Estonia
Country in N Europe, bounded E by Russia, S by Latvia, and N and W
by the Baltic Sea.
Government
The 1992 constitution provides for a democratic parliamentary political
system, with a strong presidency. There is a 101-member, popularly
elected parliament (Riigikogu), serving a four-year term. Parliament
elects the president, who must be an Estonian citizen by birth
and at least 40 years old, for a maximum of two consecutive five-year
terms. The president appoints the prime minister.
History
Independent states were formed in the area now known as Estonia during
the 1st century AD. In the 13th century southern Estonia came
under the control of the Teutonic Knights, German crusaders, who
converted the inhabitants to Christianity. The Danes, who had
taken control of northern Estonia, sold this area to the Teutonic
Knights in 1324.
By the 16th century German nobles owned much of the land. In
1561 Sweden took control of the north, with Poland governing the
south; Sweden ruled the whole country between 1625 and 1710. Estonia
came under Russian control in 1710, but it was not until the 19th
century that the Estonians started their movement for independence.
Struggle for independence
Estonia was occupied by German troops during World War I. The Soviet
forces, who tried to regain power in 1917, were overthrown by
Germany in March 1918, restored in Nov 1918, and again overthrown
with the help of the British navy in May 1919, when Estonia, having
declared independence in 1918, was established as a democratic
republic. A fascist coup in 1934 replaced the government.
Soviet republic In 1939 Germany and the USSR secretly agreed
that Estonia should come under Russian influence and the country
was incorporated into the USSR as the Estonian Soviet Socialist
Republic in 1940. During World War II Estonia was again occupied
by Germany between 1941 and 1944, but the USSR subsequently regained
control.
Renewed nationalism
Nationalist dissent grew from 1980. In 1988 Estonia adopted its own
constitution, with a power of veto on all Soviet legislation.
The new constitution allowed private property and placed land
and natural resources under Estonian control. An Estonian popular
front (Rahvarinne) was established in Oct 1988 to campaign for
democratization, increased autonomy, and eventual independence,
and held mass rallies. In Nov of the same year Estonia's supreme
soviet (state assembly) voted to declare the republic ` sovereign´
and thus autonomous in all matters except military and foreign
affairs, although the presidium of the USSR's supreme soviet rejected
this as unconstitutional. In 1989 a law was passed replacing Russian
with Estonian as the main language and in Nov of that year Estonia's
assembly denounced the 1940 incorporation of the republic into
the USSR as `forced annexation´.
Multiparty elections
Several parties had sprung up by the elections of March 1990 - the
Popular Front, the Association for a Free Estonia, and the Russian-
oriented International Movement - and a coalition government was
formed. A plebiscite in the spring of 1991 voted 77.8% in favour
of independence. By the summer the republic had embarked on a
programme of privatization. The prices of agricultural products
were freed in July 1991.
Independence
On 20 Aug 1991, in the midst of the attempted anti-Gorbachev coup in
the USSR, during which Red Army troops were moved into Tallinn
and the republic's main port was blocked by the Soviet navy, Estonia
declared its full independence and outlawed the Communist Party.
In Sept 1991 this declaration was recognized by the Soviet government
and Western nations; the new state was granted membership of the
United Nations.
Economic hardship
In Jan 1992 prime minister Edgar Savisaar and his cabinet resigned
after failing to alleviate food and energy shortages. Tiit Vahi,
the former transport minister, formed a new government and in
June a new constitution was approved by referendum. The Sept 1992
presidential election failed to produce a clear winner, and in
the parliamentary elections no single party won an overall majority.
Parliament chose nationalist Lennart Meri of the Fatherland Group
as the new president in Oct 1992. Meri appointed Mart Laar as
prime minister, a free-marketeer, who, aged 31, referred to himself
as `Thatcher's grandson´. The new administration embarked on an
ambitious programme of market-centred economic reform, involving
large- scale privatization, and from 1994 there were signs of
economic growth. However, cutbacks in social spending and passage
of a controversial `aliens´ law, compelling the republic's 500,000
former Soviet citizens to apply for residency or face expulsion,
led to a dramatic slump in popular support for the government
and in Sept 1994 Laar was voted out of office by parliament, and
replaced by Andres Tarand. The last Russian troops were withdrawn
in Aug 1994.
Ex-communists restored to power
Economic hardship, largely a result of the on-going economic-reform
programme, led to former communists winning the largest number
of seats in the March 1995 elections. A coalition government was
formed under their leader, Tiit Vahi. It was expected to adopt
a ` social market´ strategy and to improve relations with Russia,
but in the event it remained committed to further integration
into Western and European institutions, signing a trade and cooperation
agreement with the European Union in June. The government collapsed
in Oct, following a wiretapping scandal involving interior minister
Edgar Savisaar, and a new coalition, incorporating centre-right
parties, was formed under Vahi.
In Sept 1996 Lennart Meri was re- elected president after three
previous rounds of unsuccessful voting. The ruling coalition of
the Reform Party and the Coalition Party and Rural bloc (KMU,
an alliance of Vahi's Coalition Party and the Rural Union, the
Union of Families and Pensioners, and the MU) collapsed in Nov
1996 when six Reform Party ministers resigned from the cabinet.
This followed the signing of local agreements between the Coalition
Party and the opposition Centre Party, which broke the Reform
Party's hold on the Tallinn city council. Vahi continued in office,
heading a minority KMU government which controlled only 41 seats
in the 101-member legislature. However, in Feb 1997 Vahi, who
had been accused by the opposition of corruption, resigned as
prime minister and was replaced by Mart Siimann, the deputy chairman
of the Coalition Party, whose new coalition government included
the Reform Party.
In July 1997 the European Commission decided to include Estonia
into a group of countries invited to participate in talks concerning
their integration with the EU.
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