Forgotten world (36): Estonia
On seven occasions now, I’ve had a week-long feature on NightHawk devoted to parts of the world that tend to be under-reported or even forgotten. You can check out the previous 35 entries here. This week, I plan to run an eighth series of postings on this theme.
Travelling from north to south, Estonia is the first of the three Baltic states. Like the other two, it was absorbed into the Soviet Union in 1940, regained its independence with the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and became a member of the European Union in 2004.
Estonia has a population of only 1.3 million and its capital is Tallinn. A large number of the Russian-speaking industrial workers brought in decades ago have ended up without Estonian citizenship for which they are required to pass an Estonian-language test. About a tenth of the population has no citizenship of any kind.
Politically Estonia has had a troubled independence with eight administrations in 12 years. However, the country has enjoyed strong economic growth since joining the EU.