History

Overview

Estonia was occupied by Vikings in the 9th century, and during its history it has been owned by Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Russia and the Teutonic Knights of Germany. It was then divided into two areas: northern Livonia (southern Estonia and Latvia) and Estonia, but was ceded to Russia in its entirety by Sweden in 1721. The country achieved independence in 1918, became a Soviet Socialist Republic in 1940, and declared its independence on the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. A new constitution was agreed the following year, and in 2002, Estonia was formally invited to join both the EU and NATO.

Pre-History

Human settlement in what is now Estonia became possible when the ice from the last glacial era melted away 11,000-13,000 years ago. The oldest known human settlement in Estonia is located by the Pärnu River, near the village of Pulli. It has been dated to the beginning of the 9th millennium BC. Previously known hunting and fishing communities from around 6500 BC once lived near the town of Kunda. Bone and stone artefacts similar to those found at Kunda have been discovered elsewhere in Estonia, as well as in Latvia, northern Lithuania and southern Finland. The Kunda culture group belongs to the middle stone age, or Mesolithic period (in Estonia from the beginning of the 9th millennium to the 5th millennium BC).

Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language and belongs to the Uralic language family. The modern language that is most closely related to Estonian is Finnish. Both Finnish and Estonian are Finnic languages, which comprises one branch of the larger Finno-Ugric language family.

Estonians are claimed by some to be one of the longest settled European peoples, whose ancestors may have corresponded to the Comb Ceramic Culture people, who lived on the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea over 5,000 years ago. However, it is quite probable that the ancestors of present-day Estonians had lived there for 10,000, or even more, years. Like other early agricultural societies, the ancient people of Estonia are believed to have been organised into economically self-sufficient, male-dominated clans with few differences in wealth or social power. By the early Middle Ages most Estonians were small landholders, with farmsteads primarily organised by village. The government remained decentralised, with local political and administrative subdivisions emerging only around the 1st century AD. By then, Estonia had a population of over 150,000 people.

The name "Estonia" (in modern Estonian: Eesti) could be derived from the word "Aestii", the name given by the ancient Germanic people to the peoples living northeast of the Vistula River. The Roman historian Tacitus in 98 A.D. was the first to mention the "Aestii" people, and early Scandinavians called the land south of the Gulf of Finland Eistland, and the people eistr.

1208-1227: The Estonian Crusade

Estonia remained one of the last corners of medieval Europe to be Christianized. In 1193, Pope Celestine III called for a crusade against pagans in Northern Europe. Northern Crusades from Northern Germany established the stronghold of Riga (in modern Latvia). With the help of the newly converted local tribes of Livs and Letts, the crusaders initiated raids into part of what is present-day Estonia in 1208. Estonian tribes fiercely resisted the attacks from Riga and occasionally themselves sacked territories controlled by the crusaders. In 1217, the German crusading order the Sword Brethren and their recently converted allies, won a major battle in which the Estonian commander Lembitu was killed. The period of the several Northern Crusade battles in Estonia between 1208 and 1227 is also known as the period of Estonian ancient fight for independence.

1206-1346: Danish Estonia

Northern Estonia was conquered by Danish crusaders led by king Waldemar II, who arrived in 1219 on the site of Tallinn (Battle of Lyndanisse). In 1227, the Sword Brethren conquered the last indigenous stronghold in the Estonian island of Saaremaa. After the conquest, all remaining local pagans of Estonia were ostensibly Christianised.

The territory was then divided between the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order, the Bishopric of Dorpat (in Estonian: Tartu piiskopkond) and the Bishopric of Oesel-Wiek (in Estonian: Saare-Lääne piiskopkond). The Northern part of Estonia - more exactly Harjumaa and Virumaa districts (in German: Harrien und Wierland) - was a nominal possession of Denmark until 1346. Tallinn (Reval) was given the Lübeck Rights in 1248 and joined the Hanseatic League at the end of the 13th century. In 1343, the people of northern Estonia and Saaremaa (Oesel) Island started a rebellion (St. George's Night Uprising) against the rule of their German-speaking landlords. The uprising was put down, and Vesse, the rebel King of Saaremaa, was hanged in 1344.

Despite local rebellions and Muscovian invasions in 1481 and 1558, the local Low German-speaking upper class continued to rule Estonia and from 1524 preserved Estonian commitment to the Protestant Reformation.

1561-1721: Swedish Period

Northern Estonia submitted to Swedish control in 1561 during the Livonian War - a lengthy military conflict between the Tsardom of Russia and a coalition of Denmark, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Kingdom of Poland (later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), and Sweden for control of Greater Livonia (the territory of the present-day Estonia and Latvia). During 1582-83 southern Estonia (Livonia) became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1625, mainland Estonia came entirely under Swedish rule. In 1631, Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden forced the nobility to grant the peasantry greater autonomy, and in 1632 established a printing press and University in the city of Tartu.

1721-1917: Estonia as Part of Imperial Russia

Sweden's defeat by Russia in the Great Northern War in 1721 resulted in the Treaty of Nystad, and Russian rule was then imposed on what later became modern Estonia. Nonetheless, the legal system, Lutheran church, local and town governments, and education remained mostly German until the late 19th century and partially until 1918.

By 1819, the Baltic provinces were the first in the Russian empire in which serfdom was abolished, the largely autonomous nobility allowing the peasants to own their own land or move to the cities. These moves created the economic foundation for the coming to life of the local national identity and culture as Estonia was caught in a current of national awakening that began sweeping through Europe in the mid-1800s.

National Awakening

A cultural movement sprang forth to adopt the use of Estonian as the language of instruction in schools, all-Estonian song festivals were held regularly after 1869, and a national literature in Estonian developed. "Kalevipoeg", Estonia's national epic, was published in 1861 in both Estonian and German.

1889 marked the beginning of the central government-sponsored policy of Russification. The impact of this was that many of the Baltic German legal institutions were either abolished or had to work in Russian - a good example of this is the University of Tartu.

As the Russian Revolution of 1905 swept through Estonia, the Estonians called for freedom of the press and assembly, for universal franchise, and for national autonomy. Estonian gains were minimal, but the tense stability that prevailed between 1905 and 1917 allowed Estonians to advance the aspiration of national statehood.

1917-1918: Autonomous Governorate of Estonia

Estonia as a unified political entity first emerged after the Russian Revolution of 1917. With the collapse of the Russian Empire in World War I, Russia's Provisional Government granted national autonomy to a unified Estonia in April. The Governorate of Estonia in the north (corresponding to the historic Danish Estonia) was united with the northern part of the Governorate of Livonia. Elections for a provisional parliament (Maapäev) was organised, with the Menshevik and Bolshevik fractions of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party obtaining a part of the vote.

On November 5, 1917, two days before the October Revolution in Saint Petersburg, Estonian Bolshevik leader Jaan Anvelt violently usurped power from the legally constituted Maapäev in a coup d'etat, forcing the Maapäev underground.

In February 1918, after the collapse of the peace talks between Soviet Russia and the German Empire, mainland Estonia was occupied by the Germans. Bolshevik forces retreated to Russia. Between the Russian Red Army's retreat and the arrival of advancing German troops, the Committee of Elders of the Maapäev issued the Estonian Declaration of Independence in Parnu on February 24.

1918-1940: The Republic of Estonia

After the collapse of the short-lived puppet government of the United Baltic Duchy and the withdrawal of German troops in November 1918, an Estonian provisional Government retook office. A military invasion by Soviet Russia followed a few days later, however, marking the beginning of the Estonian War of Independence (1918-1920). The Estonian army cleared the entire territory of Estonia of Soviet troops by February 1919. On February 2, 1920, the Treaty of Tartu was signed by the Republic of Estonia and Bolshevist Russia. The terms of the treaty stated that Russia renounced in perpetuity all rights to the territory of Estonia. The Republic of Estonia obtained international recognition and became a member of the League of Nations in 1921.

The first period of independence lasted 22 years. Estonia underwent a number of economic, social, and political reforms necessary to come to terms with its new status as a sovereign state. Economically and socially, land reform in 1919 was the most important step. Large estate holdings belonging to the Baltic nobility were redistributed among the peasants and especially among volunteers in the Estonian War of Independence. Estonia's principal markets became Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and Western Europe, with some exports to the United States and to the Soviet Union.

The first constitution of the Republic of Estonia, adopted in 1920, established a parliamentary form of government. The parliament (Riigikogu) consisted of 100 members elected for 3-year terms. Between 1921 and 1931, Estonia had 11 governments. Political parties were banned and the parliament was not in session between 1934 and 1938 as the country was ruled by decree by Konstantin Päts, who was eventually elected as the first President of the Republic in 1938.

The independence period was one of great cultural advancement. Estonian language schools were established, and artistic life of all kinds flourished. One of the more notable cultural acts of the independence period, unique in western Europe at the time of its passage in 1925, was a guarantee of cultural autonomy to minority groups comprising at least 3,000 persons, including Jews.

Estonia had pursued a policy of neutrality, but it was of no consequence after the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on August 23, 1939 in which the two great powers agreed to divide up the countries situated between them (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland) with Estonia falling in the Soviet "sphere of influence". After the invasion of Poland, Orzel incident took place when Polish submarine ORP Orzel looked for shelter in Tallinn but escaped after Soviet Union attacked Poland on September 17. Estonian's lack of will and/or incapability to disarm and intern the crew caused Soviet Union to accuse Estonia of "helping them escape" and claim that Estonia was not neutral. On September 24, 1939, the Soviet Union threatened Estonia with war unless provided with military bases in the country - an ultimatum with which the Estonian government complied.

1940: Soviet Occupation

On September 24, 1939, warships of the Red Navy appeared off Estonian ports and Soviet bombers began a threatening patrol over Tallinn and the nearby countryside. Moscow demanded Estonia to gave assent to an agreement which allowed the USSR to establish military bases and station 25,000 troops on Estonian soil for the duration of the European war. The government of Estonia accepted the ultimatum signing the corresponding agreement on September 28. 1939.

On June 12, 1940 the order for a total military blockade on Estonia to the Soviet Baltic Fleet was given. On June 14, 1940 while world's attention is focused on the fall of Paris to Nazi Germany a day earlier, the Soviet military blockade of Estonia went into effect, two Soviet bombers downed Finnish passenger airplane "Kaleva" flying from Tallinn to Helsinki carrying three diplomatic pouches from the US legations in Tallinn, Riga and Helsinki. The US Foreign Service employee Henry W. Antheil, Jr. was killed in the crash.

On June 16 1940, the Soviet Union invaded Estonia. Molotov accused the Baltic states of conspiracy against the Soviet Union and delivered an ultimatum to Estonia for the establishment of a government the Soviets approve of.

Given the overwhelming Soviet force both on the borders and inside the country, the Estonian government decided not to resist, in order to avoid bloodshed and open war. Estonia accepted the ultimatum and the statehood of Estonia de facto ceased to exist as the Red Army exited from their military bases in Estonia on June 17. The following day, some 90,000 additional troops entered the country.

The military occupation of the Republic of Estonia was rendered "official" by communist coup d'état supported by the Soviet troops and was followed by "parliamentary elections" where all but pro-Communist candidates were outlawed. The "parliament" so elected proclaimed Estonia a Socialist Republic on July 21, 1940 and unanimously requested Estonia to be "accepted" into the Soviet Union. Estonia was formally annexed into the Soviet Union on August 6 and renamed the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. The 1940 occupation and annexation of Estonia into the Soviet Union was considered illegal and never officially recognised by Great Britain, the United States and other Western democracies.

The Soviet authorities, having gained control over Estonia, immediately imposed a regime of terror. During the first year of Soviet occupation (1940-1941) over 8,000 people, including most of the country's leading politicians and military officers, were arrested. About 2,200 of the arrested were executed in Estonia, while most others were moved to prison camps in Russia, from where very few were later able to return alive. On June 14, 1941, when mass deportations took place simultaneously in all three Baltic countries, about 10,000 Estonian civilians were deported to Siberia and other remote areas of the Soviet Union, where nearly half of them later perished. Of the 32,100 Estonian men who were forcibly relocated to Russia, nearly 40 percent died within the next year through hunger, cold and overwork. During the first Soviet occupation of 1940-41 about 500 Jews were deported to Siberia.

1941-1944: Occupation by Nazi Germany

After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, and the Wehrmacht reached Estonia in July 1941, most Estonians greeted the Germans with relatively open arms and hoped to restore independence. But it soon became clear that sovereignty was out of the question. Estonia became a part of the German-occupied "Ostland". A Sicherheitspolizei was established for internal security under the leadership of Ain-Ervin Mere. The initial enthusiasm that accompanied the liberation from Soviet occupation quickly waned as a result and the Germans had limited success in recruiting volunteers. The draft was introduced in 1942, resulting in some 3,400 men fleeing to Finland to fight in the Finnish Army rather than join the Germans.

Estonia was declared Judenfrei (an area free of Jews) quite early, at the Wannsee Conference in 1942, as the Jewish population of Estonia was small (about 4,500), and the majority of it managed to escape to the Soviet Union before the Germans arrived. Jews that had remained in Estonia (just under 1,000) were killed, and fewer than a dozen Estonian Jews are known to have survived the war in Estonia. The Nazi regime also established 22 concentration and labour camps in Estonia for foreign Jews. The largest, Vaivara concentration camp, housed 1,300 prisoners at a time. These prisoners were mainly Jews, with smaller groups of Russians, Dutch and Estonians. Several thousand foreign Jews were killed at the Kalevi-Liiva camp. An estimated 10,000 Jews were killed in Estonia after having been deported to camps there from elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

By January 1944, the front was pushed back by the Soviet Army almost all the way to the former Estonian border. Narva was evacuated. Jüri Uluots, the last legitimate prime minister of the Republic of Estonia prior to its fall to the Soviet Union in 1940, delivered a radio address that implored all able-bodied men born from 1904 to 1923 to report for military service. The call drew support from all across the country: 38.000 volunteers jammed registration centres. Several thousand Estonians who had joined the Finnish army came back across the Gulf of Finland to join the newly formed Territorial Defence Force, assigned to defend Estonia against the Soviet advance. It was hoped that by engaging in such a war Estonia would be able to attract Western support for the cause of Estonia's independence from the USSR and thus ultimately succeed in achieving independence.

As the Germans retreated in September 1944, Jüri Uluots assumed the responsibilities of president and appointed a new government while seeking recognition from the Allies. The new government fled to Stockholm, Sweden and operated in exile until 1992, when Heinrich Mark, the prime minister of the Estonian government in exile acting as president, presented his credentials to incoming president Lennart Meri.

1944-1991: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

Soviet forces reconquered Estonia in the autumn of 1944 after fierce battles in the northeast of the country on the Narva river and on the Tannenberg Line (Sinimäed). In the face of the country being re-occupied by the Red Army, tens of thousands of people chose to either retreat together with the Germans or flee to Finland or Sweden, becoming war refugees and later, expatriates

In 1949, in response to slow progress in forming collective farms, about 20,000 people were forcibly deported in a few days either to labour camps or Siberia. Within the few weeks that followed, almost all of the remaining rural households had been subjected to collectivisation.

Half of the deported perished; the other half were not allowed to return until the early 1960s (several years after Stalin's death). That and previous repressions in 1940-1941 sparked a guerrilla war against the Soviet authorities in Estonia which was waged into the early 1950s by the so called "forest brothers" (metsavennad) consisting mostly of Estonian veterans of both the German and Finnish armies as well as some civilians.

In addition to the human and material losses suffered due to war, thousands of civilians were killed and tens of thousands of people deported from Estonia by the Soviet authorities until Joseph Stalin's death in 1953. Material damage caused by the world war and the following Soviet rule significantly slowed Estonia's economic growth, resulting in a wide wealth gap in comparison with neighbouring unoccupied countries such as Finland and Sweden.

Militarisation was another aspect of the Soviet regime. Large parts of the country, especially the coastal areas were restricted to anyone but the Soviet military. Most of the sea shore and all sea islands (including Saaremaa and Hiiumaa) were declared "border zones". Estonians not directly living there were restricted from travelling there without a permit and were punished if they did so. A notable closed military installation was the city of Paldiski which was entirely closed to all public access. The city had a support base for the Soviet Baltic Fleet's submarines and several large military bases, including a nuclear submarine training centre complete with a full-scale model of a nuclear submarine with working nuclear reactors. The reactor building passed to Estonian control a year after the Soviet troops left.

Russification was another effect brought about by the Soviet occupation. Hundreds of thousands of Russian-speaking migrants (mostly from the Russian Federation or Ukraine) were relocated to Estonia by the Soviet administration and Communist Party to conduct industrialization and militarization, contributing an increase of about half million to Estonia's population within 45 years of occupation and colonisation. The immigrants stayed on to form part of the population. By 1980, when part of the Moscow Olympic Games were also held in Tallinn (the Olympic Regatta), Russification and state-orchestrated immigration had achieved a level at which it started sparking popular protests.

The United States, United Kingdom and the majority of other western democracies considered the annexation of Estonia by USSR illegal. They retained diplomatic relations with the representatives of the independent Republic of Estonia, never recognised the existence of the Estonian SSR de jure, and never recognised Estonia as a legal constituent part of the Soviet Union.

Estonia's return to independence became possible as the Soviet Union ran into economic difficulties as a consequence of the Cold War and began to disintegrate. As the situation evolved, a movement for more Estonian self-governance started. In the initial period of 1987-1989, this was partially for more economic independence, but as the Soviet Union weakened and it became increasingly obvious that nothing short of full independence would do, the country began a course towards self-determination.

In 1989, during the "Singing Revolution", in a landmark demonstration for more independence, called The Baltic Way, a human chain of more than two million people was formed, stretching through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Both Lithuania and Latvia had similar fates of occupation and similar aspirations for regaining independence as Estonia.

The spring of 1990 saw two free elections and two alternative legislatures developed in Estonia. On 24 February 1990, the 464-member Congress of Estonia (including 35 delegates of refugee communities abroad) was elected by the registered citizens of the republic. The Congress of Estonia convened for the first time in Tallinn March 11-12, 1990, passing 14 declarations and resolutions. A 70-member standing committee (Eesti Komitee) was elected with Tunne Kelam as its chairman.

In the March 18, 1990 elections for the 105-member Supreme Soviet all residents of Estonia were eligible to participate, including all Soviet-era immigrants from the USSR and approximately 50,000 Soviet troops stationed there. The Popular Front coalition, composed of left and centrist parties and led by former Central Planning Committee official Edgar Savisaar, gained a parliamentary majority. In May 1990, the Supreme Soviet restored the name of the "Republic of Estonia" and proclaimed only laws adopted in Estonia (by the Supreme Soviet) as valid.

In March 1991, a referendum was held on the issue of independence. The referendum produced a strong endorsement for independence. Turnout was 82%, and 64% of all possible voters in the country backed independence, with only 17% against.

1991 - Present: Independent Estonia

Estonia formally declared regained independence on August 20, 1991, during the Soviet military coup attempt in Moscow. The first country to diplomatically recognise Estonia's reclaimed independence was Iceland. August 20 remains a national holiday in Estonia because of this. Following Europe's lead, the United States formally re-established diplomatic relations with Estonia on September 2, and the USSR Supreme Soviet offered recognition on September 6.

The last Russian troops left on 31 August 1994.

Since regaining independence, Estonia has pursued a foreign policy of close cooperation with its Western European neighbours. The two most important policy objectives in this regard have been accession into NATO and the European Union, achieved in March and May of 2004 respectively.

An important element in Estonia's post-independence reorientation has been closer ties with the Nordic countries, especially Finland and Sweden. Indeed, Estonians consider themselves a Nordic people rather than Balts, based on their linguistic, cultural and historical ties with Sweden, Denmark and particularly Finland. In December 1999, Estonian foreign minister (and since 2006, president of Estonia) Toomas Hendrik Ilves delivered a speech entitled "Estonia as a Nordic Country" to the Swedish Institute for International Affairs. In 2003, the foreign ministry also hosted an exhibit called "Estonia: Nordic with a Twist". And in 2005, Estonia joined the European Union's Nordic Battle Group. It has also shown continued interest in joining the Nordic Council.