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Democratic throughout most of the interwar period, Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, but the country was repeatedly contested, invaded and occupied, first by Stalinist Soviet Union in 1940, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and ultimately reoccupied in 1944 by, and annexed into, the USSR as an administrative subunit ( Estonian SSR). After the end of World War I, in the 1918–1920 War of Independence, Estonians were able to repel the Bolshevik Russian invasion and successfully defended their newborn freedom. This culminated in the 24 February 1918 Estonian Declaration of Independence from the then warring Russian and German Empires.
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After centuries of successive rule by the Teutonic Order, Denmark, Sweden, and the Russian Empire, a distinct Estonian national identity began to emerge in the mid-19th century. The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last " pagan" civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Papal -sanctioned Livonian Crusade in the 13th century. The land of what is now modern Estonia has been inhabited by humans since at least 9,000 BC.
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The Estonian language is the autochthonous and the official language of Estonia it is the first language of the majority of its population, as well as the world's second most spoken Finnic language. The capital city Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest urban areas of the country. The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland, the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and over 2,200 other islands and islets on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, covering a total area of 45,339 square kilometres (17,505 sq mi). It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia. eu, shared with other member states of the European Union.Įstonia ( Estonian: Eesti ( listen)), officially the Republic of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti Vabariik), is a country in Northern Europe. According to the Constitution of Estonia, Estonian is the sole official language.The Supreme Court and one ministry are based in Tartu.