Estonia » History

Estonia was occupied by Soviet troops in June 1940, as a consequence of the secret amendment to the August 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Estonia was formally annexed into the Soviet Union in August 1940 as the Estonian SSR. Many of the country's political and intellectual leaders were killed or deported to Russia by the Soviet authorities during 1940 to 1941. The country was occupied by the Third Reich from 1941 to 1944, when Soviet forces reconquered it. A guerilla war against the Soviet authorities in Estonia 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.

Estonia regained its independence on August 20, 1991, with the Singing Revolution and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The last Russian troops left on August 31, 1994, and Estonia joined NATO on March 29, 2004 and the European Union on May 1, 2004.

Longer Historical Perspective

Human settlement in Estonia became possible 11,000–13,000 years ago, when the ice from the last glacial era melted away. The oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement, which was located on the banks of the Pärnu River, near the town of Sindi, in southern Estonia. According to radiocarbon dating, it was settled around 11,000 years ago, at the beginning of the 9th millennium BC.

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 1st to 5th 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 Scandinavian capital of Sigtuna in 1187.

By the early 13th century, Estonia was divided into eight large counties — Saaremaa, Läänemaa, Revala, Harju, Viru, Järva, Sakala, and Ugandi. Annual consultations were held by representatives of several counties and developments took the direction of establishing a state. Estonia until this time retained a pagan religion centered around a deity called Tharapita.

Estonia was Christianised when the German "Livonian Brothers of the Sword" invaded southern Estonia as part of the Northern Crusades in the early 13th 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. Tallinn (known as Reval at the time) was given its Lübeck Rights in 1248 and joined the Hanseatic League at the end of the 13th century. Ethnic Estonians became serfs for the German-speaking nobility. In 1343, the people of northern Estonia and Saaremaa rebelled against the rule of the Germans in the St. George's Night Uprising, which was put down in 1344. There were unsuccessful Russian invasions in 1481 and 1558. After 1524, during the Protestant Reformation, Estonia converted to Lutheranism.