Estonia
From dKosopedia
Estonia is a country in northeastern Europe, on the coast of the Baltic Sea, between Russia and Latvia. On May 9 (Europe Day) 2006, the Estonian Parliament voted 73 to 1 (with no abstentions) to join the European Union as its 15th Member State.
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Population
Tallinn is the capital and largest city. The country has a small population of 1.3 million people. About two thirds of the population are ethnic Estonians, with the rest from the other former Soviet republics, mainly Russia, who predominantly live in the capital Tallinn. There is also a small group of Finnish descent. The ethnic Russians often complain of discrimination in employment and education by the majority ethnic Estonians.
The country's official language is Estonian, which is closely related to Finnish and Mordvinian, the minority language in Russia. Russian is also widely spoken. Roughly 30% of the population speaks Russian as a first and in some cases only langauge.
A majority of the ethnic Estonians are assumed to be at least nominally Lutheran, whereas the ethnic Russians are assumed to be at least nominally Eastern Orthodox. As in neighboring Finland, traditional European paganism also survives.
After a brief period of independence between World War I and World War II, Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union. It regained its freedom on August 20, 1991, and immediately reoriented itself towards the West, joining NATO and the European Union in 2004.
Elites
- President Arnold Ruutel
- Prime Minister Andrus Ansip
- Foreign Minister Urmas Paet
- Economic Minister Edgar Savisaar
- Interior Minister Kalle Laanet
- Marje Jossing, Director of the Estonian Institute of Economic Research
- Rein Taagepera
- Marju Purin
E-stonia as Silicon Outpost in the Baltic
"Fired with a free-market fervor and hurtlign into the high tech future, Estonia feels more like a Baltic outpost of Silicon Valley than of Europe," gushes Mark Landler in "A Land of northern Lights, Cybercafes and the Flat Tax." The New York Times. December 21, 2005.
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