The history of Estonia is the events on the territory of modern
Estonia from the beginning of the settlement of people there to the
present day.
The first human settlements appeared in this area
around 9500-9600 BC within the framework of the so-called Kund
culture. By the X—XIII centuries, an early feudal structure of society
had developed, where elders and leaders of military squads stood at
the head of the lands.
In the XIII century, the Crusaders,
having suppressed the resistance of the Estonians, included these
lands in the Livonian Order. Since that time, Germans have occupied
key positions in power structures, culture, economy, etc. in Estonia
for several centuries. In the XVI century, Estonia passed the era of
the Reformation, since that time Protestantism has become the main
religious denomination on its territory. In the same century,
following the Livonian War, northern Estonia became part of Sweden,
and half a century later, southern Estonia was also included in
Sweden.
After the Northern War between Sweden and Russia,
Estonia was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1721. According to
the 1897 census, there were 958,000 people living in Estonia, of whom
Estonians made up just over 90%, Russians — 4% and Germans — 3.5%.
After the collapse of the Russian Empire, the independent and
democratic Republic of Estonia was proclaimed on February 24, 1918.
Independence was achieved during the Liberation War. On February 2,
1920, Soviet Russia and Estonia signed a peace treaty on mutual
recognition. On September 22, 1921, Estonia became a member of the
League of Nations.
As a result of the division of spheres of
influence between the USSR and Germany in 1939, a "Mutual Assistance
Pact" was imposed on Estonia in September 1939 by the Soviet Union,
and on August 6, 1940, Estonia was incorporated into the USSR. In the
period from July 7, 1941 to November 24, 1944, the territory of
Estonia was occupied by Nazi Germany. After the Soviet troops regained
control over the territory of Estonia, it was again incorporated into
the USSR. The United States and a number of other countries recognized
this inclusion de facto and did not recognize it de jure.
On
May 8, 1990, Estonia's independence was restored. On September 17,
1991, Estonia was admitted to the UN. In 2004, Estonia became a member
of the European Union and NATO.
Human life on the territory of modern Estonia became possible after
the retreat of the glacier during the last ice age. According to
archaeological data, the oldest known settlement here was the site of
ancient people on the banks of the Pärnu River near the village of
Pulli, near the city of Sindi, around 9500-9600 BC. These and later
settlements of hunters and fishermen belong to the so-called Kund
culture. It existed until the Mesolithic era (V millennium BC). From the
fifth to the third millennium BC. The territory of Estonia was inhabited
by the peoples of the Narva culture and the culture of pit-comb
ceramics. In the Neolithic era (IV—II millennium BC), they were replaced
by the culture of corded ceramics. In the second half of the Neolithic,
starting from about 2900 BC, cattle began to be bred in Estonia — cows,
goats, sheep and pigs. Example in the period 1529-1454 BC, the Kaali
meteorite fell on the island of Saaremaa. By the 1st millennium BC,
cattle breeding had become the main branch of the economy.
In the
1st millennium BC, the population of the territory of present-day
Estonia switched to a sedentary lifestyle and built the first fortified
settlements. The most famous of them are Asva and Ridala on the island
of Saaremaa and Iru near Tallinn. Since the middle of the first
millennium BC, land and sea contacts with neighbors have been
developing. This period is known in archaeology as the culture of stone
burial grounds, the tradition of which came from Scandinavia. In the
first centuries of our era, agriculture became the basis of the economy,
in the 2nd half of the first millennium, arable farming using livestock
as a draft force became widespread.
The name Estonia may come
from the word "Aestii", which was first mentioned by the Roman historian
Tacitus in 98 AD in the treatise "On the origin of the Germans and the
location of Germany". So, according to him, the Germans called
representatives of the Baltic peoples who lived northeast of the Vistula
River. Political scientist Rein Taagepera notes the fact that Estonians
are an indigenous people who have lived on this land for several
millennia. The Estonian language belongs to the Finno-Ugric group by
origin, the tribes — speakers of these languages — appeared on the
territory of present-day Estonia as a result of migration from the east
and north in about 3300-3200 BC.
The 11th century was a turning
point in the character of the settlement of Estonia: many old
settlements were abandoned, but new and more powerful ones were built.
The population and the area of agriculture have increased. By the end of
the Iron Age, a system of administrative division had been formed. The
main administrative-territorial unit in ancient Estonia was kihelkond,
of which there were a total of about 45. They consisted of vak
districts, which included from several dozen to hundreds of farms
(family farms). Kihelkonds were united into maakonds. By the beginning
of the XIII century there were eight of them: Virumaa, Liaanemaa,
Ryavala, Saaremaa, Sakala, Ugandi, Haryumaa, Yarvamaa. The main
socio-economic unit was the family farm. By the X—XIII centuries, an
early feudal structure of society had developed, where elders and
leaders of military squads stood at the head of the lands. The culture
of this period was reflected later in the epic Kalevipoeg.
Around
1030, Prince Yaroslav the Wise marched to the Estonian lands. The result
of the campaign was the foundation of the city of Yuryev (Tartu). In
1061, local tribes recaptured the city. Later, the Estonians, on the one
hand, and the Pskovites with the Novgorodians, on the other, committed
mutual raids until the beginning of the XIII century. Similar conflicts
occurred between the Estonians and the Scandinavian Vikings from the IX
century.
The Middle Ages in Estonia is considered to be the period from the
beginning of the XIII century to the second half of the XVI century,
that is, from the beginning of the spread of Christianity to the
Livonian War.
Christianity came to Estonia much later than to
other European countries. Initially, missionaries appeared in this
territory, then military expansion began, which was supported by
disparate forces: the papal Curia, the Hamburg-Bremen archbishops, the
Teutonic Order, the Danish and Swedish kingdoms. The first attempts by
Papal missionaries to convert Estonians to Christianity began already in
the 1170s, but they were unsuccessful.
In the 12th century, the Livonian Crusade began. The Crusaders
reached the Estonian land by 1206-1208. In 1217, the Estonians were
defeated in the battle of Viljandi, in which Elder Lembitu died.
In 1219, Danish King Valdemar II conquered Northern Estonia, defeating
the Estonians at the Battle of Lindanis. The German Order of the Sword
conquered Southern Estonia by 1224 and the island of Ezel (Saaremaa) in
1227.
As a result, these lands fell under the rule of the
Livonian Order. The formation of a new administrative system in the
conquered lands continued until the end of the XIII century. The main
reasons for the defeat were the numerical and military-technical
superiority of the enemy, as well as the lack of centralized political
power among the Estonians.
On the lands conquered by the order,
the Ezel-Viksky (Saare-Lyaene) and Dorpat (Tartu) bishoprics were
established. The northern part of Estonia was part of the Danish
Kingdom. In 1240, the Danish king granted lands for the creation of the
Tallinn Bishopric. After the transformation of the bishopric of Riga
into an archdiocese in 1251, the bishoprics of Dorpat and Ezelwicke
became subordinate to the Archbishop of Riga. The Bishop of Tallinn was
subordinate to the Archbishop of Lund and did not have secular authority
on his territory.
On February 18, 1268, the Battle of Rakovor
took place between the armies of the North Russian republics and
principalities against the combined forces of the Knights of the
Livonian Order and Danish Estonia.
Conflicts between the new
authorities and the local population led to uprisings, the most famous
of which was the uprising of St. George's Night in Danish Estonia in
1343. The Danes could not cope with it on their own and called on the
Teutonic Order to help. Later, due to growing internal problems, on
August 29, 1346, the Danish king Valdemar IV Atterdag sold the Danish
part of Estonia to the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Heinrich
Dusemer for 19 thousand silver Cologne marks, and the latter transferred
Estonia to the landmaster of the Teutonic Order in Livonia Goswin von
Hericke.
A feudal system was formed in the region. The feudal lords were
German knights, bishops and a few Estonian elders, who were quickly
Germanized. The rights of peasants were systematically restricted until
the introduction of serfdom by the 16th century. In 1550, natural taxes
reached 25%, and the first case of a peasant selling separately from the
land dates back to 1495.
All administrative and judicial power
was in the hands of German magistrates. Merchant guilds and craft guilds
were formed in the cities. Reval, Dorpat, Pernau and Fellin were members
of the Hanseatic League. The Estonians themselves, who made up about 80%
of the population, remained peasants and did not have personal freedom
until the abolition of serfdom in 1816-1819. In the 14th century, there
were significant disagreements between the major feudal lords of
Livonia, which led to armed clashes. In the XV century, the
consolidation of estates and the settlement of relations between them
took place.
The architectural appearance of the cities,
especially Tallinn (also called Kolyvan, Lindanis and Revel at various
times) with its medieval Gothic, was strongly influenced by Western and
Northern European ("Hanseatic") architecture. The population of Estonia
in 1550 was about 250 thousand people, of whom at least 6% lived in
cities, including 8000 in Tallinn and 6000 in Tartu. Estonian cities
played a significant role in trade between Russian cities and the West.
The first library in Estonia was founded in Tallinn in 1552.
There are disagreements about the attitude of the Catholic Church
towards the Estonian population. The encyclopedia Krugosvet writes that
"the Catholic faith was poorly spread among Estonians, as the church
showed no interest in their language and culture." The Encyclopedia
Estonica, on the contrary, states that "the Catholic Church, at least in
the cities, showed great attention to the so-called "non-Germans"
(Estonians)." In all Tallinn churches and monasteries, except for
German, sermons were read in Estonian. Pagan customs intertwined with
Catholic rituals were widespread among the peasants. By the 16th
century, the inhabitants of Estonia began to use Christian names, which
replaced the ancient Estonian ones.
The Reformation movement,
which was initiated by Martin Luther in Germany (1517), has become
widespread in the territory of modern Estonia. The basis of the
Reformation in Estonia was the economic contradictions of cities as
shopping centers, on the one hand, and the Order and Knighthood, on the
other. Lutheran preachers began their regular activities in Tallinn and
Tartu in the spring of 1524. In the autumn of the same year, riots broke
out, in which the townspeople (mostly ordinary people and young
merchants) in iconoclasm ravaged not only parish churches and
monasteries, but also the homes of the clergy. In rural areas, the
introduction of Lutheranism was much slower, and even in the XVIII
century, rural Lutheran priests complained about the commitment of their
parishioners to Catholic rites. One of the requirements of the
Reformation was the holding of divine services in the languages of local
peoples, which led to the publication of the first books in Estonian in
Germany (1525 or 1535).
In the XVI century, the Livonian Confederation, the Russian Kingdom,
the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (INCL.), the Swedish and Danish kingdoms
entered into a major and prolonged conflict over territories, including
the territory of modern Estonia. This conflict, which lasted from 1558
to 1583, was called the Livonian War. The result of the conflict was the
collapse of the Livonian Confederation, Estonia was divided between
Sweden, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Denmark, half a century
later, Southern Estonia was also transferred to Sweden under the Altmark
Agreement.
By the beginning of the Livonian War (1558-1583), the
population in the territory of modern Estonia ranged from 250 to 300
thousand people. At the initial stage of the war, the Livonian
Confederation was unable to resist the Russian troops, was quickly
defeated and ceased to exist in 1561, transferring its lands to the
Russian Federation. In addition, in 1559 Denmark bought the island of
Ezel and part of the territory of modern western Estonia. The Danish
king gave these lands into the possession of Duke Magnus of Holstein.
However, there were other contenders for the "Livonian inheritance".
Revel voluntarily accepted Swedish patronage in 1561, and at the same
time, Swedish citizenship accepted the knighthood of Harjumaa, Jarvamaa
and Virumaa. In 1561, the territory of the Dorpat bishopric was captured
by the troops of the Russian Kingdom.
In 1561, the Swedish army
landed in Reval and took control of the northern part of medieval
Livonia. Not recognizing the Swedish conquests, Denmark and Poland
(joined by the Free City of Lubeck) in 1563 began the so-called
Scandinavian Seven Years' War against the Swedes, which lasted until
1570. As a result, the coalition failed to take away the Swedish
possessions in Estonia.
In 1570, Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible
created the Livonian Kingdom on the lands of the Livonian Confederation,
headed by the Danish prince, Duke Magnus, a vassal of the Russian
Kingdom. During the Livonian War, Russian troops besieged Reval twice
(in 1570 and 1577), but could not take it. Russia ceded all the
territories captured in Livonia to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
(the treaty was signed in 1582) and Sweden (the treaties of 1583 and
1595).
By the end of the Livonian War, the population in the
territory of modern Estonia had decreased to 120-140 thousand people.
Since the partition of Livonia between the Czech Republic and Sweden
and until the beginning of the 20th century, Estonia (est. Eestimaa)
only the northern part of the modern territory of the country was
called, while the southern part was called Livonia.
At the
beginning of the XVII century, the struggle for the Baltic States
between Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth continued.
According to the terms of the Altmark Armistice of 1629, the whole of
Livonia (which included modern southern Estonia and northern Latvia) was
ceded to Sweden. After the defeat in the war of 1643-1645, Denmark,
according to the Peace of Bremsebr, ceded control of Ezel, and Sweden
seized the entire modern territory of Estonia.
Swedish domination was disputed by the Commonwealth in the war of
1654-1660 and the Russian Kingdom in the war of 1656-1658, but Sweden
retained its position in Estonia until the end of the century. The
population of Estonia has recovered to 400,000 people. The Germans, who
had lost political power, remained the ruling socio-economic class. The
Estonian and Livonia governorates were established on the territory of
Estonia.
The area where Swedish rule had the greatest impact on
Estonia was education. Since the end of the XVII century, schooling in
the Estonian language has become widespread. In 1632, the University of
Dorpat (Tartu) was founded 4 years before Harvard. In 1684, with the
support of the Swedish royal authority, a teacher's seminary was opened
near Dorpat, where Bengt Gottfried Forselius taught, and the publication
of books in Estonian expanded.
During the Great Famine
(1695-1697), due to lean years, the population decreased by about 70,000
people. The largest cities were Tallinn, Dorpat, Narva, Arensburg,
Pernau, Fellin.
Until the 17th century, trade served as the basis
of the Estonian economy. Due to its advantageous territorial location,
goods from Europe to Russia and back passed through Tallinn and Narva.
The Narva River provided communication with Russia: Pskov, Novgorod,
Moscow. The main number of aristocratic landowners in Estonia were
Germans and Swedes. In 1671, a law was passed allowing the return of
escaped peasants, as well as their entry in the serf books. In the
Middle Ages, Estonia was a major supplier of grain to the nordic
countries. It was only in the XVII century that the industrialization of
extractive industries and woodworking began. The discussion of the
proposed abolition of serfdom caused concern among large German
landowners.
At the beginning of the XVIII century, the interests
of the Russian Empire in the Baltic region clashed with the interests of
Sweden. The Northern War (1700-1721) ended with the surrender of Sweden
and the annexation of Estonia and Swedish Livonia to the Russian Empire
in 1710, which was officially consolidated by the Nishtadt Peace Treaty
of 1721. The usual robberies and murders of that time were intensified
by the tsar's order to use the tactics of "scorched earth" and
deportations of the local population.
Reval province was formed on the territory of modern northern Estonia
(since 1783 — the Province of Estonia), and modern southern Estonia,
together with modern northern Latvia, formed the province of Livonia.
After the annexation of the Estonian lands to the Russian Empire, Peter
I restored the rights of the German aristocracy, partially lost by it
under Swedish rule. If in Sweden the level of education of the German
nobility was the norm, then in Russia it turned out to be relatively
high and therefore the Ostsee Germans became the personnel reserve of
the highest officials of the empire. The peasants, on the contrary, were
finally enslaved. During this period, the so-called "Ostsee special
order" was formed, which determined the relations between the two
provinces and the Russian Empire. The German nobility was given
administrative and judicial power, and the local Evangelical Lutheran
Church was given complete freedom along with the Russian Orthodox Church
that dominated the empire.
During the Northern War and the plague
epidemic of 1710-1711, the population of Estonia decreased to 150-170
thousand people, but soon began to grow rapidly and by 1765 reached
400,000 people. In 1739, the Bible was first published in Estonian. By
the end of the XVIII century, more than half of the Estonian population
of the province was able to read. By the end of the 19th century,
literacy was almost universal. The religious movements of Pietism and
the Gernguter brotherhood, and then the German Enlightenment, had an
important influence on the spiritual development of Estonian peasants.
Enlightenment figures criticized serfdom and advocated for the
improvement of the education system.
By 1790, the population of
the Estonian province numbered about 500 thousand people. The urban
population also grew (1782): Revel — 10 700, Dorpat — 3400, Narva —
3000, Pernov (Parnu) — 2000. In the first half of the 19th century,
Germans made up 40-50% of the townspeople, and only 20-40% were
Estonians. The main language of office work in cities and at the
provincial level was German.
In 1802, the University of Dorpat,
founded in 1632, reopened, the doors of which were closed during the
Northern War. In the same year, a reform was carried out that mitigated
serfdom, ensured the property rights of peasants to movable property and
created courts to resolve peasant issues. The abolition of serfdom in
the Province of Estonia in 1816 and in the province of Livonia in 1819
under Alexander I was an important step towards the liberation of the
peasants, but it took several more decades before they received the
right to acquire land ownership.
In 1821, the Peasant Weekly
(est. "Marahwa Näddala-Leht") began to be published, edited by Otto
Mazing. In 1838, the "Society of Estonian Scientists" was founded in
Dorpat, the participants of which were such scientists as Friedrich
Robert Felman and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald. In 1843, Pastor Eduard
Aarens standardized the spelling and grammar of the Estonian language
based on Finnish instead of the previously used German-Latin model.
In the second half of the 19th century, the Estonian National
Awakening began. After the liberation of the peasants, their economic
situation deteriorated. The result was unrest, expressed in a movement
for a change of confession from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy, which was
accepted by tens of thousands of peasants. This was the reason for the
final agrarian reform. The law of 1849 in Livonia and 1856 in Estonia
divided the lands of estates and allowed the sale and lease of land to
peasants. In 1863, the peasants received identity documents and the
right to freedom of movement. By the end of the 19th century, more than
80% of the peasants in the Estonian-populated northern counties of
Livonia and over 50% in the Estonian province were land owners or
tenants, which had a positive impact on the country's economy. According
to the 1897 census, there were 958,000 people living in Estonia, of whom
Estonians made up just over 90%, Russians — 4% and Germans — 3.5%.
Since the middle of the 19th century, the active development of
capitalism began in Estonia, as in the rest of the empire. The textile
industry became the main industry, mechanical engineering grew, and the
cement industry emerged. But basically Estonia remained an agrarian
country until the middle of the 20th century.
Agrarian reforms and the development of the education system under
Emperor Alexander II contributed to the birth of the Estonian national
movement. A prominent representative of such a movement was Jacob Hurt
(1839-1906), the founder of national ideology, who believed that the
mission of the movement should be cultural, not political. A more
radical trend was led by Karl Robert Jacobson (1841-1882), a teacher,
writer, journalist, and founder of the first political Estonian
newspaper Sákala. The political program formulated by him demanded equal
rights for Germans and Estonians. He was noted by the Russian government
as the main opponent of the Baltic Germans in the province of Estonia.
Johann Voldemar Jannsen in 1857 for the first time used the phrase
Estonian people (est. eesti rahvas) as a name, instead of the former —
the people of the earth (est. maarahvas).
The Society of Estonian
Writers (1872-1893), founded in Dorpat and uniting Estonian
intellectuals, organized the collection of folklore and ethnographic
materials and their publication in Estonian. Since 1870, the first
Estonian theater, Vanemuine, has been established. In 1869, the first
Singing Festival was organized — the song Festival, which gathered more
than a thousand singers and musicians, and an audience of over 12
thousand people. This festival, which takes place every 4 years, is
still one of the most famous traditions in Estonia today.
At the
end of the 19th century, the tsarist government began to pursue a policy
of Russification aimed at reducing German influence. In this matter,
there was a temporary coincidence of the interests of Estonian peasants
and politicians who expressed their interests with the tsarist
authorities. In the 1880s, reforms were carried out in the Baltic
provinces, after which almost all administrative power was concentrated
in the hands of Russians. In 1888, the local police was reorganized
according to the general imperial model, and in 1889 the all-Russian
judicial system was introduced in the Baltic States. At the turn of the
1880s and 1890s, a number of measures were taken to oust German
influence from the educational sphere, in particular, the University of
Dorpat was Russified and renamed Yurievsky in 1893. In relation to the
Estonians themselves, the results of attempts at Russification turned
out to be insignificant, since their self-awareness had already become
quite strong by this time. The reforms were never completed — most of
the officials were not familiar with the local conditions and did not
know the Estonian language. Thus, the influence of the Ostsee Germans
remained unchanged until 1917.
In 1897, the population of the
Estland province and the northern counties of the Livonia province (with
a predominant Estonian population) amounted to 958 thousand people: 90%
were Estonians, about 4% were Russians and 3.5% were Ostsee Germans.
About 65% of the population were employed in agriculture, 14% worked in
the industrial sector and construction, about 14% were employed in
transport and in the service sector. The percentage of Estonians in
Reval increased from 51.8 in 1867 to 88.7 in 1897. Baltic Germans and
Russians remained the intellectual, economic and political elite of
society, while peasants and workers were predominantly Estonians.
About one hundred thousand Estonians participated in the battles of
the First World War, including about 3,000 officers and 8-9 generals.
The future hero of the Liberation War, Julius Kuperyanov, received six
orders, including the St. George Cross of the 4th degree for personal
bravery.
Under the influence of the revolutionary movement in the
Russian Empire in 1905, a wave of mass strikes and peasant unrest swept
through the province of Estonia. The Estonian national bourgeoisie
demanded liberal reforms. The imperial government responded with harsh
repression, 328 Estonians were shot or hanged, and the leaders fled
abroad. Organized worker demonstrations resumed in 1912 and especially
since 1916.
The February Revolution of 1917 in Estonia
During the February
Revolution on March 2 (15), 1917, the state authorities of the Russian
Empire in Reval ceased to exist. The Provisional Government of Russia
appointed the mayor of Reval, Jaan Posk, as commissioner of the Estonian
province. The Provisional Government issued a decree "On the temporary
structure of administrative management and local self—government of the
Province of Estonia", according to which the northern counties of the
Province of Livonia with the Estonian population were included in the
Province of Estonia and an advisory body was created under the
provincial commissioner - the Provisional Zemstvo Council of the
Province of Estonia. The task of the Zemstvo Council was to resolve
local issues, introduce taxes and regulations, as well as draft laws.
Since April 1917, Estonian national military units under the command
of Johan Laidoner began to be created in the Russian army. In parallel,
the Bolsheviks conducted their agitation in the cities and units of the
Russian army stationed in Estonia. They began to create Councils of
Workers' and soldiers' deputies.
During the Monozund operation on
September 6 (19) — September 23 (October 6), 1917, the German fleet
broke into the Gulf of Riga and the German landing force occupied the
islands of the Monozund archipelago.
In October—November 1917,
there was a struggle in Estonia between the Bolsheviks, who formed the
Military Revolutionary Committee of the Estonian Province and the
Zemstvo Council. The Bolsheviks declared the Executive Committee of the
Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies of the Estonian Province as
the supreme authority and published the draft constitution of the
Estonian Labor Commune, in which the future Estonian Soviet Republic was
proclaimed an autonomous part of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic.
On January 21-22 (February 3-4), 1918, elections to the Estonian
Constituent Assembly were held, as a result of which the RSDLP(b) took
the first place, receiving 37.1% of the vote. The Constituent Assembly
was supposed to open on February 15, 1918, but the Soviet authorities
canceled this decision on January 27 (February 9).
On February 18-20, 1918, the troops of the 8th German Army and the
Northern Army Corps launched an offensive towards Reval.
On
February 19, 1918, the Zemstvo Council formed the Committee for the
Salvation of Estonia, consisting of Konstantin Pyats, Yuri Wilms and
Konstantin Konik. On February 24, the Committee published a "Manifesto
to All the Peoples of Estonia", declaring Estonia an independent
democratic republic, neutral in relation to the Russian-German conflict.
The Committee formed the Provisional Government of Estonia.
By
March 4, all Estonian lands were completely occupied by the Germans.
According to the Brest Peace Treaty, the RSFSR renounced its rights to
the Baltic regions occupied by Germany. The German occupation
authorities did not recognize the independence of Estonia and
established a military occupation regime in the province, under which
officers of the German army or Ostsee Germans were appointed to key
administrative positions. In April 1918, with the support of the
occupation authorities, the Estland and Livonia Landesrats (consisting
mainly of Ostsee Germans) were convened, and then (on April 12) — the
united Baltic Landesrath. The Landesrat decided to create a Baltic Duchy
on the territory of the provinces of Estonia and Livonia. On September
22, 1918, Emperor Wilhelm II signed a state act recognizing the Baltic
Duchy as an independent state. The official proclamation of the new
state was scheduled for October 17.
In the autumn of 1918, a
revolution began in Germany, which led to the overthrow of the monarchy
on November 9. On November 11, 1918, the Armistice of Compiegne was
signed between the warring countries, which meant the end of the First
World War. In accordance with the terms of the armistice, Germany was
obliged to withdraw troops from all occupied territories.
On November 12, 1918, the Council of Elders of the Zemstvo Council
formed a new composition of the Provisional Government under the
chairmanship of Konstantin Pyats, who was released from a German
concentration camp on November 17 and arrived in Reval on November 20.
On November 19, in Riga, German representatives signed an agreement with
the Provisional Government on the transfer of all power in the country
to the latter. In turn, the Reval Council of Workers' Deputies appealed
to the government of Soviet Russia for support. Separate Estonian units
(the so-called Red Estonian regiments) were formed in the Red Army.
On November 29, 1918, units of the Soviet 7th Army, including the
Red Estonian regiments, occupied Narva, where the Estonian Labor Commune
was proclaimed on the same day. By decree of December 7, 1918, the
Government of the RSFSR recognized the independence of the Estonian
Labor Commune. On December 5-7, the Soviet troops resumed their
offensive. By January 1919, the Red Army occupied two thirds of the
country's territory and stood 35 kilometers from Tallinn.
By this
time, the Provisional Government had managed to create the conditions
for a turning point in the war. The British fleet in the Gulf of Finland
and foreign volunteers from Sweden and Finland took the side of Estonia.
The Special Pskov Volunteer Corps of the White Army was subordinated to
the Estonian command. On December 23, Colonel Johan Laidoner was
appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Estonian troops. 2,132 officers of
the former tsarist army of Estonian origin joined the Estonian army. On
January 7, 1919, Estonian troops went on the offensive and drove the Red
Army out of Estonia.
In May 1919, Estonia's confrontation with
the RSFSR entered a new phase. The troops of the whites, who were on the
territory of Estonia and subordinated to the Estonian high Command,
together with the Estonian troops conducted two offensives against
Petrograd. The Estonian army also took part in the battles in the Pskov
direction in May 1919, capturing Pskov on May 25. The offensive on
Petrograd ended in failure, the Northwestern Army under the command of
General Yudenich was forced to retreat to the territory of Estonia in
November 1919, where it was interned.
An important event in 1919
in the history of the struggle for independence was the victory of the
3rd Division of the Estonian army under the command of Major General
Ernest Pydder over the detachments of the Baltic Landeswehr near the
Latvian city of Cesis (Estonian name - Vynnu). This achievement was one
of a number of victories in the Estonian army's march on Riga, which
took place on June 20 — July 3, 1919, eventually which the armed
pro-German formations of Andrievs Niedra were ousted from the Latvian
capital and the government of the Republic of Latvia headed by Karlis
Ulmanis was restored. Since 1934, the anniversary of the "Battle of
Vynna" on June 23, 1919 has been celebrated as Victory Day and is an
Estonian public holiday.
On February 2, 1920, a peace treaty was
concluded between the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and
the Republic of Estonia, by which both sides officially recognized each
other. It was the first international agreement of both States.
According to the agreement, the Estland and parts of the Livonia,
Leningrad and Pskov provinces were transferred to Estonia.
On June 15, 1920, the Constituent Assembly approved the draft of the
first Constitution of the Republic of Estonia. The formal principle of
separation of powers was introduced in the state, but in reality the
government was subordinate to parliament. The Parliament also appointed
judges. This, combined with strong instruments of direct popular
expression in the form of referendums, has led to an imbalance of power
and extreme instability of the Government. From 1920 to 1934, 23
governments changed.
On September 22, 1921, Estonia became a
member of the League of Nations.
In December 1924, the Estonian
Communists, with the support and assistance of the USSR, attempted an
armed uprising, which failed due to the indifference of the workers and
the support of the government by the army. After that, the Communist
Party was banned, and the Communists lost a significant part of their
political influence on Estonian society.
The economic growth was
given an impetus by land reform — the confiscated large landholdings of
the Ostsee Germans were transferred to small-scale farmers and veterans
of the Liberation War. After the economic downturn of 1923-1924, Finance
Minister Otto Strandmann initiated a new economic policy aimed at
developing exports. However, during the global economic crisis
(1929-33), prices for Estonian exports fell sharply. In 1928, a monetary
reform was carried out and the mark was replaced by the crown, the
exchange rate of which was pegged to the British pound. In 1929, a trade
agreement was signed, and on August 4, 1932, a non—aggression pact was
signed between the Republic of Estonia and the Soviet Union.
During the global economic crisis in Estonia, the right-wing radical
League of Veterans of the Liberation War (est. Vabadussõjalaste Liit),
socr. "vapsid" (est. vapsid), headed by General Andres Larka and lawyer
Arthur Sirk. In 1933, a constitutional referendum supported the changes
proposed by the "vapsi" — limiting the legislative power of parliament,
reducing the number of parliamentarians from 100 to 50 and strengthening
the power of the president, up to the possibility of the president
vetoing parliamentary decisions, the introduction of direct presidential
elections.
The second Constitution came into force in January 1934. The
parliamentary form of government was eliminated, and power passed into
the hands of the head of state Konstantin Pyats. Fearing the inevitable
victory of the Vaps party in the upcoming elections and using the almost
dictatorial powers granted by the new constitution, on March 12, 1934,
he, together with Johan Laidoner, who again led the Estonian army,
carried out a coup d'etat. As a result of the military coup,
authoritarian rule was established and a state of emergency was
declared. Piats was declared the State Protector of Estonia
(Riigihoidja), the Veterans League was banned, about 400 members of this
organization were arrested, elections were canceled, the powers of the
5th convocation Parliament, which approved the actions of Piats and
Laidoner, were extended. Despite this, Parliament was dissolved in
October 1934.
The period that began, called the "era of silence",
was characterized by the collapse of parliamentary democracy,
authoritarian rule and the strengthening of Estonian nationalism. The
country was actually ruled by a triumvirate consisting of the President
(Konstantin Pyats), the Commander-in-chief of the army (Johan Laidoner)
and the Minister of Internal Affairs (Kaarel Eenpalu). In March 1935, a
one-party system was introduced in Estonia.
At the same time, the
country's economy, especially its industry, has experienced a period of
rapid growth. Textile, chemical and food industries, metalworking,
woodworking, paper production, peat and phosphorite extraction were of
great importance for the country's economy. Agriculture was developed.
Some industries were dominated by foreign capital. The main trading
partners were the United Kingdom and Germany. By the end of the 1930s,
the share of the USSR in foreign trade turnover had significantly
decreased. Estonia exported meat products, butter, fish, eggs, textiles,
paper, pulp, plywood, shale oil and gasoline, cement and glass;
industrial products and raw materials were imported. A feature of the
Estonian economy in the 1930s was the development of the cooperative
movement. Due to the increase in living standards, the Pyats regime
received the support of the majority of the population.
On
September 12, 1934, Estonia signed a pact of cooperation, accord and
mutual assistance with Lithuania and Latvia.
In 1937, the National Assembly (Rahvuskogu), convened by Piats,
approved the third Constitution of the Republic of Estonia, based on the
proposals of the head of State. The Constitution came into force on
January 1, 1938. The opposition boycotted the act.
In accordance
with the new constitution, the President, elected for 6 years, became
the head of state. The President was given the power to dissolve the
government and veto parliamentary decisions. Moreover, the president
also received legislative powers — in the period between sessions of
parliament and in case of "state necessity", he could personally issue
laws in the form of presidential decrees (Pyats widely used this
opportunity even before the adoption of the constitution). The new
constitution preserved all basic civil rights, but it remained possible
to restrict freedom of speech in order to preserve State security and
morality. The voting age was increased from 20 to 22 years. A bicameral
parliamentary system was introduced: the State Duma (Riigivolikogu),
whose members were elected for 5 years, and the State Council
(Riiginõukogu), consisting of 40 members, 10 of whom were appointed by
the President. Thus, Estonia became not a parliamentary, but a
presidential republic. One of the provisions significantly limiting
democracy was that a referendum that could change the constitution could
take place only by decision of the President. On April 24, 1938, the
Parliament elected Piats to the post of president, and on the same day
he was inaugurated to this post.
On August 23, 1939, a Non—aggression Treaty (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact)
was signed between Germany and the Soviet Union. According to the secret
additional protocol, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Eastern Poland and
Bessarabia were included in the sphere of interests of the USSR.
After the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of Poland by the
armies of Germany and the USSR, on September 24, 1939, Soviet Foreign
Minister Molotov, in an ultimatum, demanded the conclusion of a mutual
assistance pact, which would also "ensure the Soviet Union the right to
have strong points or bases for the fleet and aviation on the territory
of Estonia." On September 28, the Estonian government was forced to
conclude such a pact, providing for the deployment of Soviet military
bases and a 25,000-strong military contingent on the territory of
Estonia.
On June 16, 1940, Molotov handed the Estonian Ambassador
a note demanding the immediate entry of an additional contingent of
90,000 Soviet troops into Estonia and the removal of the government,
otherwise threatening military invasion and occupation of Estonia. The
government has accepted the ultimatum. On June 17, 1940, Soviet troops
entered Tallinn; at the same time, ships of the Baltic Fleet stood on
the raid and a marine landing was landed. The Soviet military dictated
to Estonian President Piats the composition of the new government headed
by Johannes Vares (Barbarus). In fact, the leadership of the country was
carried out by the USSR Embassy. Arrests and deportations of citizens of
the Republic of Estonia have begun.
By order of the Soviet
representative Zhdanov, early parliamentary elections were held.
According to official data, 591,030 citizens took part in them, or 84.1%
of the total number of voters. 548,631 people voted for the candidates
of the Union of Working People (candidates of other parties were not
registered), or 92.8% of those who voted. The elections were held in
violation of existing laws, including the constitution, and the results
were falsified. On July 21, the first session of the Parliament of the
new convocation adopted a decision on the establishment of Soviet power
in the country and the formation of the Estonian Soviet Socialist
Republic. On July 22, the declaration on Estonia's accession to the USSR
was adopted. On August 6, 1940, the VII session of the Supreme Soviet of
the USSR adopted a resolution on the admission of the Estonian SSR into
the USSR.
Most historians and political scientists characterize
this process as occupation and annexation. According to the official
Russian interpretation, the entry of Soviet troops cannot be called an
occupation, since the decision on the entry of the Baltic countries into
the USSR in 1940 was formalized legally correctly and the entry of
troops was carried out in accordance with the agreement between the
Soviet Union and Estonia. The United States and a number of other
countries recognized this annexation de facto and did not recognize it
de jure.
According to the report of the International Commission
for the Investigation of Crimes against Humanity under the auspices of
the President of Estonia, published in 2001, during the year before the
outbreak of war between the Soviet Union and Germany (June 22, 1941),
about 7,000 people were arrested in Estonia, of whom at least 1,850 were
executed, mainly on charges of anti-Soviet activities. On June 14, 1941,
according to modern researchers, 10016-10250 people were expelled from
Estonia. June 14 is celebrated in Estonia as a "Day of Mourning".
After the German attack on the USSR, on June 22, 1941, battles
between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht unfolded in the Baltic States. On
July 7, German troops approached the Estonian border, and on August 28,
the last units of the Red Army left Tallinn.
A significant part
of Estonians perceived the arrival of the German army as liberation from
the Soviet yoke and enthusiastically supported the occupation
authorities, the collaborationist organization Omakaitse actively
assisted the Einsatzkommando 1A in the extermination of Jews.
An
occupation administration was established on the territory of Estonia in
the form of a general district (general commissariat) Estland (German:
Generalbezirk Estland) led by Karl-Sigmund Litzman. The occupation
authorities formed a self-government headed by an Estonian politician,
former head of the Estonian Liberation Committee (in Finland) Hjalmar
Mäe. Together with Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus, Estonia formed the
Reichskommissariat Ostland.
On August 28, 1942, it was announced
the creation of the Estonian SS Legion and the beginning of the
admission of volunteers to it. Since the spring of 1943, when there was
a shortage of volunteers, the German authorities began to mobilize.
Members of the Omakaitse, the 3rd Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade, as well
as police battalions participated in battles with partisans, shootings
of civilians, looting, the destruction of entire villages in Belarus and
the mass sending of civilians to Germany.
Approximately 38
thousand Estonian residents were mobilized into the German army in 1944.
On February 2, 1944, the Red Army crossed the Narva River. Heavy
fighting took place on the territory of Estonia until the end of
September, in which Estonian units on both sides of the front
participated, and they repeatedly clashed in fratricidal battles.
In March 1944, Estonian politicians of the first Republic
established the National Committee of the Republic of Estonia, headed by
Yuri Uluots, who tried to form a national government headed by Otto
Tiif. On August 19, Yuri Uluots went on the air with an appeal to make
every effort to fight the advancing troops of the Red Army.
On September 22, at 11 p.m., a mobile group of the 8th Estonian Rifle
Corps entered Tallinn; a little later, the advanced detachments of the
8th Army. At nine o'clock in the evening on September 22, 1944, the
headquarters of the 8th Army informed the military Council of the
Leningrad Front about the occupation of Tallinn. A red flag was hoisted
on the Long Herman tower. On September 25, 1944, power in Tallinn passed
into the hands of the government of the Estonian SSR, which returned
from evacuation.
The fighting on the Moonsund Islands lasted
until the end of November. On November 24, 1944, the southern part of
the island of Saaremaa was captured and thus Estonia was again under the
control of Soviet troops.
According to the encyclopedia
"Krugosvet", about 80 thousand Estonian residents died and 70 thousand
emigrated during the war. British historians John Hayden and Patrick
Salmon write that Estonia lost 5% of its pre-war territory and 6% of its
pre-war population.
Sovietization
After the end of the German occupation, the organs
of the Communist Party and the Soviet government were recreated on the
territory of Estonia. In 1944-1950, all local government bodies were
dissolved and replaced everywhere by administrative bodies on the Soviet
model. The nationalization started before the war was completed: the
private sector in industry was eliminated in 1945, in trade — in 1947.
Since 1947, the collectivization of agriculture began, by the end of
1950 there were 2,213 collective farms in Estonia. In 1950, the merger
of small collective farms into large socialist farms began. As a result
of the centralization of agricultural production, by 1955 there were 908
collective farms and 97 state farms in Estonia. The number of people
employed in production increased from 26,000 in 1945 to 81,000 in 1950.
The Estonian economy was increasingly integrated into the USSR economy
through the supply of raw materials and components. Forced
collectivization provoked armed resistance to the Soviet government,
called the "forest brothers" (est. metsavennad), the resistance operated
until 1953.
In 1944-1945, part of the territory of the Estonian
SSR (2,330 square kilometers) with a predominantly Russian population
was transferred to the RSFSR.
Post-war industrialization
dramatically changed the ethnic balance of Estonia due to the
large-scale immigration of industrial workers from other parts of the
USSR, especially from the RSFSR. This has created a threat to the
national identity of the Estonian people. However, large-scale
investments combined with a skilled workforce have led to a rapid
economic recovery and an increase in living standards. The main efforts
of the state were aimed at the restoration of the manufacturing industry
and the extraction of oil shale in the north-east of the republic. In
1948, the world's first shale gas plant was built in Kohtla-Yarva.
During the preparations for the March plenum of the Communist Party
of Estonia in 1950 and after it, a significant part of the leading
communist cadres who lived in Estonia before 1940 were removed from
their posts, and many were arrested and repressed during the campaign
against "bourgeois nationalism". Former Minister Augustin Hansen was
sentenced to death and executed in 1952. The campaign also touched upon
the cultural sphere.
In 1944-1953, according to estimates by
Estonian historians, about 36 thousand people were repressed in Estonia,
mainly on charges of collaboration, as well as for participation and
support of anti-Soviet partisan formations, the total number of
participants of which, together with sympathizers, ranged from 10 to 30
thousand people. Elena Zubkova cites the figure of 67,470 repressed
during the liquidation of national resistance (1944-1952). John Hayden
and Patrick Salmon name the figure of 124 thousand deportees, of which
80 thousand were taken out only in 1949, but these figures significantly
exceed the official Estonian data on deportations (only a little more
than 30 thousand people). The deportees were sent mainly to the
Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Novosibirsk Region. The deportation of
Estonian peasants was the most important tool of Soviet policy. It
deprived the armed resistance of the support of the rural population and
isolated those who objected to collectivization.
In total,
according to modern estimates, Estonia lost about 180-200 thousand
people during the Second World War and the period of repression, that
is, about 17.5—20% of the population, including such national minorities
as Germans, Swedes and Jews.
Estonia, as one of the 15 Union republics, possessed formal signs of
statehood, but all key decisions in the life of Estonia were made by the
central government of the USSR in Moscow. In particular, in October
1944, the Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) for Estonia
was established in Moscow. Until its dissolution in 1947, the bureau
played a crucial role in the administration of the republic. Political
power belonged to the Estonian Communist Party, which was a territorial
organization of the CPSU. The administrative power was exercised by the
Council of Ministers, and the parliament — the Supreme Council of the
USSR — was a completely decorative body.
In the post-Stalin
period, when Nikita Khrushchev became the general secretary of the
Communist Party of the USSR, a political "thaw" set in. In 1956, the
return of the survivors of the deportees began. The Estonian Communist
Party gained some degree of independence from Moscow in governing the
republic. Subsequently, the liberalization policy was revised. As a
response to this tightening, political dissent and a movement against
Sovietization arose in Estonia. This movement demanded independence and
widespread use of the Estonian language in education and public life.
Due to industrial growth, by 1970 Estonia was the most urbanized of
the Baltic republics, with 65% of the population living in cities. The
standard of living in the Estonian SSR was significantly higher than the
average in the USSR.
In the second half of the 1970s, the
dissident movement intensified. In late September and early October
1980, anti—Soviet student unrest took place in Estonia, suppressed by
law enforcement agencies. On October 28 of the same year, the "Letter
40" was published, a manifesto against Sovietization signed by 40
well—known Estonian intellectuals.
In 1975, the leaders of
Europe, the United States and Canada signed the Final Act of the CSCE
(Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe) in Helsinki.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, this meant recognition of
Estonia's de facto entry into the USSR (inviolability of borders).
However, before this Meeting, US President Gerald Ford stressed that the
signing of this act does not mean recognition of the incorporation of
the Baltic States. Throughout the period of Soviet rule, Western
countries were constantly reminded of the non-recognition of the
annexation of Estonia and other Baltic states. On September 29, 1960,
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted resolution
189 (1960) on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the "occupation
and forcible incorporation into the USSR of three European states —
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania." On January 13, 1983, the European
Parliament adopted a resolution on the issue of the Baltic States, in
which it condemned the fact of the annexation as inconsistent with
international law and the obligations of the USSR under bilateral
treaties with the Baltic countries, emphasizing the international
non-recognition of the annexation.
In 1987, a national awakening began, caused by the restructuring of
Soviet society, announced by the new leader of the USSR, Mikhail
Gorbachev. Protests against the system have become open and frequent. On
April 3, 1987, the Government's plans to begin the development of a
phosphorous deposit in northern Estonia led to a campaign of protests in
the media and the emergence of the Green movement. In 1987, an economic
sovereignty program was developed, called Economically Independent
Estonia (est. Isemajandav Eesti, abbreviated IME (MIRACLE)).
In
1988, a strong political activization of the society began. In April,
the Estonian People's Front was established under the leadership of
Edgar Savisaar, a new socio—political movement in support of
perestroika. On June 10-14, tens of thousands of people sang patriotic
songs under blue-black-and-white flags on the field of the Tallinn Song
Festival (Singing Field) during the annual festival. A more radical
national movement aimed at achieving independence has emerged. One of
the largest events was the Baltic Way campaign, which was attended by
about 2 million people from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. On November
16, 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR declared the
sovereignty of Estonia. At the same time, political forces representing
the Russian-speaking population and aimed at preserving Estonia as part
of the USSR became more active.
The Popular Front became the
largest political force in Estonia, winning the elections of delegates
to the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR and to the Supreme
Council of the USSR in 1989-1990. By this time, his programmatic
position was to achieve independence on the basis of the proclamation of
a new Estonian state (the so-called third republic). On November 12,
1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR annulled its declaration of
July 22, 1940 on the entry of the Estonian SSR into the USSR. On
November 16, the Supreme Council of the Estonian SSR adopted the
declaration of sovereignty by a majority vote. On March 25, 1990, the
Communist Party of the Estonian SSR announced its withdrawal from the
CPSU.
On March 30, the resolution of the Supreme Council "On the
State Status of Estonia" was adopted, according to which the state power
of the USSR in Estonia was recognized as illegal from the moment of
establishment and the beginning of the restoration of the Republic of
Estonia was proclaimed. A transitional period has been declared until
the formation of the constitutional State authorities of the Republic of
Estonia. At the same time, the citizens of the Republic of Estonia and
their descendants elected the Estonian Congress, which acted as a
parallel parliament.
On April 3, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the
USSR adopted a resolution "On the enactment of the Law of the USSR "On
the procedure for resolving issues related to the withdrawal of the
Union Republic from the USSR"", effectively declaring legally null and
void the declarations of the Supreme Soviets of the Baltic Republics on
the annulment of entry into the USSR and the legal consequences and
decisions resulting from this. Despite this, the Estonian authorities
continued their course towards achieving independence.
On May 8,
1990, the Supreme Council of the Estonian SSR adopted the law on the
restoration of the Constitution of the Independent Republic of Estonia
of 1938.
On January 12, 1991, Chairman of the Supreme Council of
the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin paid a visit to Tallinn, during which he signed
with Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Estonia Arnold
Ruitel an Agreement on the Foundations of Interstate Relations between
the RSFSR and the Republic of Estonia, in which the parties recognized
each other as independent states.
On March 3, a referendum on the
independence of the Republic of Estonia was held, which was attended by
those who lived in Estonia before the Soviet annexation and their
descendants, as well as persons who received the so-called "green cards"
of the Estonian Congress. 77.8% of those who voted supported the idea of
national independence from the USSR. Estonia boycotted the All-Union
referendum on the preservation of the USSR on March 17, but in the
northeastern regions, populated mainly by Russians, local authorities
organized a vote.
On August 20, 1991, the day after the attempted
coup in Moscow, the Supreme Council of Estonia adopted a resolution
confirming the independence of the republic. On August 23, a statue of
Lenin standing in front of the building of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Estonia was thrown off its pedestal in Tallinn. On
September 6, the USSR State Council officially recognized the
independence of Estonia. According to the official position of Estonia,
on August 20, 1991, the independence of the Republic of Estonia,
proclaimed on February 24, 1918, was restored. On September 17, 1991,
Estonia became a full member of the United Nations. Citizenship and
property in the Republic of Estonia have been restored on the basis of
succession.
On June 28, 1992, the 4th Constitution of Estonia was adopted in a
referendum, which declared continuity with respect to the state annexed
by the Soviet Union in 1940 and confirmed the restoration of the
Republic of Estonia through restitution and a return to the State system
in force before 1940. The last units of the Russian army were withdrawn
from the country on August 31, 1994. There are about 10,000 former
Soviet officers, now retired, and their family members left in Estonia.
A significant part (more than 400 thousand people, mostly ethnic
Russians) of former Soviet citizens who resettled in Estonia after the
annexation of 1940 remained stateless. Discriminatory legislation on
citizenship has led to criticism of Estonia from international
organizations and the aggravation of relations with Russia. Despite a
significant reduction in the number of non-citizens (64 thousand by
2023), this problem remains relevant.
The fragmented party
system, which included a large number of parties, was a source of
political instability at the turn of the century. In the elections held
in March 1999, representatives of 7 parties joined the Parliament. In
October 2001, the Parliament of the Republic elected Arnold Ruitel,
former Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian
SSR, as President of the country, and Toomas Hendrik Ilves replaced him
in September 2006.
The Estonian government was oriented towards
the West and sought to integrate into European structures. In the 2003
referendum, Estonian citizens supported joining the European Union, 67%
of the referendum participants voted for it. In April 2004, Estonia
became a member of NATO, and on May 1 of the same year, together with
seven other Central and Eastern European states, Cyprus and Malta,
joined the European Union.
During the same period, Western
countries confirmed the immutability of their assessment of the
historical events of 1940-1991. In May—July 2005, the U.S. Senate and
Congress adopted resolutions demanding that Russia recognize the fact of
the occupation of the Baltic countries. On June 22, 2005, the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution on
Russia's compliance with the conditions of membership in this
organization. In paragraph 14-IV of the PACE resolution, it demands the
prompt payment of compensation to the victims of the occupation of the
Baltic States.
For its part, Russia has put forward claims of
Estonia regarding discrimination against non-indigenous people,
primarily ethnic Russians, as well as attempts to revise the results of
the Second World War. On April 26-29, 2007, mass actions of civil
disobedience took place in Tallinn and the cities of Ida-Virumaa county,
provoked by the actions of the Estonian government to move the monument
to the "Warrior Liberator" ("Bronze Soldier") with the transfer of a
military burial to the cemetery. The subsequent unrest in Tallinn was
accompanied by pogroms and looting.
The Estonian economy changed
dramatically from 1991 to 2010: liberalization, stabilization,
privatization, structural and institutional reforms were carried out. Of
all the former Soviet republics, Estonia was the first to restore the
1991 GDP level in 2003. At the same time, the economic reforms carried
out throughout the period after independence had a reverse side of
social problems, creating a large differentiation between the political
and economic elite and the vulnerable segments of the population,
despite a number of positive results in the social sphere: wage
increases, improvement of the situation of the unemployed, pension
reform. In 2008-2009, the Estonian economy suffered significantly from
the global crisis, but already in 2010 a new economic growth began. In
the same year, Estonia became the first post-Soviet country to become a
full member of the OECD. Since January 1, 2011, Estonia has abandoned
the national currency and was the first of the post-Soviet states to
switch to the euro.
In 2017, a large-scale administrative and
territorial reform was carried out in Estonia: 79 out of 217 local
government units remained in the country. The county councils and,
accordingly, the positions of county elders were abolished. Their
responsibilities have been transferred to State institutions and local
governments. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a state of emergency was
declared in Estonia from March 12 to May 1, 2020.
In 2021,
Estonia was the only country in Europe where two senior positions
(president and Prime Minister) were simultaneously held by women.
In 2023, Estonia became the first country in the post-Soviet space
to legalize same-sex marriage.