From Bvio
The '''Republic of Estonia''' is a country in
Northern Europe, bordering the
Baltic Sea to the west and the
Gulf of Finland to the north, and sharing a land border with its fellow
Baltic state Latvia to the south and with
Russia to the east.
== History ==
''Main article:
History of Estonia''
Estonia has been populated by the native
Finno Ugric Estonians since
prehistory. It was first
christianised when the
German Sword Brethren and
Denmark conquered the land by
1227. Subsequent foreign powers that controlled Estonia at various times included
Denmark,
Sweden,
Poland and finally
Russia.
Following the collapse of
Imperial Russia after the
October Revolution, Estonia declared its independence as a republic on
24 February 1918. Forcibly incorporated into the
Soviet Union in
June 1940, it regained its freedom on
20 August 1991 with the
Singing Revolution and
collapse of the Soviet Union. 20 August remains a national holiday in Estonia because of this.
Since the last Russian troops left on
31 August 1994, Estonia has been free to promote economic and political ties with Western Europe and outside, becoming a member of
NATO on
29 March 2004. Estonia opened accession negotiations with the
European Union in
1998 and joined on
1 May 2004.
== Politics ==
''Main article:
Politics of Estonia''
Estonia is a
constitutional democracy, with a president elected by its unicameral
parliament (elections every five years). The government or the
executive branch is formed by the prime minister, nominated by the president, and a total of 14 ministers. The government is appointed by the president after approval by the parliament.
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 supreme
judiciary court is the National Court or ''Riigikohus'', with 17 justices whose chairman is appointed by the parliament for life on nomination by the president.dssd
== Counties ==
''Main article:
Counties of Estonia''
Estonia numbers 15 main administrative subdivisions. Due to the geographical and demographic size of these subdivisions, they are to be considered counties rather than states (Estonian: pl. ''maakonnad''; sg. - ''maakond''). Here is a list of them:
*
Harju County (Estonian: ''Harjumaa'')
*
Hiiu County (Estonian: ''Hiiumaa'')
*
Ida-Viru County (Estonian: ''Ida-Virumaa'')
*[[J�rva County]] (Estonian: ''J�rvamaa'')
*[[J�geva County]] (Estonian: ''J�gevamaa'')
*[[L��ne County]] (Estonian: ''L��nemaa'')
*[[L��ne-Viru County]] (Estonian: ''L��ne-Virumaa'')
*[[P�rnu County]] (Estonian: ''[[P�rnumaa]]'')
*[[P�lva County]] (Estonian: ''P�lvamaa'')
*
Rapla County (Estonian: ''Raplamaa'')
*
Saare County (Estonian: ''Saaremaa'')
*
Tartu County (Estonian: ''
Tartumaa'')
*
Valga County (Estonian: ''Valgamaa'')
*
Viljandi County (Estonian: ''Viljandimaa'')
*[[V�ru County]] (Estonian: ''V�rumaa'')
== Geography ==
''Main article:
Geography of Estonia''
Between 57.3 and 59.5 latitude and 21.5 and 28.1 longitude, Estonia lies on the eastern shores of the
Baltic Sea on the level northwestern part of the rising east European platform. Average elevation reaches only 50 m.
Oil shale (or kukersite) and
limestone deposits, along with forests which cover 47% of the land, play key economic roles in this generally resource-poor country. Estonia boasts over 1,400 lakes (most very small, with the largest,
Lake Peipsi, being 3,555 km²), numerous bogs, and 3,794 kilometers of coastline marked by numerous bays, straits, and inlets. The number of islands and islets is estimated at some 1,500 with two large enough to constitute their own counties, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa.
Its highest point is the [[Suur Munam�gi]] in the southeastern corner of the country (318 m).
== Economy ==
''Main article:
Economy of Estonia''
As a member of the
European Union, Estonia is part of the world's largest economic zone. 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 - the second Baltic state to join - and continued its
EU accession talks.
Privatization of energy,
telecommunications, railways, and other state-owned companies is a continuing process. Estonia completed most of its preparations for EU membership by the end of
2002 and now has one of the strongest economies of the new members states of the
European Union, which Estonia joined on
1 May 2004. The Estonian economy is growing fast, partly due to a number of
Finnish companies relocating their routine operations, and has a strong IT sector. GDP PPP is at $12,300, the highest in the
Baltic states.
== Demographics ==
''Main article:
Demographics of Estonia''
About seventy percent of the population consist of ethnic Estonians, with the rest from other former Soviet republics, mainly
Russia, who predominantly live in the industrial north eastern county of Ida-Virumaa and in the capital Tallinn. There is also a small group of
Finnish descent.
The country's official language is
Estonian, which is closely related to
Finnish.
Russian is also widely spoken as is
English.
=== Ethnicity ===
According to a census undertaken in 2002, the Estonian people are:
* 67.9 % Estonians
* 25.6%
Russians
* 2.1%
Ukrainians
* 1.2%
Belarusians
* 0.9%
Finns
* 2.3% others
==Religion==
Traditional religion of the Estonians is the
Christian belief in the form the
Evangelical Lutheran confession (as in many other countries in Scandinavia).
Less than a third of the population define themselves as believers, of those the majority are
Lutheran, whereas the Russian minority is
Eastern Orthodox. Ancient equinoctial
heathen traditions are held in high regard.
Today, about 32 % of the population are members of a church or religious group, thereof:
* 14.8 %
Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church
* 13.9 %
Orthodox
* ca. 6,000
Baptists
* ca. 3,500
Roman-Catholics
There are also a number of smaller
Protestant and
Jewish groups.
==Language==
The
Estonian language, together with
Finnish and
Hungarian, form a language group called
Finno-Ugric languages, and with
Basque are ''linguistically unrelated'' to what linguists call the
Indo-European language family, which includes nearly all other European languages, such as
Germanic languages (like German, English, Swedish, Danish, etc.), and
Romance languages (like Italian, French, or Spanish), for example. This unrelatedness makes it more difficult for Indo-European language users to learn and understand the Estonian language than other Indo-European languages (and vice versa).
== Culture ==
''Main article:
Culture of Estonia''
*
University of Tartu
*
Tallinn University of Technology
*
List of famous Estonians
*
Music of Estonia
== Miscellaneous topics ==
*
Communications in Estonia
*
Transportation in Estonia
*
Military of Estonia
*
Foreign relations of Estonia
*
Tourism in the Baltics
*
List of cities in Estonia
*
List of municipalities in Estonia
*
Crime in Estonia
*
The Estonian State Decorations
*
List of people on stamps of Estonia
*
Public holidays in Estonia
== External links ==
*
Official State Website (''e''Riik) - in English
*
Estonia Country Guide
*
'''Estonica''' - from A to Z about Estonia
*
Estonia at Wikitravel
{| id="toc" style="margin: 0 2em 0 2em;"
! align="center" style="background:#ccccff" width="100%" |
European Union (EU) || Image:Eunion.png
|-
| align="center" style="font-size: 90%;" colspan="2" |
Austria | Belgium | Cyprus | Czech Republic | Denmark | Estonia | Finland | France | Germany | Greece | Hungary | Ireland | Italy | Latvia | Lithuania | Luxembourg | Malta | Netherlands | Poland | Portugal | Slovakia | Slovenia | Spain | Sweden | United Kingdom
|}
{| id="toc" style="margin: 0 2em 0 2em;"
! align="center" style="background:#ccccff" width="100%" | North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) || Image:Nato Flag.png
|-
| align="center" style="font-size: 90%;" colspan="2" | Belgium | Bulgaria | Canada | Czech Republic | Denmark | Estonia | France | Germany | Greece | Hungary | Iceland | Italy | Latvia | Lithuania | Luxembourg | The Netherlands | Norway | Poland | Portugal | Romania | Slovakia | Slovenia | Spain | Turkey | United Kingdom | United States
|}
af:Estland
ar:استونيا
bg:Естония
cs:Estonsko
cy:Estonia
[[ca:Est�nia]]
da:Estland
de:Estland
el:Εσθονία
eo:Estonio
es:Estonia
et:Eesti
fi:Viro
fr:Estonie
fo:Estland
he:אסטוניה
[[hu:�sztorsz�g]]
io:Estonia
it:Estonia
ja:エストニア
la:Estonia
lt:Estija
nds:Estland
nl:Estland
no:Estland
pl:Estonia
[[pt:Est�nia]]
ro:Estonia
ru:Эстония
sa:एस्टोनिया
simple:Estonia
sl:Estonija
sv:Estland
[[tt:�stonia]]
tr:Estonya
uk:Естонія
zh:爱沙尼亚
