49 Fun Facts About Estonia

Estonian belongs to which language family?

Estonian is a Finnic language of the Uralic family; unlike Latvian and Lithuanian it is not Indo-European at all, and it has 14 noun cases.

Estonia restored full independence from the Soviet Union on 20 August of which year?

Estonia restored independence on 20 August 1991, during the failed hardline coup in Moscow; the Soviet Union recognised it on 6 September 1991.

The peaceful 1988-90 movement toward Estonian independence is known as what?

Artist Heinz Valk coined the name Singing Revolution after spontaneous mass singing at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds in June 1988.

What was the 1989 human chain of two million across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania called?

The Baltic Way took place on 23 August 1989, the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, with about two million people linking hands from Tallinn to Vilnius.

How long was the 1989 human chain from Estonia through Latvia to Lithuania?

The chain ran about 675 km from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius; the three republics had a combined population of only about eight million.

Estonia first declared independence on 24 February of which year?

Estonia declared independence on 24 February 1918, when the Salvation Committee read the manifesto in the gap between the Russian retreat and the German occupation.

Estonia became the first country in the world to do what in its 2005 local elections?

Estonia allowed legally binding internet voting nationwide in its October 2005 local elections, the first country to do so; just over 9,000 voters used it that year.

Estonia's e-residency programme, launched in 2014, extends what to non-residents?

E-residency gives non-residents access to Estonian digital services: a state-issued digital ID that lets them found and run an EU company online without living in Estonia.

Which 2003 video-calling service was built by four Estonian developers?

Skype launched in 2003 with software written in Tallinn by Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, Jaan Tallinn and Toivo Annus; Microsoft later bought it for $8.5 billion.

Estonia adopted the euro on 1 January of which year?

Estonia adopted the euro on 1 January 2011 as the 17th member of the eurozone, converting at a fixed 15.6466 kroons per euro.

Estonia's flag is a horizontal tricolour of blue, white and which third colour?

The third stripe is black: the blue-black-white tricolour was adopted by the Vironia student society in 1881, and the Soviet regime later banned it outright.

Estonia's highest point, Suur Munamägi, rises to what height?

The name means Big Egg Hill; it sits in the Haanja Upland in the far south-east.

Besides the mainland, Estonia's territory includes roughly how many islands and islets?

Estonia counts over 2,300 islands and islets, most of them tiny; Saaremaa, the largest at about 2,670 km², is bigger than all the others combined.

The Kaali crater field on Saaremaa was formed by what?

The Kaali craters were blasted out by a meteorite impact, the main crater about 110 m across; the fall happened in prehistoric times and features in local folklore.

The Estonian Song Festival, first held in 1869, takes place how often?

The Song Festival is held every five years, drawing up to 100,000 singers and spectators to the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds; UNESCO listed it as intangible heritage in 2003.

Which Estonian composer invented the minimalist tintinnabuli style?

Arvo Pärt developed tintinnabuli in 1976 with Für Alina; Fratres and Spiegel im Spiegel followed, and Bachtrack ranked him the world's most performed living composer for eight straight years.

The University of Tartu, Estonia's oldest, was founded in 1632 by which king?

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden signed the university's founding act in June 1632 while campaigning in Germany, months before he died at the Battle of Lützen that November.

Which kingdom won the 1219 Battle of Lyndanisse under Valdemar II at what is now Tallinn?

Denmark's Valdemar II won at Lyndanisse on 15 June 1219, the day the Dannebrog flag is said to have fallen from the sky; Tallinn then became the capital of Danish Estonia.

By what name was Tallinn known to most of the world from the 13th to the early 20th century?

Reval was the official name under German, Swedish and Russian rule alike; the Estonian name Tallinn replaced it after the country's independence was declared.

Which Estonian city faces the Russian town of Ivangorod across a river?

Narva sits on the west bank of the Narva River opposite Ivangorod; its Hermann Castle and the Ivangorod Fortress stare at each other across the water, and most of its residents are Russian-speakers.

Estonians who resisted the second Soviet occupation as guerrillas were known as what?

The Forest Brothers (metsavennad) hid in Estonia's woods and fought Soviet forces after 1944; the last known fighter, August Sabbe, died evading capture in 1978.

The 2007 relocation of which Soviet war memorial in Tallinn triggered riots and cyberattacks on Estonia?

The Bronze Soldier, a 1947 Red Army memorial, was moved from central Tallinn to a military cemetery; the riots and cyberattacks that followed led NATO to open its cyber-defence centre in Tallinn the next year.

Kaja Kallas, Estonia's first female prime minister, left in 2024 to take which post?

Kaja Kallas resigned as prime minister in July 2024 and became the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy that December, succeeding Josep Borrell.

Kersti Kaljulaid, president from 2016 to 2021, was Estonia's first what?

Kersti Kaljulaid became Estonia's first female head of state when parliament elected her president in October 2016; at 46 she was also the youngest person to hold the office.

Lennart Meri, president from 1992 to 2001, had earlier worked in which creative field?

Lennart Meri worked in film-making and writing: barred from history under Soviet rule, he made ethnographic documentaries such as The Winds of the Milky Way and wrote the travel book Silverwhite.

Estonia's national epic, published in 1862, is called what?

Kalevipoeg, compiled by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald from folk tales, tells of a giant king; its complete popular edition appeared in 1862, inspired by the earlier Kalevala.

Kiiking, a sport invented in Estonia in 1993, involves doing what?

Ado Kosk built swings with steel arms so riders could pass over the fulcrum; kiik means swing.

The kroon, replaced by the euro, had been Estonia's currency in which two periods?

The kroon circulated from 1928 to 1940, when the Soviet ruble replaced it, and again from 1992 to 2011; the first kroon succeeded the Estonian mark at 100 marks to the kroon.

In 1994, following Milton Friedman's ideas, Estonia became one of the first countries to adopt what?

Estonia's flat income tax, introduced in 1994 under Mart Laar, charged a uniform 26% on all incomes; the rate was later cut in steps to 20%.

Which locally mined fossil fuel generated most of Estonia's electricity for decades?

Oil shale, mined in north-east Estonia since the 1920s, fuelled the country's large thermal power stations and supplied over 85% of its electricity in the early 2010s.

The 1994 sinking of the ferry MS Estonia, en route from Tallinn to Stockholm, killed how many people?

The MS Estonia sank in a storm on 28 September 1994, killing 852 of the 989 people on board; only 137 survived.

Which country lies across the gulf directly to the north of Estonia?

Finland lies across the Gulf of Finland to the north and Sweden across the Baltic to the west.

Estonia's national bird is which species?

The barn swallow (suitsupääsuke) was chosen as Estonia's national bird in 1960; the cornflower is the national flower.

Kama, a traditional Estonian food, is what?

It is eaten uncooked, often as a dessert with buttermilk or kefir.

Which staple, made from rye, is served with almost every Estonian meal?

Black bread (leib), a dense sour rye loaf, sits on almost every Estonian table as an open-sandwich base and a companion to soups; hosts traditionally wish guests 'jätku leiba', may your bread last.

Estonia's oldest and most widely celebrated festival, Jaanipäev on 24 June, marks what?

Jaanipäev is Estonia's Midsummer: on the eve of 24 June Estonians gather around bonfires, often by the village swing, and the 23rd is also Victory Day.

Estonia is described as one of the least what countries in the world?

Surveys make Estonia one of the least religious countries in the world: in a 2005 Eurobarometer poll only 16% said they believed in a God. Medieval Estonians were among Europe's last pagans, converted in the 13th century.

Estonia's parliament, the Riigikogu, is what kind of legislature?

The Riigikogu is unicameral: a single chamber of 101 members elected for four-year terms; the president nominates the prime minister, subject to its approval.

By which 1721 treaty did Sweden cede Estonia to Russia?

The Treaty of Nystad, signed in 1721, ended the Great Northern War: Sweden ceded Estonia, Livonia and Ingria to Peter the Great's Russia, whose troops had taken Tallinn in 1710.

Estonia's two largest lakes are Võrtsjärv and which other, on the Russian border?

Lake Peipus, shared with Russia, is Europe's fifth-largest lake at about 3,555 km²; Estonia has roughly 1,560 natural lakes in all.

At which Games did Estonia win three gold medals, all in cross-country skiing?

At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Andrus Veerpalu and Kristina Šmigun won all three of Estonia's golds in cross-country skiing, placing the country 12th in the medal table.

Which island is home to Estonia's most ethnically Estonian county?

Hiiumaa's Hiiu County is the most ethnically Estonian county, at about 98%; Harju County around Tallinn and Ida-Viru in the east have large Russian-speaking minorities.

Estonia joined the Schengen Area in which year?

Estonia joined the Schengen Area on 21 December 2007, three and a half years after EU accession; airport passport checks ended the following March.

The Seto people, a small Estonian group in the south-east, mostly follow which faith?

Orthodoxy is now the largest religious group in the country, chiefly among Russian speakers.

Kiluvõileib, the open sandwich eaten at Independence Day celebrations, is topped with what?

Kiluvõileib is buttered bread topped with spiced sprats (vürtsikilu) and slices of boiled egg, often with a sprig of dill; the herring (räim), not the sprat, is Estonia's national fish.

Estonia is a country in which region of Northern Europe?

Estonia is the northernmost of the three Baltic states, with Latvia and Lithuania to its south; the trio lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea.

The Tsarist crackdown after the 1905 revolution in Estonia saw roughly how many people executed?

Roughly 500 people were executed by Tsarist punitive expeditions after the 1905 unrest in Estonia, with hundreds more jailed or deported to Siberia.

Estonia's Silmet plant at Sillamäe is a major European processor of which materials?

NPM Silmet at Sillamäe separates rare earth elements, one of the few such plants outside China; the same site processed uranium for the Soviet Union until 1989.

Tallinn was a leading member of which medieval trading network?

Tallinn joined the Hanseatic League in 1285 and grew rich shipping furs, flax and grain west and salt and cloth east; its Hanseatic-era Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.