AGENCY 027 - WEBCAM CHAT ESTONIA
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Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti or Eesti Vabariik) is a country in Northern Europe. Estonia has land borders to the south with Latvia and to the east with Russia. It is separated from Finland in the north by the Gulf of Finland and from Sweden in the west by the Baltic Sea. Estonia has been a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004 and of NATO since 29 March 2004. The Estonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns, with the Estonian language sharing many similarities to Finnish. The modern name of Estonia is thought to originate from the Roman historian Tacitus, who in his book Germania (ca. AD 98) described a people called the Aestii. Similarly, ancient Scandinavian sagas refer to a land called Eistland. Early Latin and other ancient versions of the country's name are Estia and Hestia. Contents [hide]
[edit] Prehistory Evidence has been found of hunting and fishing communities existing around 6500 BC near the town of Kunda in northern Estonia. Bone and stone artifacts similar to those found at Kunda have been discovered elsewhere in Estonia, as well as in Latvia, northern Lithuania and in southern Finland. The Kunda culture belongs to the middle stone age, or Mesolithic period. The end of the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age were marked by great cultural changes. The most significant was the transition to farming, which has remained at the core of Estonian economy and culture. From approximately the first to fifth centuries AD, resident farming was widely established, the population grew, and settlement expanded. Cultural influences from the Roman Empire reached Estonia, and this era is therefore also known as the Roman Iron Age. A more troubled and war-ridden middle Iron Age followed with external dangers coming both from the Baltic tribes, who attacked across the southern land border, and from overseas. Several Scandinavian sagas refer to campaigns against Estonia. Estonian pirates conducted similar raids in the Viking age and sacked and burned the Swedish town of Sigtuna in 1187.[1] In the first centuries AD political and administrative subdivisions began to emerge in Estonia. Two larger subdivisions appeared: the province (provincia, Estonian kihelkond) and the land (terra, Estonian maakond). The province consisted of several elderships or villages. Nearly all provinces had at least one fortress. The defense of the local area was directed by the highest official, the king, prince or elder. The terra was composed of one or several provinces, also headed by an elder, king, prince or their collegium. By the 13th century the following major lands had developed in Estonia: Saaremaa (Osilia), Läänemaa (Rotalia or Maritima), Harjumaa (Harria), Rävala (Revalia), Virumaa (Vironia), Järvamaa (Jervia), Sakala (Saccala), and Ugandi (Ugaunia).[2] Estonia retained a pagan religion centered around a deity called Tharapita.
Estonia was Christianized when the German "Livonian Brothers of the Sword" conquered southern Estonia as part of the Northern Crusades in the early thirteenth century. At the same time, Denmark attempted to take possession of northern Estonia. Estonia was consolidated under the two forces by 1227. Northern Estonia remained a possession of Denmark until 1346. Reval (known as Tallinn since 1918) was given its Lübeck Rights in 1248 and joined an alliance of trading guilds called the Hanseatic League at the end of the thirteenth century. In 1343, the people of northern Estonia and Saaremaa rebelled against German rule in the St. George's Night Uprising, which was put down by 1344. There were unsuccessful Russian invasions in 1481 and 1558.
The Reformation resulted in great change in the Baltic. Ideas entered the Livonian Confederation very quickly and by the 1520s they were well known. Language, education, religion, and politics were greatly transformed. The Church services were now given in the local vernacular, instead of Latin, as was previously used. [3] During the Livonian War in 1561, northern Estonia submitted to Swedish control, while southern Estonia briefly came under the control of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 1580s. In 1625, mainland Estonia came entirely under Swedish rule. Estonia was administratively divided between the provinces of Estonia in the north and Livonia in southern Estonia and northern Latvia, a division which persisted until the early twentieth century. In 1631, the Swedish king Gustaf II Adolf, aka Gustavus Adolphus, forced the nobility to grant the peasantry greater rights, although serfdom was retained. In 1632 a printing press and university were established in the city of Dorpat (known as Tartu since 1918). This period is known in Estonian history as "the Good Old Swedish Time."
In response to a period of Russification initiated by the Russian empire in the 1890s, Estonian nationalism took on more political tones, with intellectuals first calling for greater autonomy, and later, complete independence from the Russian empire. Following the Bolshevik takeover of power in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 and German victories against the Russian army, 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 [4] in Pärnu on February 24, 1918. After winning the Estonian Liberation War against Soviet Russia and at the same time German Freikorps volunteers (the Tartu Peace Treaty was signed on 2 February 1920), Estonia maintained its independence for twenty-two years. Initially a parliamentary democracy, the parliament (Riigikogu) was disbanded in 1934, following political unrest caused by the global economic crisis. Subsequently the country was ruled by decree by Konstantin Päts, who became President in 1938, the year parliamentary elections resumed.
[edit] Soviet occupation and annexation On June 12, 1940, the order for a total military blockade on Estonia was given to the Soviet Baltic Fleet.[10][11] On June 14, 1940, while world’s attention was focused on the fall of Paris to Nazi Germany a day earlier, the Soviet military blockade on Estonia went into effect, two Soviet bombers downed a Finnish passenger airplane "Kaleva" flying from Tallinn to Helsinki carrying three diplomatic pouches from the U.S. legations in Tallinn, Riga and Helsinki.[12] On June 16, 1940, the Soviet Union invaded Estonia.[13] The Red Army exited from their military bases in Estonia on June 17.[14] The following day, some 90,000 additional troops entered the country. On June 17, 1940, The Estonian government decided, given the overwhelming Soviet force, not to resist, to avoid bloodshed and open war.[15] The military occupation of Estonia was complete by the June 21 1940.[16] Most of the Estonian Defence Forces and the Estonian Defence League surrendered according to the orders believing that resistance was useless and were disarmed by the Red Army. Only the Estonian Single Signal Battalion stationed in Tallinn at Raua Street showed resistance. As the Red Army brought in additional reinforcements supported by six armoured fighting vehicles, the battle lasted several hours until sundown. There was one dead, several wounded on the Estonian side and about 10 killed and more wounded on the Soviet side. Finally the military resistance was ended with negotiations and the Single Signal Battalion surrendered and was disarmed.[17] In August 1940, Estonia was formally annexed by the Soviet Union as the Estonian SSR. Those who had fallen short of the "political duty" of voting Estonia into the USSR, who had failed to have their passports stamped for so voting were allowed to be shot in the back of the head by Soviet tribunals.[18] The repressions followed with the mass deportations carried out by the Soviets in Estonia on June 14, 1941. Many of the country's political and intellectual leaders were killed or deported to remote areas of the USSR by the Soviet authorities in 1940-1941. Repressive actions were also taken against thousands of ordinary people. When the German Operation Barbarossa started against the Soviet Union, about 34,000 young Estonian men were forcibly drafted into the Red Army. Less than 30% of them survived the war. Political prisoners who could not be evacuated were executed by the NKVD.[19] Many countries including the United States did not recognize the seizure of Estonia by the USSR. Such countries recognized Estonian diplomats and consuls who still functioned in many countries in the name of their former governments. The aging diplomats persisted in this anomalous situation until the ultimate restoration of Baltic independence.[20] Contemporary Russian politicians, however, deny that the Republic of Estonia was illegally annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. They state that the Soviet troops had entered Estonia in 1940 following the agreements and with the consent of the government of the Republic of Estonia, regardless of how their actions can be interpreted today. They maintain that the USSR was not in a state of war and was not waging any combat activities on the territory of Estonia, therefore there can be no talk about 'occupation'. The official position of Russia is a refusal to recognize the fact of Estonia's occupation and claims that Estonians decided to lose their statehood voluntarily and officially describes separatist fighters of 1944-1953 as "bandits" or "nazis". The Russian position is not recognized internationally.[21][22]
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. In 1949, in response to slow progress in forming collective farms, about 20,000 people were forcibly deported over a few days either to labor camps or Siberia (see Gulag).[26] Within the few weeks that followed, almost all of the remaining rural households had been subjected to collectivisation.(ibid) Half of the deported perished;[27] the other half were not allowed to return until the early 1960s (several years after Stalin's death).[citation needed] 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. Militarization was another aspect of the Soviet regime. Large parts of the country, especially the coastal areas were restricted to anyone but the Soviet military.[citation needed] Most of the sea shore and all sea islands (including Saaremaa and Hiiumaa) were declared "border zones". People not directly living there were restricted from traveling to them 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.[citation needed] 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. Population transfer was another effect of Soviet occupation. Hundreds of thousands of migrants were relocated to Estonia from other parts of Soviet Union to conduct industrialization and militarization, contributing an increase of about half million people to within 45 years.[29] The immigrants stayed on to form part of the population. By 1980, when Olympic Regatta of the 1980 Olympic Games was held in Tallinn, russification and migration had achieved a level at which it started sparking popular protests.[citation needed]
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. Estonia formally declared regained independence on August 20, 1991, during the Soviet military coup attempt in Moscow. The first country to diplomatically recognize Estonia's reclaimed independence was Iceland The last Russian troops left on 31 August 1994. Estonia joined NATO on 29 March 2004 and the European Union on 1 May 2004.
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,[32][33] 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.[34] In 2003, the foreign ministry also hosted an exhibit called "Estonia: Nordic with a Twist".[35] And in 2005, Estonia joined the European Union's Nordic Battle Group. It has also shown continued interest in joining the Nordic Council. Whereas in 1992 Russia accounted for 92% of Estonia's international trade,[36] today there is extensive economic interdependence between Estonia and its Nordic neighbors: three quarters of foreign investment in Estonia originates in the Nordic countries (principally Finland and Sweden), to which Estonia sends 42% of its exports (as compared to 6.5% going to Russia, 8.8% to Latvia, and 4.7% to Lithuania).[37][38] On the other hand, the Estonian political system, its flat rate of income tax, and its non-welfare-state model distinguish it from the other Nordic states, and indeed from many other European countries.
The legislative power lies with the unicameral parliament, the Riigikogu or State Assembly, which consists of 101 seats. Members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. The Government of Estonia or the executive branch is formed by the Prime Minister of Estonia, nominated by the president and approved by the parliament. The government consists of 12 ministers, including the prime minister. The prime minister also has the right to appoint other ministers, whom he or she will assign with a subject to deal with and who will not have a ministry to control, becoming a 'minister without portfolio'. The prime minister has the right to appoint a maximum of 3 such ministers, as the limit of ministers in one government is 15. The supreme judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court or Riigikohus, with 19 justices. The Chief Justice is appointed by the parliament for nine years on nomination by the president. The official Head of State is the President of Estonia, who gives assent to the laws passed by Riigikogu, also having the right of sending them back and proposing new laws. The president, however, does not use these rights very often, having a largely ceremonial role. He or she is elected by Riigikogu, with two-thirds of the votes required. If the candidate does not gain the amount of votes required, the right to elect the president goes over to an electoral body, consisting of the 101 members of Riigikogu and representatives from local councils. As other spheres, Estonian law-making has been successfully integrated with the Information Age. Estonia has pursued the development of the e-state and e-government. Internet voting is used in elections in Estonia [1]. The first Internet voting took place in the 2005 local elections and the first in a parliamentary election was made available for the 2007 elections, in which 30,275 individuals voted over the Internet. Voters have a chance to invalidate their vote in traditional elections, if they wish to. In its 2007 Worldwide Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders ranked Estonia 3rd out of 169 countries.
[edit] Counties Harju County (Estonian: Harjumaa) [edit] Smaller divisions Officially, there are four types of populated places in Estonia: towns (linn), boroughs (alev), small boroughs (alevik), and villages (küla).
[edit] Topography
The average annual temperature in Estonia is 5 °C. The average temperature in February, the coldest month of the year, is -5.2 °C. The average temperature in July, which is considered the warmest month of the year, is 18 °C. The climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, the North-Atlantic Stream and the Icelandic Minimum, which is an area known for the formation of cyclones and where the average air pressure is lower than in neighbouring areas. Estonia is located in a humid zone in which the amount of precipitation is greater than total evaporation. There are about 160 to 190 rainy days a year, and average precipitation is most plentiful on the western slopes of the Sakala and Haanja Uplands. Snow cover, which is deepest in the south-eastern part of Estonia, usually lasts from mid-December to late March.
[edit] General situation In June 1992, Estonia replaced the ruble with its own freely convertible currency, the kroon (EEK). A currency board was created and the new currency was pegged to the German mark at the rate at 8 EEK for 1 DEM. When Germany introduced the euro, the peg was changed to 15.64664 kroon for 1 euro. Shortly after accession to the European Union the parity was changed to 15.64660 kroon per euro. The Estonian government finalized the design of Estonia's euro coins in late 2004, and is now intending to adopt the euro as the country's currency in 2011, later than planned due to continued high inflation. In 1994, Estonia became one of the first countries in the world to adopt a flat tax, with a uniform rate of 26% regardless of personal income. In January 2005 the personal income tax rate was reduced to 24%. A subsequent reduction to 23% followed in January 2006. The income tax rate will be decreased by 1% annually to reach 18% by January 2010. In 1999, Estonia experienced its worst year economically since it regained independence in 1991, largely because of the impact of the August 1998 Russian financial crisis. 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, which it joined on 1 May 2004. The Estonian economy is growing quickly, partly due to a number of Scandinavian companies relocating their routine operations to the country and Russian oil transit using Estonian ports. Estonia has a strong information technology (IT) sector, partly due to the Tiigrihüpe project undertaken in the 1990s, and has been mentioned as the most "wired" country in Europe.[40] Its GDP PPP per capita is at $21,860, the highest of the Baltic states, while its unemployment rate was 4.2% in July 2006, one of the lowest in the European Union.[41] Although the annual GDP growth rate in 2006 amounted again 11.4%, some of the leading financial institutions and rating agencies (Danske Bank, S&P) expressed serious concerns about possible overheating syndromes of the booming economy. A number of the main economic indicators (e.g. inflation at the 4.5%, significantly negative trade balance and private credit level) partly support this opinion.
Estonia's export partners are (2006) Finland (18.4%), Sweden (12.4%), Latvia (8.9%), Russia (8.1%), US (5.5%), Germany (5.1%), Lithuania (4.8%), Gibraltar (4.7%).[42]
Estonia's import partners are Finland (18.2%), Russia (13.1%), Germany (12.4%), Sweden (9%), Lithuania (6.4%), and Latvia (5.7%) as of 2006.[42]
First and second generation immigrants from various parts of the former Soviet Union (mainly Russia) comprise most of the remaining 30%. The latter, mostly Russian-speaking ethnic minorities, reside predominantly in the capital city (Tallinn) and the industrial urban areas in northeastern Estonia (Ida-Virumaa county). There is also a small group of Finnish descent, mainly from Ingria. A significant part of indigenous Baltic Germans left Estonia during the early 1920s, after land reforms and even dispossessions had taken place. But the majority of Baltic Germans left the country in late 1939, after Nazi Germany and USSR had agreed to assign Estonia into the Soviet 'sphere of influence' in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Historically, large parts of Estonia’s north-western coast and islands have been populated by an indigenous ethnically Swedish population called rannarootslased ("coastal Swedes"). The majority of Estonia's Swedish population fled to Sweden in 1944, escaping the advancing Soviet Army. Only a few hundred Swedes remained. The country's official language is Estonian, a Finno-Ugric language which is closely related to Finnish. It has been influenced by German, and like Finnish contains many Swedish words. Russian is also widely spoken as a secondary language by thirty- to seventy-year-old ethnic Estonians, because Russian was taught as a compulsory second language during the Soviet era. Many younger Estonian people can speak English, having learned it as their first foreign language. Some Russians residing in Estonia do not speak Estonian, but many of those who remained after the collapse of the Soviet Union have begun to learn it.[43] Most common foreign languages learned by Estonians are English, Russian, German, Swedish, and Finnish.
Ethnic composition of Estonia Ethnicity Population % of total
Cultural autonomies could be granted to the Russian, German, Swedish, or Jewish minorities, or other minorities numbering more than 3,000 people with longstanding ties to the Republic of Estonia. Prior to the Soviet occupation, the German and Jewish minorities managed to elect a cultural council. The Law on Cultural Autonomy for National Minorities was reinstated in 1993. In 2005, the Ingrian Finnish minority in Estonia elected a cultural council and was granted cultural autonomy. The Estonian Swedish minority similarly received cultural autonomy in 2007.
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