Wikipedia portal for content related to Estonia
Welcome to the Estonian Portal Tere tulemast Eesti portaali
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe . It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland , to the west by the sea across from Sweden , to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia . The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland , the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa , and over 2,300 other islands and islets on the east coast of the Baltic Sea, covering a total area of 45,335 square kilometres (17,504 sq mi). Tallinn , the capital city , and Tartu are the two largest urban areas . The Estonian language is the indigenous and official language . It is the first language of the majority of the population of 1.4 million.
Present-day Estonia has been inhabited by humans since at least 9,000 BCE. The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last pagan civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Northern Crusades in the 13th century. After centuries of successive rule by the Teutonic Order , Denmark , Sweden , and the Russian Empire , a distinct Estonian national identity began to emerge in the mid-19th century. This culminated in the 1918 Estonian Declaration of Independence from the then-warring Russian and German empires. Democratic throughout most of the interwar period , Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II , however the country was repeatedly contested, invaded, and occupied ; first by the Soviet Union in 1940 , then Nazi Germany in 1941, and ultimately reoccupied in 1944 by, and annexed into, the USSR as an administrative subunit (Estonian SSR ). Throughout the 1944–91 Soviet occupation, Estonia's de jure state continuity was preserved by diplomatic representatives and the government-in-exile . Following the 1988–90 bloodless Estonian "Singing Revolution " against Soviet rule, the nation's full independence was restored on 20 August 1991 .
Estonia is a developed country with a high-income advanced economy , ranking 31st in the Human Development Index . The sovereign state of Estonia is a democratic unitary parliamentary republic , administratively subdivided into 15 maakond (counties) . It is one of the least populous members of the European Union and NATO . Estonia has consistently ranked highly in international rankings for quality of life , education , press freedom , digitalisation of public services and the prevalence of technology companies. (Full article... )
Outcrop of Ordovician kukersite oil shale , northern Estonia
There are two kinds of oil shale in Estonia , both of which are sedimentary rocks laid down during the Ordovician geologic period . Graptolitic argillite is the larger oil shale resource , but, because its organic matter content is relatively low, it is not used industrially. The other is kukersite , which has been mined for more than a hundred years. Kukersite deposits in Estonia account for 1% of global oil shale deposits .
Oil shale (
Estonian :
põlevkivi ; literally 'burning rock') has been defined as a strategic energy resource in Estonia and the oil shale industry in Estonia is one of the most developed in the world. Historically, most of mined oil shale was used for
electricity generation . Of all the oil shale fired power stations in the world, the two largest are in Estonia. Although its share decreased in the decade to 2022, direct and indirect use of oil shale still generates about half of
Estonia's electricity . About half of mined oil shale is used to produce
shale oil , a type of
synthetic oil extracted from oil shale by
pyrolysis , which is sufficient to keep Estonia as the second largest shale oil producer in the world after China. In addition, oil shale and its products are used in Estonia for
district heating and as a
feedstock material for the cement industry. (
Full article... )
List of selected articles
Pauluse (St Paul’s) Church in Viljandi was built in 1863-1866.
The following are images from various Estonia-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 Estonian farmers drinking (vodka) in an
inn , by
Oskar Hoffmann (painter) , 1899. (from
Culture of Estonia )
Image 2 A moment before the opening of the 25th
Estonian Song Festival (2009) at the Tallinn Song Festival grounds. (from
Culture of Estonia )
Image 3 Stone
cist graves from the Bronze Age in northern Estonia (from
History of Estonia )
Image 4 Hermann Castle , Narva, was one of the Teutonic Order's castles in Estonia. (from
History of Estonia )
Image 5 Ancient Estonia until 21 September 1217 (from
History of Estonia )
Image 6 From
Dirham hoards in Estonia, 8th–11th centuries. (from
Ancient Estonia )
Image 7 Toompea castle – the seat of the
Riigikogu (from
History of Estonia )
Image 8 Europe in 19th century (from
History of Estonia )
Image 9 Tools made by
Kunda culture , the Estonian History Museum (from
History of Estonia )
Image 11 Artifacts of the hoard from Kumna, Estonia (from
Ancient Estonia )
Image 12 Soviet prison doors on display in the Museum of Occupations, Tallinn (from
History of Estonia )
Image 13 Estonian Soviet politician
Johannes Käbin led the
Estonian Communist Party from 1950 to 1978 (from
History of Estonia )
Image 14 Fragments of
Wanradt-Koell Catechism (1535), the first book printed in
Estonian language . (from
History of Estonia )
Image 15 Tartu University (Universität Dorpat) in 1860, during its 'Golden Age' (from
History of Estonia )
Image 17 Estonian
folk music performers dressed in 19th-century festive
folk costumes (from
Culture of Estonia )
Image 19 Europe in the 9th century (from
History of Estonia )
Image 20 Comb Ceramic pottery at the Estonian History Museum (from
History of Estonia )
Image 21 Estonian President
Kersti Kaljulaid with Russian President
Vladimir Putin in April 2019 (from
History of Estonia )
Image 22 Public education systems founded during prior Swedish rule made Estonia and Finland the two most literate areas of
Russian Empire (map of
1897 census literacy data) (from
Culture of Estonia )
Image 23 Counties of Ancient Estonia in the beginning of the 13th century. (from
Ancient Estonia )
Image 24 Varbola ruins (from
Ancient Estonia )
Image 25 Estonia's greatest territorial extent ever, reached during its War of Independence, marked by the light blue line on the map. (from
History of Estonia )
Image 26 Comb Ceramic pottery at the Estonian History Museum (from
Ancient Estonia )
Image 27 Corded Ware culture pottery and stone axes, at the EHM (from
History of Estonia )
Image 28 Tools made by Kunda culture, the
Estonian History Museum (from
Ancient Estonia )
Image 30 Corded Ware culture pottery and stone axes at the Estonian History Museum. (from
Ancient Estonia )
Image 32 Livonia, as shown in the map of 1573 of Joann Portantius (from
History of Estonia )
Image 33 Tallinn, 28 August 1941 (from
History of Estonia )
Image 35 The Swedish Empire, 1560–1815 (from
History of Estonia )
Image 37 Livonian Confederation in the 15th century (from
History of Estonia )
Image 39 The Estonian Army High Command in 1920 (from
History of Estonia )
Image 40 Map of
Varbola Stronghold by L. A. Mellin (from
History of Estonia )
Image 42 Registration card for Estonian citizenship from 1989 (from
History of Estonia )
Image 43 Outline of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (from
History of Estonia )
Image 44 Dannebrog falling from the sky during the
Battle of Lindanise , 1219 (from
History of Estonia )
Image 45 Stone Cist Graves from The Bronze Age in Northern Estonia (from
Ancient Estonia )
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