During the beginning of Russian Empire times, local autonomy under the Baltic German nobility persisted. German language remained as the governing language and the main religion was Lutheranism.

After the Soviet Central government hid the plans of opening new large phosphorite mines, the people were furious about it. If it had happened, there would have been numerous environmental concerns and a large-scale migration of Russian workers to Estonia. After the population's protest and petitions against the cause, the Soviet Government stopped the plans. This gave hope for the Estonian people for the first time that if they act together against something, then there would be action.

About the picture: A cartoon by Priit Pärn, that was published in the newspaper "Sirp ja Vasar", entitled "Sitta kah!" (translation: Just shit). It shows a peasant/farmer shoveling out manure in a field shaped like Estonia.

After this demonstration, it started the wave of more anti-Soviet mass protests in the country, in support of the restoration of Estonia's Independence.

The group later helped further organize independence movement events.

About the picture: A protest meeting organized by the Popular Front with delegates from the CPSU (Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) conference elected from Estonia at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds. on 17 June 1988.

The event drew worldwide attention, symbolizing both unity among the Baltic nations and the broader decline of Soviet control in Eastern Europe.

The event was coordinated by the Popular Front, the Temperance Society, Estonian Radio, and the cultural organization Kodamu. It brought together a wide array of performers and speakers: well-known actors, cultural figures, political leaders, and representatives of emerging civic movements. Choirs and ensembles led the crowd in singing patriotic and traditional songs—many of which had long served as symbolic expressions of national identity. The atmosphere was charged with emotion, as the audience responded with overwhelming enthusiasm and support, turning the gathering into both a cultural celebration and a powerful political statement.

Peterson’s birthday, 14 March, is now celebrated in Estonia as Native Language Day.

Among them were also several Estonian-born but Germanized intellectuals, such as Friedrich Robert Faehlmann (1798–1850), whose literary work helped lay the foundation for an emerging Estonian national mythology. His efforts inspired later writers, including Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803–1882), who completed the national epic Kalevipoeg (published 1857–1862). Although based on folk tales, much of the epic was Kreutzwald’s own creative work, and it became a crucial spark for the later national awakening.

In 1857, Johann Voldemar Jannsen (1819-1890) began publishing Perno Postimees, the first continuous Estonian-language newspaper. Aimed at educating ordinary readers, the paper quickly found a large audience despite financial difficulties. Jannsen, the first ethnic Estonian professional editor, promoted cultural development and carefully introduced national themes. He encouraged Estonians to value their language, avoid Germanization, and aspire to social and educational improvement. He also popularized the term “eestlane” (“Estonian”) instead of the older “maarahvas.”

After moving to Tartu, Jannsen founded Eesti Postimees (1864), which became the main platform for the emerging national movement. It featured contributions from leading intellectuals and opened public debate on social issues such as education, rural conditions, and emigration.

Jannsen also helped establish the Vanemuine Song Society (1865) in Tartu, followed shortly by similar groups like the Estonia Song Society in Tallinn. These cultural associations, together with newspapers and schools, created a nationwide network that spread new national ideas rapidly and played a central role in Estonia’s early national awakening.

The festival celebrated the 50th anniversary of serfdom’s abolition in Livland and aimed to strengthen unity among Estonians. More than 800 singers, 60 wind musicians, and over 10,000 spectators took part.

Patriotic songs—such as “Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm” and pieces composed by Aleksander Kunileid to lyrics by Lydia Koidula, created a powerful sense of national pride.

Jakob Hurt’s speech called on Estonians to remain loyal to their culture and expand Estonian-language education. The enthusiasm generated at the festival spread quickly around the country and helped accelerate the national awakening.

By the 1870s and 1880s, these efforts had produced an educated Estonian intelligentsia, a shared national identity, and a sense of cultural unity. The movement laid the foundations for later political demands and ultimately enabled the push for statehood in the early 20th century.

Some Cultural Figures of the National Awakening

Lydia Koidula (1843–1886)

Daughter of J. V. Jannsen, Koidula became one of the central literary voices of the national movement. Her poetry praised Estonia’s nature and homeland, and her plays helped shape early Estonian theatre. Many of her texts were sung at the 1869 Song Festival, strengthening her symbolic role in the movement.

Johann Köler (1826–1899)

A prominent painter in St. Petersburg and a member of the Imperial Academy, Köler served as an important mediator between Estonian activists and Russian authorities.

Jakob Hurt (1839–1907)

A theologian, pastor, and one of Estonia’s first academically trained folklorists. Hurt collected vast amounts of folklore, led key national organizations, and articulated some of the clearest early goals for Estonian cultural development.

Carl Robert Jakobson (1841–1882)

Carl Robert Jakobson grew up in the family of a schoolmaster in Torma parish and worked as a teacher, parish clerk, and later a farmer in Kurgja. He became a powerful publicist and educator, publishing the influential newspaper Sakala and authoring modern school textbooks that transformed Estonian educational literature.

As part of this growing identity, the members of EÜS adopted their own symbol. Inspired by the three-colour traditions of German and Baltic German student corporations, EÜS decided in 1881 to choose blue, black, and white as its official colours. Their flag was consecrated in Otepää on 4 June 1884 (old calendar: 23 May). The original flag has been preserved and is now held by the Estonian National Museum.

Over time, this student flag became the most important national symbol of Estonians and eventually the official flag of the Republic of Estonia.

At the same time, “dual power” emerged between institutions loyal to the Provisional Government and radical workers’ and soldiers’ councils, where Bolshevik influence increased. Estonian political parties formed, and national army units were organised under officers such as Aleksander Tõnisson, creating both a political leadership and an Estonian officer corps with war experience.

Using the brief interlude between Russian withdrawal and full German occupation, they proclaimed Estonian independence: the manifesto was first read publicly in Pärnu on 23 February 1918, and the Republic of Estonia was declared in Tallinn on 24 February. Although German occupation followed and refused to recognise the new state, this declaration established the legal and symbolic starting point of Estonian statehood, later defended in the War of Independence.

About the picture: A crowd gathered in front of the Endla Theater on the occasion of the proclamation of the Republic of Estonia on the 23rd of February 1918.

Despite ongoing fighting, elections to the Asutav Kogu were held in 1919, confirming independence and preparing land reform and a democratic constitution. The war on the eastern front ended with a truce on 3 January 1920 and the Tartu Peace Treaty on 2 February 1920, where Soviet Russia recognised Estonia’s independence “forever”, renounced all rights over Estonian land and people, and paid 15 million gold roubles; Estonia gained a secure eastern border. The treaty is often called the “birth certificate” of the Estonian Republic, because it both ended the War of Independence and firmly anchored Estonia in international law.

Laar, M. (2016/2017). Lähiajalugu, II Osa: Õpik Gümnaasiumile (ISBN 9789985222119). Avita.

Laar, M. (2017). Lähiajalugu, III Osa: Õpik Gümnaasiumile (ISBN 9789985222201). Avita.

Laar, M., & Vahtre, L. (2014). Lähiajalugu, I Osa: Õpik Gümnaasiumile (ISBN 9789985221389). Avita.

Lane, T., Pabriks, A., Purs, A., & Smith, I. (1996). The Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Routledge.

Lieven, A. (1993). The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and The Path To Independence. Yale University Press.

Pärn, P. (2018, January 10). Sada Eesti Mõtet: Sitta Kah.
https://kultuur.err.ee/653219/sada-eesti-motet-sitta-kah

Piirimäe, P., Andresen, A., Seppel, M., & Pajur, A. (2015). Eesti Ajaloo Õpik Gümnaasiumile, II Osa: Rootsi Ajast 20. Sajandi Alguseni (ISBN 9789985221716). Avita.

Subrenat, J.-J. (2005). Estonia: Identity And Independence. Rodopi.

Taagepera, R. (1993). Estonia: Return To Independence. Westview Press.

Taylor, N. (2006). Estonia: A Modern History. Hurst & Company.

By the mid-1920s, political life stabilised, and a new national currency, the kroon (1928), brought financial order. Industry modernised, agriculture recovered, and new sectors such as oil shale grew. However, the Great Depression reached Estonia around 1930, collapsing export markets, triggering bankruptcies and unemployment, and fuelling public anger at parliamentary politics. The vaps (Veterans’) movement gained mass support by demanding a powerful president and an end to party politics. After their constitutional reform proposal succeeded in a referendum, political tensions peaked. To prevent the vaps from taking power, Konstantin Päts and Johan Laidoner carried out a bloodless coup on 12 March 1934, banning parties and introducing an authoritarian system known as the “Silent Era”, which lasted until the Soviet occupation in 1940.

When Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941, many Estonians welcomed the conflict, hoping it would end Soviet terror and restore independence. Armed resistance groups, metsavennad (forest brothers), joined German forces to expel the Red Army during the Suvesõda (Summer War). Yet German occupation did not bring freedom: Estonia became part of Reichskommissariat Ostland, the Jewish population was murdered, political life was restricted, and forced mobilisation began, including the formation of the Estonian Legion and many fled to Finland to fight.

As the Red Army returned in 1944, Estonian units took part in the battles of Narva and the Sinimäed, slowing Soviet advances but unable to stop them. With Germany preparing to retreat, Jüri Uluots, acting as the last constitutional leader, appointed Otto Tief’s government on 18 September 1944 in an attempt to restore independence. Four days later, Soviet forces captured Tallinn, the government was arrested or forced abroad, and Estonia entered a renewed Soviet occupation that lasted until 1991.

Everyday life in the late 1940s–50s was marked by poverty, ration cards and constant shortages, with people living mainly on simple potato and root dishes and queuing for basic goods. After Stalin’s death in 1953, some deportees were allowed to return and controls eased slightly under Khrushchev, but political power and key economic decisions remained firmly in Soviet hands.

From the late 1960s, opposition shifted towards dissident activity and legal-looking protest: petitions, underground texts and international appeals such as the Baltic Appeal of 23 August 1979, which demanded publication and annulment of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the removal of foreign troops from the Baltics. Cultural resistance was even broader: people kept Estonian as their main language, maintained pre-war traditions and used song festivals and literature to protect national identity, while everyday life was full of quiet non-cooperation with propaganda.

Under Brezhnev, economic stagnation, renewed Russification (stronger push for Russian in schools and offices) and continued in-migration sharpened fears that Estonians would become a minority in their own country. Together, these layers of armed, political and cultural resistance helped keep the memory of independence alive until late 1980s reforms opened the way for open mass movements.

June 1992 – New constitution approved and Kroon reintroduced

September 1992 – Lennart Meri elected President and Mart Laar becomes Prime Minister

1994 (31 August) – Russian troops withdraw, a symbolic turning point

28 September 1994 – M/S Estonia disaster, resulting in 852 deaths

2004 – Estonia joins NATO and the EU

April 2007 – Bronze Soldier relocated, riots, and cyberattacks

December 2007 – Estonia joins the Schengen Area

1 January 2011 – Estonia adopts the euro

2011 – Tallinn becomes European Capital of Culture

2015-... – Expansion of e-residency and digital-state reforms

2017 – Estonia chairs the EU Council, and the Rail Baltica agreement is signed

2020s-... – Continued democratic stability

About the picture: Estonia is still a newcomer compared with Europe’s older nations. In the work of street artist Edward von Lõngus, Estonians appear as people who have moved rapidly from a rural background into modern life, focused on the future, but maintaining their common sense.