Estonia: The Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries

Estonia suffered bloody reprisals for its important role in the Russian Revolution of 1905. In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Moscow appointed a puppet Communist regime under Jaan Anvelt to rule Estonia; its authority, however, failed to extend beyond Tallinn. An Estonian proclamation of independence in Feb., 1918, was followed shortly by German occupation. After Germany surrendered to the Allies in Nov., 1918, Estonia declared itself an independent democratic republic and repulsed the invading Red Army.

In 1920, by the Peace of Tartu, Soviet Russia recognized Estonia's independence. Political stability, however, eluded the republic, which had 20 short-lived coalition regimes before 1933, when a new constitution gave the president sweeping authority. Political parties were abolished in 1934, and President Konstantin Päts instituted an authoritarian regime. A more democratic constitution came into force in 1938; but the Nazi-Soviet Pact of Aug., 1939, placed the Baltic countries under Soviet control, and the following month the USSR secured military bases in Estonia.

Complete Soviet military occupation came in June, 1940. Following elections in July, Estonia was incorporated into the USSR as a constituent republic. Over 60,000 persons were killed or deported during the occupation's first year. Estonian irregulars fought Soviet troops in June, 1941, as part of the German invasion, and their support of the Nazis continued through 1944. Occupied by German troops during much of World War II, Estonia was retaken by Soviet forces in 1944, who, as in 1940, killed or deported thousands of Estonians. Collectivization of agriculture and nationalization of industry began in the late 1940s, and the Estonian economy was steadily integrated with that of the USSR despite strong resistance.

In Mar., 1990, amid increasing liberalization in the USSR, the Estonian Supreme Soviet declared invalid the 1940 annexation by the USSR. In 1991, during the attempted hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Estonia declared its independence from the USSR. A new constitution was ratified and went into effect in 1992; Lennart Meri was elected president and Mart Laar, a radical free-market advocate, became prime minister. The last Russian troops were withdrawn from Estonia in Aug., 1994.

Laar lost a vote of confidence in 1995 and was replaced by Tiit Vähi, who headed two centrist coalition governments and survived a vote of confidence early in 1997, but resigned shortly thereafter. He was replaced by Mart Siimann, head of the Coalition party and Rural Union, but Laar again became prime minister in Mar., 1999. In Sept., 2001, Arnold Rüütel was elected to succeed Meri as president; Meri was barred from seeking a third term. Laar resigned in Jan., 2002, and Siim Kallas, of the center-right Reform party, succeeded him.

Parliamentary elections in Mar., 2003, gave the leftist Center party and conservative Res Publica party with an equal number of seats. Res Publica formed a coalition with the Reform party; Juhan Parts, of Res Publica, became prime minister. In 2004 Estonia became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. Parts' government fell in Mar., 2005, and Andrus Ansip, of the Reform party, formed a new coalition government the following month. Rüütel failed to win a second term in Sept., 2006, when Toomas Hendrik Ilves, a former foreign minister, was elected president.

The Reform party won a plurality of parliamentary seats in the Mar., 2007, elections, and Ansip remained prime minister, leading a new coalition government (re-formed in 2009). The relocation of a Soviet war memorial (and the soldiers buried there) from downtown Tallinn the following month sparked several days of rioting by ethnic Russians, thinly disguised economic retaliation by Russia, and cyberattacks against government and other Estonian computer facilities. The country adopted the euro in 2011. In Mar., 2011, Ansip's coalition won the parliamentary elections, and he remained prime minister. President Ilves was reelected the following August.

Ansip's government resigned in Mar., 2014; he had planned to step down as prime minister before the 2015 elections. Taavi Rõivas, a member of the Reform party and the social affairs minister, became prime minister of a Reform–Social Democratic government. The Mar., 2015, elections left the government with only a plurality, but the conservative Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL) joined the coalition; Rõivas remained prime minister.

Kersti Kaljulaid, who previously served on the European Court of Auditors, was elected president in Oct., 2016; she was the first woman to hold the office. The following month Rõivas's government collapsed over economic issues.

The Center party, which had strong support among ethnic Russians and had been regarded as too close to Russia by other Estonian parties after a cooperation pact (2004) with its ruling party, formed a coalition with the Social Democrats and IRL; Center's new leader, Jüri Ratas, became prime minister. In the Mar., 2019, parliamentary elections the Reform party won the largest bloc of seats; the Center party placed second. Ratas and the Center party subsequently formed a three-party government that included the far-right, anti-immigrant EKRE, which led to tensions in the government. In Jan., 2021, Ratas resigned as prime minister after the Center party became the subject of a corruption investigation. Kaja Kallas, leader of the Reform party and the daughter of Siim Kallas, was named prime minister in Jan. 2021, and former academic Alar Karis was elected president that October with the endorsement of all three parties. Estonia was elected as a member of the UN Security Council in 2020-21.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries
• To the Nineteenth Century
• Government
• Economy
• Land and People
• Bibliography

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