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The territory of modern Estonia has been inhabited since at least 9000 BCE, with the first evidence of settled communities dating back to the Mesolithic period. Over the centuries, Estonia has been ruled by various foreign powers, including the Danes, Germans, Swedes, and Russians. The country first gained independence in 1918, but was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. After years of Soviet rule, Estonia regained its independence in 1991, following the Singing Revolution, a series of mass protests that emphasized the importance of the Estonian cultural identity. Notable figures in Estonian history include Lennart Meri, the first president of post-Soviet Estonia, and Konstantin Päts, the first president of independent Estonia. Another influential Estonian is Arvo Pärt, a renowned composer who has contributed significantly to the country's cultural development.
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The counties of Estonia
Estonia is divided into 15 counties:
The capital city, Tallinn, is located in Harju County. Each of these counties has a county governor, who is appointed by the Government of Estonia for a term of five years. Within these counties, there are also smaller administrative units such as municipalities.
Estonian history
Estonia has been inhabited from around the end of the Last Ice Age or Pleistocene period as the glaciation here withdrew considerably enough for people to inhabit the region around 10,000 BCE. During the Neolithic period, the Comb Ceramic Culture arrived here in the fourth millennium BCE, followed by the Balts, a group which have influenced the genetic and demographic composition of the people of the Baltic States region ever since. During late antiquity, many different Germanic and Asiatic peoples passed through here, but the Balts remained a major presence as most newcomers moved on to the more hospitable climes of Southern and Western Europe. The region became a center of trade and commerce during the Viking Age as the Baltic States region became an entrepôt for the Swedes and others who were looking to sail down the Volga and other rivers to attack the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Caliphate much further to the south.[1]

Estonia was converted to Christianity in the course of the Northern Crusades of the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with King Waldemar II of Denmark playing a notable role in this by establishing a Danish colony in northern Estonia, occupying Tallinn (which was known at the time as Reval) as the center of the Danish Duchy of Estonia. In the mid-thirteenth century much of the the region came under the control of the Teutonic Order of religious knights following the Livonian Crusade, though the Danes maintained control of the north for some time to come. Meanwhile, Reval or Tallinn became the northernmost city of the Hanseatic League, the powerful network of European trading cities operating across the North Sea and Baltic Sea.[2]
In the sixteenth century, the north of Estonia passed into the possession of Sweden after it ended its involvement in the Union of Kalmar and became independent from Denmark. The southern stretches of the country were briefly controlled by the Duchy of Lithuania and then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but in the early seventeenth century nearly the entirety of what is now Estonia came under Swedish rule. This scenario only lasted until the 1710s when Russia occupied the Baltic States region as part of the Great Northern War against Sweden. Russian control of Estonia was confirmed through the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 and lasted for the next two centuries.[3]
A national awakening took place in the nineteenth century as Estonian national identity emerged. This found expression in the chaos which followed from the end of the First World War and the outbreak of the Russian Civil War from 1917 onwards and Estonia was able to briefly achieve independence during the interwar period. It was short-lived, though, and in 1940 the Soviet Union conquered Estonia.[4] The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic was nominally independent during the Cold War, but in reality it was under Russian control. Thus, it was not until 1991 that an independent Estonian state once again emerged. In the interim Estonia has joined the European Union in 2004 and has emerged as one of the more successful post-Soviet countries of Eastern Europe, with a well-developed democratic system and one of the continent’s better standards of living.[5]
See also: Estonian history
Estonian geography

Estonia is the most northerly of the three Baltic States countries. It dominates the southern shores of the Gulf of Finland and the capital Tallinn lies on the coast here just 80 kilometers from Helsinki in Finland, which lies directly across the Gulf. The country is very low-lying, with the average altitude being just 50 meters above sea level. Away from the long coastline, the country is heavily forested. There are also a number of large lakes which characterize Estonia’s hinterland, notably Lake Peipus and Lake Pskov along the border with Russia and Lake Võrtsjärv. Peipus is the fifth largest lake in Europe. Estonia’s territory also includes over 2,000 islands and islets. Although many of these are small, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa are considerable, with Saaremaa off the west coast in the Baltic Sea being slightly larger than Luxembourg.[6] There are just over 1.3 million people living in Estonia, of which 30% or slightly more than 400,000 live in the capital Tallinn. Tartu is the second largest city with a population nearing 100,000, while Narva, with 60,000 people is the only other city of more than 50,000 people.[7]
See also: Estonian geography
Researching family history in Estonia
Although the first national census of the Russian Empire, which covered the region approximating to modern-day Estonia, did not take place until 1897, the family historian and genealogist of Estonia benefits from the region having been involved in demographic studies from several decades earlier. The Statistical Committees of Estonia and Livonia were set up in 1863 and they carried out population censuses of the major cities and towns of the region in 1871 and 1881, the population of Tallinn being recorded at the earlier date. On top of this, there are good church records and other administrative records stretching back to the 1780s in particular, while in the twentieth century comprehensive censuses were undertaken in 1922 and 1934. A Soviet census carried out in 1959 was especially detailed and gives a good account of the demographic changes which occurred in Estonia as a result of the Second World War.[8] The National Archives of Estonia hold many important demographic records which are of use for the study of family history. They are split between repositories in different cities and towns, with the main centers in Tallinn and Tartu.[9]
See also:
- Estonian immigration
- Estonian emigration
- Estonian archives
- Vital records in Estonia
- Birth records in Estonia
- Death records in Estonia
- Marriage records in Estonia
- Census records in Estonia
- Civil registrations in Estonia
- Church records in Estonia
- Newspaper records in Estonia
- Military records in Estonia
Estonian ethnicity
The majority of the population in Estonia are Estonians. There is also a significant Russian-speaking community, as well as smaller groups of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Finns, and other ethnic minorities.
See also:
Estonian surnames

Historically, Estonian surnames were derived from a variety of sources, such as occupations, personal names, or geographic locations, and often followed the patronymic naming system until the late 19th and early 20th centuries when fixed surnames became more common. The source of surnames for peasants was derived from their everyday world, including household commodities, seasons, clothing, farm names, and occupations. Estonian surnames can be traced back to medieval given names, which have been shortened to form aphetic names. Understanding the origins and patterns of Estonian surnames can assist genealogists in tracing family lines and discovering important links in their ancestral tree. Examples of Estonian surnames include "Tamm," which means "oak," and "Kask," which means "birch".
Examples of different Estonian surnames include: Mägi, Kivi, Tamm, Toom, Jaakson, Lepik, Kask, and Kukk.
See also:
References
- ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5789860/
- ↑ https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Estonia
- ↑ https://1997-2001.state.gov/background_notes/estonia_0997_bgn.html
- ↑ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17220810
- ↑ https://uca.edu/politicalscience/home/research-projects/dadm-project/europerussiacentral-asia-region/soviet-unionestonia-1940-1991/
- ↑ https://www.countryreports.org/country/Estonia/geography.htm
- ↑ https://www.statista.com/statistics/377050/largest-cities-in-estonia/
- ↑ https://www.stat.ee/en/statistics-estonia/population-census-2021/population-censuses-estonia
- ↑ https://www.ra.ee/en/