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Country Profile : ESTONIA
About the Republic of Estonia During Estonia’s many centuries of foreign domination, the Estonian people kept their sense of national identity through a strong oral tradition of song and verse. This culminated in the 1988 Singing Revolution when, during one very moving occasion 300,000 people gathered in the capital of Tallinn to sing national songs banned under Soviet rule. The Estonian language is closer to Finnish than that of its neighbours Latvia and Russia, with their ancestors recorded as being Finno-Ugric hunters dating back to approximately 3000 BC. Modern Estonia, the most northern of the Baltic republics, was the first to enter into accession talks with the EU. Following centuries of Lithuanian, Polish, Danish, Swedish, German and Russian rule, Estonia enjoyed brief independence from 1920 – 1939, when it was absorbed by the Soviet Union following a non-aggression pact between Hitler and Stalin. After the Nazis reneged on this pact, the Soviets were forced out and Estonia was controlled by Nazi Germany until 1944, when the Soviets again seized control. During WW2, Estonia saw up to 200,000 of its people killed or deported – a terrible toll for such a small country. Despite Estonia’s declaration of sovereignty in 1988, Soviet control lasted until August 1991, when Estonia finally re-gained full independence after years of demand for self-rule – joining NATO in March 2004 and becoming full members of the European Union in May 2004. Estonian Economy Major trading partners over recent years have been Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia and Germany, with strong electronics and telecoms sectors. Annual growth is strong with low inflation. |
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