Estonia

C

Judiciary

The highest judicial body in Estonia is the Supreme Court, consisting of 17 members. The chief justice is nominated by the president; the other justices are appointed by the Riigikogu. The Supreme Court, which operates three chambers, dealing with administrative, civil, and criminal law, also acts as the constitutional court. On a local level, justice is administered by district, county, and city courts.

D

Local Government

Local government is administered through 15 counties, 43 districts (parishes), and 46 townships. Members of local councils are chosen in free popular elections.

E

International Organizations

Estonia is a member of the following organizations: the United Nations (UN); Council of Europe (CE); the World Trade Organization (WTO); Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS); Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE); the Partnership for Peace (PFP); the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); and the European Union (EU). The country is not a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which is comprised of most of the other former Soviet republics.

VI

History

Estonian tribes called Ests, organized in loosely federated small states, were first mentioned by Tacitus in the 1st century ad. King Waldemar II of Denmark invaded northern Estonia, built the Tallinn-Reval castle in 1219, and established the episcopal see of Reval. After an uprising in 1343-1345, the Danish king sold his territories in northern Estonia to the Order of Teutonic Knights, who were already in control of the southern region (Livonia). The knights and Hanseatic League, which established trading centres along the coast, dominated the country until 1561, when the order was dissolved. Tallinn and the nobility of northern Estonia then submitted to the protection of the Swedish Crown, and Poland temporarily retained the southern part of Estonia, including Tartu. By 1645 all of Estonia was in Swedish hands. In the 1670s and 1680s Sweden introduced reforms that improved the lot of the people but embittered the nobility.

Sweden ruled Estonia until 1721, when it was ceded to Russia by the Peace of Nystadt, and the Russian Tsar Peter the Great, then emperor (1721-1725), restored the former privileges of the nobility. Between 1816 and 1819 the Russian Tsar Alexander I abolished serfdom in Estonia; after the middle of the century peasants were granted the right to purchase land, and the system of forced labour was suppressed. At the same time Estonian national consciousness was aroused. Vigorous cooperative and educational movements sprang up after the revolution that took place in Russia in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese War, and national feeling in Estonia was further developed by the press and modern literature. The Russian Revolution brought self-government to the Estonians, and on February 24, 1918, an independent republic was proclaimed. After a war against invading Bolsheviks, a peace treaty was signed at Tartu between Russia and Estonia on February 2, 1920, and all Russian claims to sovereignty over Estonia were dropped. Subsequently, de jure recognition was accorded the new republic by Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, the United States, and other countries. Estonia became a member of the League of Nations.

A

Soviet Occupation and Estonia in the USSR

In June 1940, in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Soviet forces occupied Estonia and the other Baltic republics of Latvia and Lithuania. Elections were then organized, in which only Soviet-supported candidates were permitted to run. On August 6, 1940, Estonia became a republic of the USSR. When Germany attacked the USSR in June 1941, Estonia was occupied by German troops. In September 1944, when the Germans retreated from the country and the Soviet army returned, more than 60,000 Estonians fled to Sweden and Germany.

During the next 45 years most countries granted at least de facto recognition to Soviet Estonia, but the United States never fully accepted Estonia’s incorporation into the USSR. Together with Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia was among the first Soviet republics to move towards independence in the late 1980s, in defiance of the central government. After Communist rule collapsed in the USSR in 1991, the Soviet government formally recognized the independence of the Baltic republics on September 6 of that year, and all three were admitted to the UN later that month.