 of the population with national minorities constituting the remaining 12 324 The largest minority groups in 1934 were Russians Germans Swedes Latvians Jews Poles and Finns The share of Baltic Germans in Estonia had fallen from 5 3 46 700 in 1881 to 1 3 16 346 by 1934 324 325 mainly due to emigration to Germany in the light of general Russification at the end of the 19th century citation needed and the independence of Estonia in the 20th century Between 1945 and 1989 the share of ethnic Estonians in the population resident within the currently defined boundaries of Estonia dropped to 61 caused primarily by the Soviet occupation and programme promoting mass immigration of urban industrial workers from Russia Ukraine and Belarus as well as by wartime emigration and Joseph Stalin s mass deportations and executions 326 By 1989 minorities constituted more than one third of the population as the number of non Estonians had grown almost fivefold At the end of the 1980s Estonians perceived their demographic change as a national catastrophe This was a result of the migration policies essential to the Soviet Nationalisation Programme aiming to russify Estonia administrative and military immigration of non Estonians from the USSR coupled with the deportation of Estonians to the USSR citation needed In the decade after the reconstitution of independence large scale emigration by ethnic Russians and the removal of the Russian military bases in 1994 caused citation needed the proportion of ethnic Estonians in Estonia to increase from 61 to 69 in 2006 Modern Estonia is a fairly ethnically homogeneous country but this historical homogeneity is a feature of 13 of the country s 15 maakond counties The mostly Russian speaking immigrant population is concentrated in urban areas which administratively belong to two counties Thus 13 of Estonia s 15 counties are over 80 ethnic Estonian the most homogeneous being Hiiumaa where Estonians account for 98 4 of the population In the counties of Harju including the capital city Tallinn and Ida Viru however ethnic Estonians make up 60 and 20 of the population respectively The ethnic Russian immigrant minority makes up about 24 of the country s total population now but accounts for 35 of the population in Harju county and for a near 70 majority in Ida Viru county The Estonian Cultural Autonomy law that was passed in 1925 was unique in Europe at that time 327 Cultural autonomies could be granted to minorities numbering more than 3 000 people with longstanding ties to the Republic of Estonia Before the Soviet occupation the Germans and Jewish minorities managed to elect a cultural council The Law on Cultural Autonomy for National Minorities was reinstated in 1993 Historically large parts of Estonia s northwestern coast and islands have been populated by the indigenous ethnic group of rannarootslased Coastal Swedes In recent years the number of Swedish residents in Estonia has risen again numbering in 2008 almost 500 people owing to the property reforms at the beginning of the 1990s In 2004 the Ingrian Finnish minority in Estonia elected a cultural council and was granted cultural autonomy The Estonian Swedes minority similarly received cultural autonomy in 2007 328 During the Russo Ukrainian war of 2022 tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Estonia Society Edit See also Human rights in Estonia Nordic identity in Estonia and Estonian alien s passport Estonian folk dancers Among Post Soviet states Estonia is one of the strongest Westernised countries 329 Estonian society has undergone considerable changes over the last twenty years one of the most notable being the increasing level of stratification and the distribution of family income The Gini coefficient has held steadily higher than the European Union average 31 in 2009 330 although it has clearly dropped The registered unemployment rate in January 2021 was 6 9 331 Modern Estonia is a multinational country in which 109 languages are spoken according to a 2000 census 67 3 of Estonian citizens speak Estonian as their native language 29 7 Russian and 3 speak other languages 332 As of 2 July 2010 update 84 1 of Estonian residents are Estonian citizens 8 6 are citizens of other countries and 7 3 are citizens with undetermined citizenship 333 Since 1992 roughly 140 000 people have acquired Estonian citizenship by passing naturalisation exams 334 Estonia has also accepted quota refugees under the migrant plan agreed upon by EU member states in 2015 335 Ethnic distribution in Estonia is very homogeneous at a county level in most counties over 90 of residents are ethnic Estonians In contrast in the capital city Tallinn and the urban areas of Ida Viru county which neighbours Russia ethnic Estonians account for around 60 of the population and the remainder is mostly composed of Russian and Ukrainian immigrants who mostly arrived in Estonia during the period of Soviet occupation 1944 1991 however now also includes over 30 000 ca 3 of total population war refugees from Ukraine who have settled in Estonia in 2022 citation needed A Russian Old Believer village with a church on Piirissaar island The 2008 United Nations Human Rights Council report called extremely credible the description of the citizenship policy of Estonia as discriminatory 336 According to surveys only 5 of the Russian community have considered returning to Russia in the near future Estonian Russians have developed their own identity more than half of the respondents recognized that Estonian Russians differ noticeably from the Russians in Russia When compared with results from a 2000 survey Russians had a more positive attitude toward the future 337 Estonia was the first post Soviet republic to legalize civil unions for same sex couples with a law approved in October 2014 338 Political disagreements delayed adoption of the necessary implementing legislation and same sex couples were not able to sign cohabitation agreements until January 1 2016 Urbanization Edit For a more comprehensive list see List of cities and towns in Estonia Tallinn is the capital and the largest city of Estonia and lies on the northern coast of Estonia along the Gulf of Finland There are 33 cities and several town parish towns in the country In total there are 47 linna with linn in English meaning both cities and towns More than 70 of the population lives in towns Largest cities or towns in Estonia 339 Rank Name County Pop Rank Name County Pop 1 Tallinn Harju 438 341 11 Sillamae Ida Viru 12 2302 Tartu Tartu 95 430 12 Valga Valga 11 7923 Narva Ida Viru 53 424 13 Voru Voru 11 5334 Parnu Parnu 40 228 14 Paide Jarva 10 2855 Kohtla Jarve Ida Viru 32 577 15 Johvi Ida Viru 10 1306 Viljandi Viljandi 16 875 16 Keila Harju 10 0787 Maardu Harju 15 284 17 Saue Harju 5 8318 Rakvere Laane Viru 14 984 18 Elva Tartu 5 6169 Haapsalu Laane 12 883 19 Tapa Laane Viru 5 16810 Kuressaare Saare 12 698 20 Polva Polva 5 115 Religion Edit Main article Religion in Estonia Religion in Estonia 2011 340 341 Unaffiliated 64 87 Eastern Orthodox 19 87 Lutheran 12 02 Other Christian 1 20 Pentecostal and other neoprotestant denominations 0 93 Other religions 1 10 Estonia has a diverse religious history but in recent years it has become increasingly secular with either a plurality or a majority of the population declaring themselves nonreligious in recent censuses followed by those who identify as religiously undeclared The largest minority groups are the various Christian denominations principally Lutheran and Orthodox Christians with very small numbers of adherents in non Christian faiths namely Judaism Islam and Buddhism Other polls suggest the country is broadly split between Christians and the non religious religiously undeclared In ancient Estonia prior to Christianization and according to Livonian Chronicle of Henry Tharapita was the predominant deity for the Oeselians 342 Estonia was Christianised by the Catholic Teutonic Knights in the 13th century The Protestant Reformation led to the establishment of the Lutheran church in 1686 Before the Second World War Estonia was approximately 80 Protestant overwhelmingly Lutheran 343 344 345 followed by Calvinism and other Protestant branches Many Estonians profess not to be particularly religious because religion through the 19th century was associated with German feudal rule 346 There has historically been a small but noticeable minority of Russian Old believers near the Lake Peipus area in Tartu county Today Estonia s constitution guarantees freedom of religion separation of church and state and individual rights to privacy of belief and religion 347 According to the Dentsu Communication Institute Inc Estonia is one of the least religious countries in the world with 75 7 of the population claiming to be irreligious The Eurobarometer Poll 2005 found that only 16 of Estonians profess a belief in a god the lowest belief of all countries studied 348 A 2009 Gallup poll found similar results with only 16 of Estonians describing religion as important in their daily lives making Estonia the most irreligious of the nations surveyed 349 Ruhnu stave church built in 1644 is the oldest surviving wooden building in Estonia New polls about religiosity in the European Union in 2012 by Eurobarometer found that Christianity is the largest religion in Estonia accounting for 45 of Estonians 350 Eastern Orthodox are the largest Christian group in Estonia accounting for 17 of Estonia citizens 350 while Protestants make up 6 and Other Christian make up 22 Non believer Agnostic account 22 Atheist accounts for 15 and undeclared accounts for 15 350 The most recent Pew Research Center found that in 2015 51 of the population of Estonia declared itself Christian 45 religiously unaffiliated a category which includes atheists agnostics and those who describe their religion as nothing in particular while 2 belonged to other faiths 351 The Christians divided between 25 Eastern Orthodox 20 Lutherans 5 other Christians and 1 Roman Catholic 352 While the religiously unaffiliated divided between 9 as atheists 1 as agnostics and 35 as Nothing in Particular 353 Traditionally the largest religious denomination in the country was Lutheranism which was adhered to by 160 000 Estonians or 13 of the population according to the 2000 census principally ethnic Estonians According to the Lutheran World Federation the historic Lutheran denomination has 180 000 registered members 354 Other organisations such as the World Council of Churches report that there are as many as 265 700 Estonian Lutherans 355 Additionally there are between 8 000 and 9 000 members abroad However the 2011 census indicated that Eastern Orthodoxy had surpassed Lutheranism accounting for 16 5 of the population 176 773 people Eastern Orthodoxy is practised chiefly by the Russian minority The Estonian Orthodox Church affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church is the primary Orthodox denomination The Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church under the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate claims another 20 000 members citation needed Roman Catholics are a small minority in Estonia They are organised under the Latin Apostolic Administration of Estonia According to the census of 2000 data in table to the right there were about 1 000 adherents of the Taara faith 356 357 358 or Maausk in Estonia see Maavalla Koda The Jewish community has an estimated population of about 1 900 see History of the Jews in Estonia and the Muslim community numbers just over 1 400 Around 68 000 people consider themselves atheists 359 Languages Edit Main article Languages of Estonia Distribution of Finnic languages in Northern Europe The official language Estonian is a Finnic language and is conventionally classified as a member of the Uralic language family Estonian is closely related to Finnish and one of the few languages of Europe that is not considered Indo European Unlike Estonian and Finnish the languages of their nearest geographical neighbouring countries Swedish Latvian and Russian are all Indo European languages Although the Estonian and Germanic languages are of different origins one can identify many similar words in Estonian and German This is primarily because the Estonian language has borrowed nearly one third of its vocabulary from Germanic languages mainly from Low Saxon Middle Low German during the period of German rule and High German including standard German The percentage of Low Saxon and High German loanwords can be estimated at 22 25 percent with Low Saxon making up about 15 percent South Estonian languages are spoken by 100 000 people and include the dialects of Voro and Seto The languages are spoken in South Eastern Estonia are genealogically distinct from northern Estonian but are traditionally and officially considered as dialects and regional forms of the Estonian language not separate language s 360 Russian is the most spoken minority language in the country There are towns in Estonia with large concentrations of Russian speakers and there are towns where Estonian speakers are in the minority especially in the northeast e g Narva Russian is spoken as a secondary language by forty to seventy year old ethnic Estonians because Russian was the unofficial language of the Estonian SSR from 1944 to 1990 and was taught as a compulsory second language during the Soviet era In the period between 1990 and 1995 the Russian language was granted an official special status according to Estonian language laws 361 In 1995 it lost its official status In 1998 most first and second generation industrial immigrants from the former Soviet Union mainly the Russian SFSR did not speak Estonian 362 However by 2010 64 1 of non ethnic Estonians spoke Estonian 363 The latter mostly Russian speaking ethnic minorities reside predominantly in the capital city of Tallinn and the industrial urban areas in Ida Viru county From the 13th to the 20th century there were Swedish speaking communities in Estonia particularly in the coastal areas and on the islands e g Hiiumaa Vormsi Ruhnu in Swedish known as Dago Ormso Runo respectively along the Baltic sea communities which today have almost disappeared From 1918 to 1940 when Estonia was independent the small Swedish community was well treated Municipalities with a Swedish majority mainly found along the coast used Swedish as the administrative language and Swedish Estonian culture saw an upswing However most Swedish speaking people fled to Sweden before the end of World War II before the invasion of Estonia by the Soviet army in 1944 Only a handful of older speakers remain Apart from many other areas the influence of Swedish is distinct in the Noarootsi Parish of Laane county where there are many villages with bilingual Estonian and or Swedish names and street signs 364 365 The most common foreign languages learned by Estonian students are English Russian German and French Other popular languages include Finnish Spanish and Swedish 366 Education and science Edit The University of Tartu is one of the oldest universities in Northern Europe and the highest ranked university in Estonia According to the Top Universities website the University of Tartu ranks 285th in the QS Global World Ranking 367 Main article Education in Estonia See also List of universities in Estonia Space science in Estonia and Tiigrihupe The history of formal education in Estonia dates back to the 13th and 14th centuries when the first monastic and cathedral schools were founded 368 The first primer in the Estonian language was published in 1575 The oldest university is the University of Tartu established by the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf in 1632 In 1919 university courses were first taught in the Estonian language Today s education in Estonia is divided into general vocational and hobby The education system is based on four levels pre school basic secondary and higher education 369 A wide network of schools and supporting educational institutions have been established The Estonian education system consists of state municipal public and private institutions There are currently 589 schools in Estonia 370 Estonia started connecting all its schools to the internet very early Tiigrihupe Estonian for Tiger Leap was a project undertaken by the state to heavily invest in the development and expansion of computer and network infrastructure in Estonia with a particular emphasis on education 371 In the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment PISA report Estonia s students rank 1st in Europe In the world Estonia s students rank 5th in reading 8th in mathematics and 4th in sciences 372 373 Additionally around 89 of Estonian adults aged 25 64 have earned the equivalent of a high school degree one of the highest rates in the industrialised world 374 House of the Estonian Students Society built in 1901 1902 in Tartu and considered the first example of the Estonian style of urban architecture 375 Academic higher education in Estonia is divided into three levels bachelor s master s and doctoral studies In some specialties basic medical studies veterinary pharmacy dentistry architect engineer and a classroom teacher programme the bachelor s and master s levels are integrated into one unit 376 Estonian public universities have significantly more autonomy than applied higher education institutions In addition to organising the academic life of the university universities can create new curricula establish admission terms and conditions approve the budget approve the development plan elect the rector and make restricted decisions in matters concerning assets 377 Estonia has a moderate number of public and private universities The largest public universities are the University of Tartu Tallinn University of Technology Tallinn University Estonian University of Life Sciences Estonian Academy of Arts the largest private university is Estonian Business School ESTCube 1 is the first Estonian satellite The Estonian Academy of Sciences is the national academy of science The strongest public non profit research institute that carries out fundamental and applied research is the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics NICPB Estonian KBFI The first computer centres were established in the late 1950s in Tartu and Tallinn Estonian specialists contributed in the development of software engineering standards for ministries of the Soviet Union during the 1980s 378 379 As of 2015 update Estonia spends around 1 5 of its GDP on Research and Development compared to an EU average of around 2 0 380 Estonia was ranked 18th in the Global Innovation Index in 2022 381 Some of the best known scientists related to Estonia include astronomers Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve Ernst Opik and Jaan Einasto biologist Karl Ernst von Baer Jakob von Uexkull chemists Wilhelm Ostwald and Carl Schmidt economist Ragnar Nurkse mathematician Edgar Krahn medical researchers Ludvig Puusepp and Nikolay Pirogov physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck political scientist Rein Taagepera psychologist Endel Tulving and Risto Naatanen semiotician Juri Lotman According to New Scientist Estonia will be the first nation to provide personal genetic information service sponsored by the state They aim to minimise and prevent future ailments for those whose genes make them extra prone to conditions like adult onset diabetes and cardiovascular diseases The government plans to provide lifestyle advice based on the DNA for 100 000 of its 1 3 million citizens 382 Culture EditMain articles Culture of Estonia and List of Estonians The Estonian National Museum in Tartu The culture of Estonia incorporates indigenous heritage as represented by the Estonian language and the sauna with mainstream Nordic and European cultural aspects Because of its history and geography Estonia s culture has been influenced by the traditions of the adjacent area s various Finnic Baltic Slavic and Germanic peoples as well as the cultural developments in the former dominant powers Germany Sweden and Russia for this reason it aspires more to be considered a Nordic state 383 384 Today Estonian society encourages liberty and liberalism with a popular commitment to the ideals of the limited government discouraging centralised power and corruption The Protestant work ethic remains a significant cultural staple and free education is a highly prized institution As the mainstream culture in the Nordic countries Estonian culture can be seen to build upon the ascetic environmental realities and traditional livelihoods a heritage of comparatively widespread egalitarianism out of practical reasons see Everyman s right and universal suffrage and the ideals of closeness to nature and self sufficiency see summer cottage The Estonian Academy of Arts Estonian Eesti Kunstiakadeemia EKA is providing higher education in art design architecture media art history and conservation while the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy has an approach to popularise native culture through such curricula as native construction native blacksmithing native textile design traditional handicraft and traditional music but also jazz and church music In 2010 there were 245 museums in Estonia whose combined collections contain more than 10 million objects 385 Music Edit Main article Music of Estonia See also Estonian national awakening Estonian Song Festival and Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest The Estonian Song Festival is UNESCO s Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity The earliest mention of Estonian singing dates back to Saxo Grammaticus Gesta Danorum ca 1179 386 Saxo speaks of Estonian warriors who sang at night while waiting for a battle The older folk songs are also referred to as regilaulud songs in the traditional regivarss poetic metre shared by all Baltic Finns Runic singing was widespread among Estonians until the 18th century when rhythmic folk songs began to replace them 387 Traditional wind instruments derived from those used by shepherds were once widespread and are now becoming more commonly played once more Other instruments including the fiddle zither concertina and accordion are used to play polka or other dance music The kannel is a native instrument that is again becoming more popular in Estonia A Native Music Preserving Centre was opened in 2008 in Viljandi 388 Arvo Part was the world s most performed living composer from 2010 to 2018 The tradition of Estonian Song Festivals Laulupidu started at the height of the Estonian national awakening in 1869 Today it is one of the largest amateur choral events in the world In 2004 about 100 000 people participated in the Song Festival Since 1928 the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds Lauluvaljak have hosted the event every five years in July The last festival took place in July 2019 In addition Youth Song Festivals are also held every four or five years the latest taking place in 2017 389 Professional Estonian musicians and composers such as Aleksander Eduard Thomson Rudolf Tobias Miina Harma Mart Saar Artur Kapp Juhan Aavik Aleksander Kunileid Artur Lemba and Heino Eller emerged in the late 19th century Currently the most well known Estonian composers are Arvo Part Eduard Tubin and Veljo Tormis 390 In 2014 Arvo Part was the world s most performed living composer for the fourth year in a row 391 In the 1950s Estonian baritone Georg Ots rose to worldwide prominence as an opera singer 392 In popular music Estonian artist Kerli Koiv has become popular in Europe also gaining in popularity in North America She provided music for the 2010 Disney film Alice in Wonderland and the television series Smallville in the United States of America citation needed Estonia won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2001 with the song Everybody performed by Tanel Padar and Dave Benton In 2002 Estonia hosted the event Maarja Liis Ilus competed for Estonia in 1996 and 1997 while Eda Ines Etti Koit Toome and Evelin Samuel partly owe their popularity to the song contest Lenna Kuurmaa gained recognition in Europe performing with her band Vanilla Ninja Randajad by Urban Symphony was the first song in Estonian to chart in the UK Belgium and Switzerland citation needed Literature Edit Main article Literature of Estonia See also Estophile Jaan Kross is the most translated Estonian writer Estonian literature refers to literature written in the Estonian language ca 1 million speakers 393 The domination of Estonia after the Northern Crusades from the 13th century to 1918 by Germany Sweden and Russia resulted in few early literary works being written in the Estonian language The oldest records of written Estonian date from the 13th century Originates Livoniae in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia contains Estonian place names words and sentence fragments The Liber Census Daniae 1241 contains Estonian place and family names 394 Many folk tales are told to this day and some have been written down and translated to make them accessible to an international readership 395 ABD ehk Luggemise Ramat Lastele an Estonian language alphabet book by Otto Wilhelm Masing was published in 1795 396 397 The cultural stratum of Estonian was originally characterised by a largely lyrical form of folk poetry based on syllabic quantity Apart from a few albeit remarkable exceptions this archaic form has not been widely employed in later times One of the most outstanding achievements in the field is the national epic Kalevipoeg At a professional level the traditional folk song reached its new heyday during the last quarter of the 20th century primarily thanks to the work of composer Veljo Tormis Oskar Luts was the most prominent prose writer of early Estonian literature and is still widely read today particularly his lyrical school novel Kevade Spring 398 A H Tammsaare s social epic and psychological realist pentalogy Truth and Justice captured the evolution of Estonian society from a poor farmer community to an independent nation 399 400 In modern times Jaan Kross and Jaan Kaplinski are Estonia s best known and most translated writers 401 Among the most popular writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries are Tonu Onnepalu and Andrus Kivirahk who uses elements of Estonian folklore and mythology deforming them into the absurd and grotesque 402 Media Edit See also List of Estonian films and List of Estonian war films The cinema of Estonia started in 1908 with the production of a newsreel about Swedish King Gustav V s visit to Tallinn 403 The first public TV broadcast in Estonia was in July 1955 Regular live radio broadcasts began in December 1926 Deregulation in the field of electronic media has brought radical changes compared to the beginning of the 1990s The first licences for private TV broadcasters were issued in 1992 The first private radio station went on the air in 1990 The most internationally known Estonian films include Those Old Love Letters The Heart of the Bear Names in Marble The Singing Revolution Autumn Ball 1944 and The Fencer Internationally known Estonian film actors include Lembit Ulfsak Jaan Tatte and Elmo Nuganen who also known as a film director Estonian media sector has a large number of weekly newspapers and magazines and Estonians have a choice of 9 domestic TV channels and a host of radio stations Estonia has been internationally recognised for its high rate of press freedom having been ranked 3rd in the 2012 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders 404 Estonia has two news agencies The Baltic News Service BNS founded in 1990 is a private regional news agency covering Estonia Latvia and Lithuania The ETV24 is an agency owned by Eesti Rahvusringhaaling which is a publicly funded radio and television organisation created on 30 June 2007 to take over the functions of the formerly separate Eesti Raadio and Eesti Televisioon under the terms of the Estonian National Broadcasting Act 405 406 Architecture Edit Main article Architecture of Estonia A traditional farmhouse built in the Estonian vernacular style The architectural history of Estonia mainly reflects its contemporary development in northern Europe Worth mentioning is especially the architectural ensemble that makes out the medieval old town of Tallinn which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List 407 In addition the country has several unique more or less preserved hill forts dating from pre Christian times 408 409 a large number of still intact medieval castles and churches 410 411 412 while the countryside is still shaped by the presence of a vast number of wooden manor houses from earlier centuries Holidays Edit Main article Public holidays in Estonia The Estonian National Day is the Independence Day celebrated on 24 February the day the Estonian Declaration of Independence was issued As of 2013 update there are 12 public holidays which come with a day off and 12 national holidays celebrated annually 413 414 Public holidays in Estonia DateNew Year s Day 1 JanuaryIndependence Day 24 FebruaryGood Friday moveableEaster Sunday moveableSpring Day 1 MayPentecost moveableVictory Day 23 JuneMidsummer Day 24 JuneDay of Restoration of Independence 20 AugustChristmas Eve 24 DecemberChristmas Day 25 DecemberBoxing Day 26 DecemberCuisine Edit Main article Estonian cuisine See also Kama food Kalev confectioner Kohuke and Verivorst Mulgipuder a national dish of Estonia made with potatoes groats and meat It is very traditional food in the southern part of Estonia 415 Historically the cuisine of Estonia has been dependent on seasons and the simple food from the local farms and the sea Today it also includes many global foods The most typical foods in modern Estonia are black bread pork potatoes and dairy products 416 Traditionally in summer and spring Estonians like to eat everything fresh berries herbs vegetables and everything else that comes straight from the garden Hunting and fishing have also been very common although currently hunting and fishing are enjoyed mostly as hobbies Today it is also very popular to grill outside in summer A cardamom spiced bread roll with almond paste vastlakukkel is a traditional Estonian sweet roll especially popular from Christmas to Easter 417 Traditionally in winter jams preserves and pickles are brought to the table Gathering and preserving fruits mushrooms and vegetables for winter has always been popular but today gathering and preserving is becoming less common because everything can be bought from stores However preparing food for winter is still very popular in the countryside Sports Edit Main article Sport in Estonia Tartu Ski Marathon in 2006 Estonia first competed as an independent nation at the 1920 Summer Olympics Estonian athletes took part in the 1952 1988 Olympic Games under the Soviet flag as the country had been occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 The 1980 Summer Olympics Sailing regatta was held in the capital city Tallinn After regaining independence in 1991 Estonia has participated in all Olympics Estonia has won most of its medals in athletics weightlifting wrestling and cross country skiing Estonia has been one of the most successful nations at the Olympics in terms of medals won per capita 418 Estonia s best results were being ranked 13th in the total medals table at the 1936 Summer Olympics and 12th at the 2006 Winter Olympics Estonia has many indoor and outdoor facilities dedicated to various sports branches 419 Kiiking a relatively new sport was invented in 1993 by Ado Kosk in Estonia Kiiking involves a modified swing in which the rider of the swing tries to go around 360 degrees See also Edit Estonia portal Europe portalOutline of Estonia Index of Estonia related articlesNotes Edit Estonian Eesti ˈeːsʲti listen Estonian Eesti VabariikReferences Edit PHC 2011 over a quarter of the population are affiliated with a particular religion Statistics Estonia 29 April 2013 Archived from the original on 24 November 2017 Retrieved 9 January 2014 a b Information About Estonia 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a Missing or empty url help Surface water and surface water change Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development OECD Retrieved 11 October 2020 Population Figure Statistics Estonia Retrieved 28 September 2022 Population census Estonia s population and the number of Estonians have grown Statistics Estonia 1 June 2022 Retrieved 5 June 2022 a b c d e World Economic Outlook Database October 2022 IMF org International Monetary Fund October 2022 Retrieved 30 November 2022 Gini coefficient of equivalised disposable income EU SILC survey Eurostat Retrieved 22 June 2022 Human Development Report 2021 2022 PDF United Nations Development Programme 8 September 2022 Retrieved 8 September 2022 Matthew Holehouse Estonia discovers it s actually larger after finding 800 new islands The Telegraph 28 August 2015 Country Profile LegaCarta Retrieved 26 November 2019 Human Development Report 2020 Estonia PDF United Nations Development Programme 2020 Estonia Ranked 21st Legatum Prosperity Index 2020 Pisa rankings Why Estonian pupils shine in global tests BBC News 2 December 2019 Estonia among top 3 in the UN e Government Survey 2020 e Estonia 24 July 2020 Harold Theresa 30 October 2017 How A Former Soviet State Became One Of The World s Most Advanced Digital Nations Alphr Retrieved 29 November 2021 Number of start ups per capita by country 2020 stateofeuropeantech com Magi Marika 2018 InAustrvegr The Role of the Eastern Baltic in Viking Age Communication across the Baltic Sea BRILL pp 144 145 ISBN 9789004363816 Harrison D amp Svensson K 2007 Vikingaliv Falth amp Hassler Varnamo ISBN 91 27 35725 2 Tvauri Andres 2012 Laneman Margot ed The Migration Period Pre Viking Age and Viking Age in Estonia Estonian Archaeology Tartu University Press p 31 ISBN 9789949199365 ISSN 1736 3810 Retrieved 21 January 2020 Magi Marika 2018 InAustrvegr The Role of the Eastern Baltic in Viking Age Communication across the Baltic Sea BRILL p 144 ISBN 9789004363816 a b Laurisaar Riho 31 July 2004 Arheoloogid lammutavad ajalooopikute arusaamu in Estonian Eesti Paevaleht Retrieved 1 November 2016 Subrenat Jean Jacques 2004 Estonia Identity and Independence Rodopi p 23 ISBN 9042008903 Subrenat Jean Jacques 2004 Estonia Identity and Independence Rodopi p 24 ISBN 9042008903 Subrenat Jean Jacques 2004 Estonia Identity and Independence Rodopi p 26 ISBN 9042008903 Selirand Juri Tonisson Evald 1984 Through past millennia archaeological discoveries in Estonia Perioodika Kasekamp Andres 2010 A History of the Baltic States Palgrave Macmillan p 4 ISBN 9780230364509 Kasekamp Andres 2010 A History of the Baltic States Palgrave Macmillan p 5 ISBN 9780230364509 Subrenat Jean Jacques 2004 Estonia Identity and Independence Rodopi p 28 ISBN 9042008903 Frucht Richard C 2005 Eastern Europe An Introduction to the People Lands and Culture ABC CLIO p 68 ISBN 9781576078006 Faure Gunter Mensing Teresa 2012 The Estonians The long road to independence Lulu com p 27 ISBN 9781105530036 Tvauri Andres 2012 The Migration Period Pre Viking Age and Viking Age in Estonia pp 33 34 59 60 Retrieved 27 December 2016 Maesalu Ain 2012 Could Kedipiv in East Slavonic Chronicles be Keava hill fort PDF Estonian Journal of Archaeology 1 16supplser 199 doi 10 3176 arch 2012 supv1 11 Retrieved 27 December 2016 Kasekamp Andres 2010 A History of the Baltic States Palgrave Macmillan p 9 ISBN 9780230364509 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 12 ISBN 9780817928537 Kasekamp Andres 2010 A History of the Baltic States Palgrave Macmillan pp 9 11 ISBN 9780230364509 Enn Tarvel 2007 Sigtuna hukkumine Archived 11 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine Haridus 2007 7 8 pp 38 41 Tvauri Andres 2012 The Migration Period Pre Viking Age and Viking Age in Estonia pp 322 325 Retrieved 19 December 2019 a b c Magi Marika 2015 Chapter 4 Bound for the Eastern Baltic Trade and Centres AD 800 1200 In Barrett James H Gibbon Sarah Jane eds Maritime Societies of the Viking and Medieval World Maney Publishing pp 45 46 ISBN 978 1 909662 79 7 Martens Irmelin 2004 Indigenous and imported Viking Age weapons in Norway a problem with European implications PDF Journal of Nordic Archaeological Science 14 132 135 Retrieved 19 December 2019 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 4 ISBN 9780817928537 Raukas Anto 2002 Eesti entsuklopeedia 11 Eesti uld in Estonian Eesti Entsuklopeediakirjastus p 227 ISBN 9985701151 Kasekamp Andres 2010 A History of the Baltic States Palgrave Macmillan p 7 ISBN 9780230364509 Laurisaar Riho 29 April 2006 Arheoloogid lammutavad ajalooopikute arusaamu in Estonian Eesti Paevaleht Retrieved 4 November 2016 Tyerman Christopher 2006 God s War A New History of the Crusades Harvard University Press p 690 ISBN 9780674023871 Kasekamp Andres 2010 A History of the Baltic States Palgrave Macmillan p 14 ISBN 9780230364509 Raukas Anto 2002 Eesti entsuklopeedia 11 Eesti uld in Estonian Eesti Entsuklopeediakirjastus p 278 ISBN 9985701151 Kasekamp Andres 2010 A History of the Baltic States Palgrave Macmillan p 15 ISBN 9780230364509 Raukas Anto 2002 Eesti entsuklopeedia 11 Eesti uld in Estonian Eesti Entsuklopeediakirjastus p 279 ISBN 9985701151 Plakans Andrejs 2011 A Concise History of the Baltic States Cambridge University Press p 54 ISBN 9780521833721 O Connor Kevin 2006 Culture and Customs of the Baltic States Greenwood Publishing Group pp 9 10 ISBN 9780313331251 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 20 ISBN 9780817928537 O Connor Kevin 2006 Culture and Customs of the Baltic States Greenwood Publishing Group p 10 ISBN 9780313331251 Pekomae Vello 1986 Estland genom tiderna in Swedish Stockholm VALIS EESTI amp EMP p 319 ISBN 91 86116 47 9 Jokipii Mauno 1992 Jokipii Mauno ed Baltisk kultur och historia in Swedish pp 22 23 ISBN 9789134512078 Miljan Toivo 2015 Historical Dictionary of Estonia Rowman amp Littlefield p 441 ISBN 9780810875135 Frucht Richard C 2005 Eastern Europe An Introduction to the People Lands and Culture Volume 1 ABC CLIO p 100 ISBN 9781576078006 Frost Robert I 2014 The Northern Wars War State and Society in Northeastern Europe 1558 1721 Routledge p 305 ISBN 9781317898573 Raudkivi Priit 2007 Vana Liivimaa maapaev in Estonian Argo pp 118 119 ISBN 978 9949 415 84 7 Mol Johannes A Militzer Klaus Nicholson Helen J 2006 The Military Orders and the Reformation Choices State Building and the Weight of Tradition Uitgeverij Verloren pp 5 6 ISBN 9789065509130 a b c Frucht Richard C 2005 Eastern Europe An Introduction to the People Lands and Culture Volume 1 ABC CLIO p 121 ISBN 9781576078006 O Connor Kevin 2003 The History of the Baltic States Greenwood Publishing Group p 25 ISBN 9780313323553 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 24 ISBN 9780817928537 a b Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 25 ISBN 9780817928537 Stone David R 2006 A Military History of Russia From Ivan the Terrible to the War in Chechnya Greenwood Publishing Group pp 14 18 ISBN 9780275985028 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press pp 28 29 ISBN 9780817928537 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 28 ISBN 9780817928537 Williams Nicola Herrmann Debra Kemp Cathryn 2003 Estonia Latvia amp Lithuania University of Michigan p 190 ISBN 1 74059 132 1 Frost Robert I 2014 The Northern Wars War State and Society in Northeastern Europe 1558 1721 Routledge p 77 ISBN 9781317898573 Raukas Anto 2002 Eesti entsuklopeedia 11 Eesti uld in Estonian Eesti Entsuklopeediakirjastus p 283 ISBN 9985701151 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press pp 32 33 ISBN 9780817928537 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 31 ISBN 9780817928537 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 33 ISBN 9780817928537 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 34 ISBN 9780817928537 The Baltic States from 1914 to 1923 By LtCol Andrew Parrott PDF Archived from the original PDF on 19 March 2009 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 38 ISBN 9780817928537 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 41 ISBN 9780817928537 Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press pp 47 49 ISBN 9780817928537 Raukas Anto 2002 Eesti entsuklopeedia 11 Eesti uld in Estonian Eesti Entsuklopeediakirjastus p 286 ISBN 9985701151 Subrenat Jean Jacques 2004 Estonia Identity and Independence Rodopi p 90 ISBN 9042008903 a b c Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 59 ISBN 9780817928537 a b Raukas Anto 2002 Eesti entsuklopeedia 11 Eesti uld in Estonian Eesti Entsuklopeediakirjastus p 287 ISBN 9985701151 Subrenat Jean Jacques 2004 Estonia Identity and Independence Rodopi p 93 ISBN 9042008903 Subrenat Jean Jacques 2004 Estonia Identity and Independence Rodopi pp 90 91 ISBN 9042008903 Subrenat Jean Jacques 2004 Estonia Identity and Independence Rodopi p 91 ISBN 9042008903 a b Cultural Policy in Estonia Council of Europe 1997 p 23 ISBN 9789287131652 Raukas Anto 2002 Eesti entsuklopeedia 11 Eesti uld in Estonian Eesti Entsuklopeediakirjastus p 291 ISBN 9985701151 Smith David 2013 Estonia Independence and European Integration Routledge p 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Secret Soldiers of the Revolution Soviet Military Intelligence 1918 1933 Greenwood Publishing Group pp 34 36 ISBN 9780313309908 Bell Imogen 2002 Central and South Eastern Europe 2003 Psychology Press p 244 ISBN 9781857431360 Smith David 2013 Estonia Independence and European Integration Routledge p 18 ISBN 9781136452130 Misiunas Romuald J Taagepera Rein 1983 The Baltic States Years of Dependence 1940 1980 University of California Press p 11 ISBN 9780520046252 Smith David 2013 Estonia Independence and European Integration Routledge pp 19 20 ISBN 9781136452130 Smith David 2013 Estonia Independence and European Integration Routledge p 21 ISBN 9781136452130 Smith David 2013 Estonia Independence and European Integration Routledge p 22 ISBN 9781136452130 a b van Ginneken Anique H M 2006 Historical Dictionary of the League of Nations Scarecrow Press p 82 ISBN 9780810865136 von Rauch Georg 1974 Die Geschichte der baltischen Staaten University of California Press pp 108 111 ISBN 9780520026001 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Association Archived from the original PDF on 17 January 2012 Malksoo Lauri 2003 Illegal Annexation and State Continuity The Case of the Incorporation of the Baltic States by the USSR Leiden Boston Brill ISBN 90 411 2177 3 a b Miljan Toivo 2015 Historical Dictionary of Estonia Rowman amp Littlefield p 110 ISBN 978 0 8108 7513 5 Gatrell Peter Baron Nick 2009 Warlands Population Resettlement and State Reconstruction in the Soviet East European Borderlands 1945 50 Springer p 233 ISBN 978 0 230 24693 5 Kaasik Peeter Raudvassar Mika 2006 Estonia from June to October 1941 Forest brothers and Summer War In Hiio Toomas Maripuu Meelis Paavle Indrek eds Estonia 1940 1945 Reports of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity Tallinn pp 496 517 The Baltic Revolution Estonia Latvia Lithuania and the Path to Independence by Anatol Lieven p424 ISBN 0 300 06078 5 Lane Thomas Pabriks Artis Purs Aldis Smith David J 2013 The Baltic States Estonia Latvia and Lithuania Routledge p 34 ISBN 978 1 136 48304 2 Pinder David 1990 Western Europe Challenge and Change ABC CLIO p 80 ISBN 978 1 57607 800 6 Miljan Toivo 2015 Historical Dictionary of Estonia Rowman amp Littlefield p 209 ISBN 978 0 8108 7513 5 Conclusions of the Commission Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity 1998 Archived from the original on 29 June 2008 Smith David 2013 Estonia Independence and European Integration Routledge p 36 ISBN 978 1 136 45213 0 Miljan Toivo 2004 Historical Dictionary of Estonia Scarecrow Press p 275 ISBN 978 0 8108 6571 6 a b Raun Toivo U 2002 Estonia and the Estonians Second Edition Updated Hoover Press p 159 ISBN 978 0 8179 2853 7 Kangilaski Jaan et al 2005 Salo Vello ed The white book losses inflicted on the Estonian nation by occupation regimes 1940 1991 Estonian Encyclopaedia Publishers p 18 ISBN 9789985701959 Kasekamp Andres 2010 A History of the Baltic States Palgrave Macmillan p 138 ISBN 978 0 230 36450 9 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from a two sided perspective PDF Demographic Research 38 38 1117 doi 10 4054 DemRes 2018 38 38 Retrieved 7 January 2020 Misiunas Romuald 1983 The Baltic States Years of Dependence 1940 1990 Berkeley Los Angeles University of California Press p 96 ISBN 978 0 520 04625 2 Retrieved 1 September 2022 Misiunas Romuald 1983 The Baltic States Years of Dependence 1940 1990 Berkeley Los Angeles University of California Press p 78 ISBN 978 0 520 04625 2 Retrieved 1 September 2022 Miljan Toivo 2015 Historical Dictionary of Estonia Rowman amp Littlefield p 227 ISBN 9780810875135 Spyra Wolfgang Katzsch Michael 2007 Environmental Security and Public Safety Problems and Needs in Conversion Policy and Research after 15 Years of Conversion in Central and Eastern Europe Springer Science amp Business Media p 14 ISBN 9781402056444 Stocker Lars Fredrik 2017 Bridging the Baltic Sea Networks of Resistance and Opposition during the Cold War Era Lexington Books p 72 ISBN 9781498551281 Lepp Annika Pantti Mervi 2013 Window to the West Memories of watching Finnish television in Estonia during the Soviet period PDF VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture 3 2013 80 81 Retrieved 11 October 2021 Feldbrugge F J Ferdinand Joseph Maria Van den Berg Gerard Pieter Simons William Bradford 1985 Encyclopedia of Soviet Law BRILL p 461 ISBN 9789024730759 Lane Thomas Pabriks Artis Purs Aldis Smith David J 2013 The Baltic States Estonia Latvia and Lithuania Routledge p xx ISBN 9781136483042 Frankowski Stanislaw Stephan III Paul B 1995 Legal Reform in Post Communist Europe The View from Within Martinus Nijhoff Publishers p 73 ISBN 9780792332183 Backes Uwe Moreau Patrick 2008 Communist and Post Communist Parties in Europe Schriften Des Hannah Arendt Instituts Fur Totalitarismusforschung 36 Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht p 9 ISBN 9783525369128 Vogt Henri 2005 Between Utopia and Disillusionment A Narrative of the Political Transformation in Eastern Europe Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht pp 20 22 ISBN 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