Estonia, officially theRepublic of Estonia, is a country in theBaltic region of thenorthernEuropean Union. It is bordered to the north by theGulf ofFinland, to the west by theBaltic Sea, to the south byLatvia, and to the east byLake Peipus andRussia. Estonia is a democraticparliamentary republic divided into fifteencounties, with its capital and largest city beingTallinn. With a population of 1.3 million, it is one of the least-populous member states of theEuropean Union,Eurozone, theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the OECD and theSchengen Area.

• Putin has every incentive to stir up trouble in Estonia, because it is the point of maximum contradiction between the geopolitical idealism of NATO expansion, and the realpolitik factors by which world affairs are actually driven. As such, it is the point of maximum weakness for the alliance. NATO is obligated to fight for Narva or admit that Article Five is a lie, but NATO has no strategic or moral justification for doing so, and would be intervening to prevent a genuinely oppressed local population from exercising self-determination. In effect, then, NATO would become complicit in that oppression through its actions. Putin could ask for no better battlefield.
  • Daniel Berman,"Will Narva Be Russia’s Next Crimea?" (8 April 2014),The Diplomat

• In the course of centuries never have the Estonian people lost their desire for independence. From generation to generation have they kept alive the hidden hope that in spite ofenslavement andoppression by hostile invaders the time will come to Estonia "when all splints, at both end, will burst forth into flames" and when "Kalev will come home to bring his children happiness."
  • Estonian Declaration of Independence (1918)

• Estonians don't do "in a cold panic". Phlegmatic, slow, non-reactive, yes. Panic, no.
  • Toomas Hendrik Ilves, as quoted in"Smaller Countries, Far Away" (24 October 2016), by Jay Nordlinger,National Review

• Ants Laaneots, Estonian general and member of the Parliament’s Defense Committee, has his own explanation for the blatant acts of racism on Tallinn’s streets. He does not exclude the conspiracy that the massive attacks onAfrican-American NATO soldiers in Tallinn were ordered by private individuals fromRussia as the provocation to compromise his country in the eyes of theUnited States. Police must carefully investigate every case of such attack to determine Russia’s involvement, he believes.
  • Mikhail Klikushin,"Estonia Wants More NATO Troops—But Only If They Aren’t Black" (22 February 2016),Observer

• More than twenty years after the restoration of Estonia’s independence, the opinion that time would automatically resolve the integration issue of non-ethnic Estonians, and that the younger generation born here would blend into Estonian society, has not been confirmed in practice.
  • Katja Koort,"Russians: Estonia Twenty Years After",World Affairs Journal

• We value our independence, clearly and dearly, and I’m sure that we will put up resistance, come hell or high water.
  • Jüri Luik, as quoted in"Smaller Countries, Far Away" (24 October 2016), by Jay Nordlinger,National Review

• Around the same time,communism in Central and Eastern Europe finally fell, butits economic rivalry withcapitalism had, of course, long since been decided. It’s easy to think that these countries were never close to themarket economies, but in 1950 countries such as theSoviet Union,Poland,Czechoslovakia andHungary had a GDP per capita about a quarter higher than poor Western countries such asSpain,Portugal andGreece. In 1989, the eastern states were nowhere close. The eastern part ofGermany was richer than West Germany beforeWorld War II. When theBerlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989,East Germany’sGDP per capita was not even half that of West Germany’s. Of these countries, those that liberalized the most have on average developed the fastest and established the strongest democracies. An analysis of twenty-six post-communist countries showed that a 10 per cent increase in economic freedom was associated with a 2.7 per cent faster annual growth. Political and economic institutions have improved the most in the Central and Eastern European countries that are now members of theEU, not least the Baltic countries, Estonia,Latvia andLithuania. Today, they are some of the freest countries in the world and have more than tripled average incomes since independence. But one can also observe a recent reformer likeGeorgia. It was seen as an economic basket case, but after theRose Revolution in 2003 it increased per capita incomes almost threefold and cut extreme poverty rates by almost two-thirds.
  • Johan Norberg,The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World (2023)

• Even if Estonia spent everything it had on defense, it would be hard pressed to fend off Russia, which has a million men under arms and another 2 million in reserve...
  • Jay Nordlinger,"Tiny, Faraway Countries and Us" (20 July 2018),National Review Online

• We'll be here for Estonia. We will be here for Latvia. We will be here for Lithuania. You lost your independence once before. With NATO, you will never lose it again.
  • Barack Obama,speech in Tallinn (September 2014)

• There was ahierarchy of material conditions in the communist world. TheYugoslavs, with the closest commercial links with the West, did best in the range and quality of goods available. Next came theEast Germans, followed by theHungarians and thePoles. Citizens of the USSR trailed in after them; and, still more galling toRussian national pride, theGeorgians and Estonians in the Soviet Union enjoyed better conditions than those available to theRussians. The stereotypical Georgian, in the Russian popular imagination, was a swarthy ‘Oriental’ who smuggledoranges in large suitcases from hiscollective farm to the large cities of theRSFSR. Thatfruit could be an item of internal contraband speaks volumes aboutcommunism’s economic inefficiency.
  • Robert Service,Comrades: A History of World Communism (2009)

• Estonia is a very beautiful country, Estonians are proud of their country, the houses are in order, the streets are clean.
  • Jack Tarien, as quoted in"Estonia Wants More NATO Troops—But Only If They Aren’t Black" (22 February 2016),Observer

• Oursoldiers and embassy will continue to stand with the vast majority of the Estonian population who do not support or condone intolerance. However, businesspeople, tourists and students who experience similar treatment may take away a very different view, which over time will erode Estonia’s positive international reputation.
  • Chever Voltmer,"Racism Concerns Us All" (4 November 2015),Õhtuleht
• In the Baltic states—Estonia,Latvia, andLithuania—the return of the Red Army also provoked lastingresistance. Having become independent fromRussia in 1918, the three countries were occupied by theSoviets in 1940, after Stalin’s pact withHitler. The occupation was vicious, and theGerman invasion in 1941 had been greeted with relief by many Balts, who now turned their wrath onRussians and other localminorities, includingJews. The German defeat meant the return of the Red Army and the start of another round of bloodletting. In all three Baltic countries resistance coalesced around former officers, most of whom hadcollaborated with theNazis; they were known collectively as the “Forest Brothers.” The fighting lasted for almost a decade and cost up to fifty thousand lives, mostly in Lithuania. Around 10 percent of the entire adult population of Balts was deported or sent to Sovietlabor camps between 1940 and 1953.
  • Odd Arne Westad,The Cold War: A World History (2017)

• Online voting — however you vote — is not the main attack vector
  • Liisa Past, who helped lead the Estonian government’s analysis on cyber-risks ofonline voting and now works with the government through a partnership withcybersecurity firm Cybernetica, according toEstonia proves trust is at the heart of online voting published November 2, 2020

• Official website
• Encyclopedic article onEstonia on Wikipedia
• The dictionary definition ofestonia on Wiktionary
• Works related toPortal:Estonia on Wikisource
• Wikijunior:Europe/Estonia on Wikibooks
• Estonia travel guide from Wikivoyage

• Media related toEstonia on Wikimedia Commons

• Estonia