Estonia is one of our closest neighbours. In fact the capital of Estonia, Tallinn, is our closest capital if we count the distance from Stockholm. In spite of this the country has been practically unknown to us Swedes because it happen to become captured behind the iron curtain. Or as a guide said; "In 1944 the iron curtain was lowered over Estonia". In fact, this was decided on already in 1939 when the Soviet Union and Germany divided Europe between them and Soviet was rewarded Estonia and the other Baltic states.

When I was a schoolboy I had many schoolmates having Estonian names. Most of them had fled to Sweden during World War II. How many that did not make the escape over the Baltic we do not know. Anyhow some of those young who did make it were going to my school. And I did not think anything about that or why they were there. Nothing was said in my family about the situation.

One of my Estonian friends in Sweden once told how he and his family escaped. When the Soviets took over in 1944 the coastal zone was made forbidden land, to make it impossible for Estonians to flee to Sweden or other countries. Still he and his family had got a permission to move their boot from the northern coast to a more south-western place. They were not allowed to use a motor, but the boat had to be towed by a Soviet boat to the new destination. They started the towing late in the day and what the Soviets did not know that in the packages the Estonians had put motor parts, that they could put together during the towing and in that way get a working motor. In the shade of the night they loosened the rope and disappeared in the night - towards Sweden.

During the night a storm came over them, the boat took in water and in the early morning the saw a military boat coming towards them. Everybody was of course very frightened because they did not know which country it belonged to. The relief was enormous when they were greeted "welcome to Sweden". In this way it is estimated that roughly one third of the Estonian population fled to the west. Of the remaining people about every second person was deported to Siberia, while the last third was allowed to remain in Estonia. Of course many people died during deportation or during escape.

The Estonian population is closely related to the Finnish and to certain groups within the former Soviet Union. During history the total population has sometimes become extremely small, after the Black Death it is said to have been around 2,000 persons. This means that the genetic variation is much smaller than in for example Sweden, and there can be distinguished a relatively low number of "types". One of them is having extremely light and straggled hair, so typical also in Finland. Another type is those having turned-up nose and small mouth. The Estonian and Finnish languages are similar, but more different than Swedish and Norwegian. Knowing the similarities and the Estonian inability to combine the double consonants "s" and for example "k" or "t", it is possible for Swedes to distinguish a least a couple of Estonian words like tool (Sw: stol, Eng: chair), kool (Sw: skola, Eng: school) and kink (Sw: skinka, Eng: ham).

Knowing a number of Finnish words they can be transformed to Estonian by cutting some letters here and there, mainly at the end. Examples might be maasika (Fin: mansikka, Eng. strawberry), and the numerals (yx, kax, kolm, Fin: yxi, kaxi, kolme, Eng: one, two, three). But there might be a trap also, because a number of words can mean totally different things in the two countries. University is called ülikool in Estonia but üliopisto in Finland (üli = high).

Not only the languages but the national anthems are the same (In Sw. "Vårt land, vårt land"). The first ones to use it was the Estonians, but the Finnish liked it so much that they made it their own. Of course it was banned when Soviet took over. Our guide said that at the Olympic games they always supported Finnish athletes. If he or she won they could hear their own anthem even it was played for the Finnish athlete.

Estonia has been a free nation for a very short time. Very long ago Estonia was ruled by Denmark. In fact the capital Tallinn means the Danish town (from Tanska = Danish and linn = town [but castle in Finnish]). During the Middle Ages there were mainly German groups that reigned. One of these was the Hansa, that included many German towns and also Visby in Sweden. After that Russians took over for some time before Sweden conquered the country in the early 17^th century. The country remained Swedish for more than a century. The Swedish king Gustav II Adolf founded a university in the second largest town of Estonia, Tartu, which happened to be the second Swedish University (the first being founded in Uppsala 1632 and Tartu later in the same year). After the death of the Swedish king Karl XII much of the Swedish empire was ruined and the Russians took over again and until after World War I.

1918 Estonia proclaimed itself independent and remained so until World War II. During the war the country was invaded by Soviet, after that by Germany and so Soviet again in 1944 and by that the iron curtain fell for more than 50 years. In the late 1980's the glasnost period had started (Russ: glasnost = openness) in the Soviet Union. The Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) tried to get more freedom well knowing what happened in Hungary and Czechoslovakia when they tried to get a more free status. The efforts in Poland in the 90's were likely encouraging, even if Poland had always been the infant terrible in the communistic family.

Since most things were forbidden in the Soviet Union, where Estonia was now a state, the Estonians had to invent different methods to protest against the government in Moscow. One thing was to form a human chain. This was done on August 23 1989 by people standing holding hands from Tallinn in Estonia to Riga in Latvia and Vilnius in Lithuania, a stretch of 600 kilometres.

Another thing that was not forbidden was singing (even if it was prohibited to sing or perform the national anthem). Every five years a song festival was held in Tallinn at the Singing Field. As protest people were in 1988 congregating at the Singing Field to sing. It is said to have been around three-quarters of a million people there, more than 50% of the population of Estonia. Around them the Soviet army was grouped. They started singing all their traditional songs and ended by singing their forbidden national anthem. Everybody was anxiously looking at the troops surrounding them. But nothing happened. Still nobody knows why but we might guess that the military people were also tired of the government in Moscow. The movement that started from here became named "the Singing Revolution".

The protest in the Baltic countries became more and more strong and we, living in Sweden, understood that something was going to happen. Information that was not filtered through the Soviet censorship was not allowed reaching the inhabitants. Therefore information from the surrounding free countries became extremely important. On the northern coast the Finnish television became an important source of information even if it was forbidden to look at it. On the western islands of Saaremaa and Hiumaa, Swedish television was the most important source. Therefore the Estonians knew very well what was going on in Moscow, where the protest from Russians became strong and the government sent troops and tanks out on the streets of Moscow. And they could also see the mayor of Moscow, Boris Jeltsin, climbing a tank proclaiming the resistance towards the Soviet reign. This was on August 18^th.

The Estonians now understood that this was their chance and on the 19^th of August 1991 they had heard that the Soviet army might blow the TV tower in case people took over. So a large number of Estonians gathered around the tower to protect it from the troops - without arms of course. A few days before, the army had killed people in the other Baltic countries when making similar protests. Also one of our Estonians friends was there. The situation was very strained but suddenly the army gave up and in the morning of August 20^th 1991 Estonia proclaimed itself a free nation. The Nordic countries were among the first to recognise the new country. In fact the first one was Iceland. Maybe this was because that the president of the Estonian SSSR (Soviet republic ["state"] of Estonia) visited Iceland during these days.

Of course the situation was much of disorder during these days. One of our Estonians friends put a letter in a letterbox the evening of August 18^th, but it never reached us. But for the rest the order returned comparatively rapidly.

I made my first visit to Estonia in 1992 and after that it has been many visits there. Coming there in 1992 was like being taken back in time to the days immediately after World War II. But with differences of course. The Soviet system had made definite footsteps. Besides of gigantic grey houses built by concrete, much of the other things in the country were grey. The trams in Tallinn were grey and red, but in some way they had been successful in getting even the red colour grey. Don't ask me how.

However, each time I visited Tallinn it was a new town I arrived in. There were fifty years to take back and it could really be seen. One of the first thing to happen was that one of the trams was converted into a rolling advertising pillar (Coca Cola - what else). It was followed by others. Houses were fixed up. But at the same time an increasing segregation could be seen emerging. At first it was between Estonians and "Russians" of different kinds (from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, etc.). Later there were also difference between people who had money and those who didn't. This situation still persists, because Estonia is said to be the most western-like country in the former Soviet sphere, including a rigorous market economy.

At the time of liberation the currency in Estonia, like in all Soviet was the Rouble. Soon discussions arouse on what to change to, because the inflation rate of the rouble was considerable. The solution was to change to Kroon (cf. Swedish "krona", Eng. "crown"). The day of change was kept secret to prohibit all too much speculation in foreign currency. The change would take place some time in the summer of 1993. Around Midsummer I visited friends on the island of Saaremaa (in the town of Kuressaare). When we came there a rumour said that the change of currency was to take place in June. Suddenly it was said on Estonian TV that the change should take place the next day. Every Estonian should get 100 Kroon (c. 20 US$). Those who had roubles left would get only a tenth of the value when changing the money.

In short this meant that the rouble should be worthless the next day. So what to do except for spending as much as possible this last night (shops were allowed to exchange roubles to the right value). So everybody went to the restaurants. We ordered a number of bottles of champagne, and so did many of the other guests. Many persons had thick bundles of rouble notes that would be worth almost nothing the next day.

The next day dawned and the population of Kuressaare lined up to get their money. Like in old Soviet the line was long and it took several hours to get the new money. We, being foreigners were allowed to change our foreign money to Kroon at the bank. The first information was that the money would arrive at this or that time. But nothing happened. We were told to ask at an exchange office in central Kuressaare but they didn't have any money but they advised us to go back to the bank and ask again.

By late afternoon the money seemed to have arrived at the bank. The bank officer told us that "they say in Tallinn that we shall exchange money - but I'm tired". And we didn't get any money from him. But fortunately we got the chance to change some money at the exchange office later in the day.

And so ended the first day in "new" Estonia.

The next years meant repairing of worn out buildings all over the country, maybe easternmost Estonia (where most of the "Russians" live) was an exception. Already from the beginning the state of the building was better the more westward you came in the country. However, the repairing period ceased in the latter part of the 90's and so is the situation even today. Some of the blame for this is the land reform. After liberation the Estonian government tried to give back all land and all buildings to the owners (or their ancestors) as it was in 1939. Many owners had moved abroad and were found in for example Sweden, Canada, USA, Australia, etc. This meant that people living in houses belonging to someone maybe living on the other side of the Earth, didn't dare to make any repairs, because the former owner could come and take his/her property back the next day.

When I returned in July 2001 the situation was similar to that in the late 90's. In Tallinn two new skyscrapers were build since last time (1999), but still there were many houses not renovated. The same situation prevailed in Tartu, the university capital of Estonia. In the countryside the situation could be worse, because the new economy has no place for Estonian agriculture. On the contrary the rich countries in the World, including the European Union, give subsidies to their own farmers, giving the result that it is cheaper to import agricultural products from Europe that to produce it within the borders of the country. So, as a result partly of this and partly because of uncertainty as to ownership, as much as 40% of the agricultural land in Estonia is laid fallow or is permanently (?) abandoned. An important question for the country is how to use this fallow land in the best way.

Estonia is still a very cheap country to visit as a tourist. The prices in Tallinn are around 50-75% of those in Sweden and in other parts of the country still lower. Therefore a large number of people living from tourist money have found their ways to the different places of tourist interest. Knitwear has been in the centre all the time, but now there is also many things made from juniper (Juniper is one of the species invading former dry farmland). A problem, as I see it, is that much of the train traffic has been discontinued. The traffic between the two biggest towns Tallinn and Tartu was been closed down for some time but is taken up again recently and there is no traffic to the town of Haapsalu on the Estonian west coast with its famous train station known from many Soviet time films.

Then, what will happen to Estonia in the years to come? Most probably Estonia will be one of the first eastern countries to join the European Union. But before that happens I think that the agricultural policy of the EU must change, because the union cannot afford support to unprofitable farms also in the east. Therefore there might be a somewhat better prognosis for Estonia agriculture after joining the Union. However there is a fear among Swedish environmentalists that the entrance into the union might start a decrease in biological diversity. The reason for this is things happening when the Soviet Union took over in the '40:s. They didn't manage to keep all the land open and much of the formerly drained peat-land and lowland was abandoned. The result of this was that a very diverse moist forest dominated by birch (Betula pubescens) and grey alder (Alnus incana) invaded. These areas harboured species like black stork and different woodpecker species. Among the woodpeckers is the white backed woodpecker, that is one of the most threatened species in Sweden - the black stork is not even breeding in our country.

On the energy side, there is much to wish for the future. Most of the energy comes from fossil fuel. One part of the energy production comes from oil-powered power plants and district heating plants. The oil is imported from Russia. The other source is locally produced oil shale that is frequently mined in the north-eastern part of Estonia and used as fuel in a number of power plants and giving severe environmental impact. But what is the substitute? One possibility is to use some of all the forest that has come up after the Soviets taking over. However there will be a conflict with environmentalists, and also with export interests, because birch is exported to Sweden to be used in paper mills. Another possibility is to use the abandoned farmland for production of energy grass. The drawback here is that this can be produced only close to the power plants or district heating plants, otherwise there will be a negative energy balance as well as a negative economic balance.

The Swedish Development Cooperation Agency, Sida has a programme for the Baltic area including improvement of district heating systems. This includes more efficient equipment for burning, but also new pipeline systems for the hot water. Today the losses of heat on the way from producer to consumer are considerable. But this is not enough, much more must be done. Since there is very little hydropower in Estonia, bio-fuels seem to be the only acceptable solution in the long run. Another programme run by Sida is to improve waste water treatment. This is tried on sewage water from small villages (like in Matsalu in the western part of the country), as well as gigantic ones in the S:t Petersburg area in Russia.

So, to conclude, Estonia is a very interesting country to visit. And if you are there, try to see something else than just Tallinn. All parts of the country have interesting aspects of their own:

North and North-west: Dry areas with pine forest, alvars, limestone cliffs ("glints", like on Gotland and Öland). Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

Northeast: Heavy industry area, pollution problems

East: Lake Peipsi, the borderland to Russia, and the town of Tartu. Agricultural area. Tartu is the university capital

Southeast: The "highlands" with Suurmunamägi ("the big egghill") as the highest "peak" (over 200 m.a.s.). Hilly moraine landscape with small farms, many lakes and coniferous forests.

South: Seashores around the Gulf of Riga and the town of Pernu.

Central and south-west: Vast peat-lands and agricultural areas.

West: The big islands Saaremaa and Hiiumaa and many small islands with their own cultures. On the mainland the town of Haapsalu and the Matsalu nature reserve. Alvars, bogs, fens, farmland, and seashores.