To be Estonian is to be resilient – the country has fought time and again to ward off the world and let it keep its identity and independence.
Ever since the 9th century when the Vikings swept through this region, Estonia has had to bear the brunt of invasion. With the Germanic princes and colonists experiencing the Drang nach Osten (urge to the east) Estonia fell under a dark cloud – 7 centuries of servility under indifferent sovereigns. Over the centuries Estonia was ruled by the Danes, the Swedes, and finally the Russians.

In 1920 there was a brief pause in its existence as a colony; along with Latvia and Lithuania Estonia enjoyed two decades of independence.

In 1939 a non-aggression agreement between the Nazi and the Soviets put Estonia under the Soviet jurisdiction – a fact the two didn’t bother to share with the Estonians. The Soviet authorities began their agenda of indoctrination and cleansing. The latter consumed about 60,000 Estonians – killed or forced to flee or forcibly sent off. So when Adolf Hitler’s German’s invaded USSR in 1941 and also occupied the Baltic States there was a mistaken ‘hurrah!’ from the Estonians who saw them as liberators. 200,000 Estonians were killed in WWII.

The Soviet reoccupation in 1944 brought in an era of Stalinist rule – collectivisation in agriculture and ethnic cleansing of Estonians. Yet the Estonian spirit never lost hope. In the 1980’s while Mikhail Gorbachev led the Soviet Union through change Estonian hopes burned brighter. Nationalism raised its head and the masses protested vociferously for freedom in 1988. The populace sang songs of national pride so far banned from the lips of people. The movement earned the name of the Singing Revolution. The voices of 300,000 people rose in one single song in the capital Tallinn.

In November 1988, Estonia’s supreme soviet put its final stamp of approval on the declaration of sovereignty and in August 1989 the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius and Tallinn were linked by 2 million people in a human chain.

One year later Estonia declared independence. In September 1991 it became a member of the United Nations and got on with the job at hand – nation building. The year 1997 saw the easing of prolonged border tensions with Russia with the signing of still to be ratified agreement. And to the joy of the ministers, the country is all set to get the EU membership in May 2004 after negotiating since 1998.