Today 90 years ago Russia agreed to renounce in perpetuity all rights to the territory and sovereignty of the Republic of Estonia. On the 2nd February, 1918, the Tartu Peace Treaty between Soviet Russia and the Republic of Estonia was signed.
The Tartu Peace Treaty ended the Estonian War of Independence that lasted from 1918 to 1920. It is one of the two wars in the entire history that Russia has ever lost.
The terms of the …

Estonian brothers Kaur and Kaspar Kallas invented the first known 3D film camera in the world, the country’s national broadcasting ERR reported.
“We have no knowledge that such technology would exist anywhere else in the world,” Kaur Kallas said.
Together with camera maker Silicon Imaging the brothers produced a three kilogram device that can record and replay 3D image.
James Cameron’s Avatar animation was filmed in old-fashioned way – with two parallel cameras. However, his next 3D film …

An Estonian bus driver and trade union activist embezzled 33,3 million Estonian kroons (£1.912m) from the country’s revenue and customs service in half a year, and no one knows where this money is, newspaper Postimees reports.
Court sentenced Vadim Shamrai to three years in prison this week. However, he is apparently unable to pay back the embezzled funds, as all he has are two used vehicles – a BMW and a Mercedes, that are worth certainly …

Almost 10 per cent of Estonian voters cast their votes electronically in this year’s local councils’ elections, which is an absolute record in this tiny Northern European country.
104,415 people gave their votes electronically, using the country’s innovative ID-cards for voting. That is about 9.6% of the total voters in the local councils’ election.
In European Parliament election, in June this year, only 58,669 people gave their votes electronically.
Estonian electronic voting is possible thanks to the ID-cards …

I promised to write about my thoughts, emotions and observations about Estonia. Perhaps it’s an interesting read for my Estonian readers who haven’t had the pleasure to be away from there for almost two years straight, but also maybe for others – expatriates, people who consider moving away from their native countries, and people who have never thought of leaving their countries and never will.
Let it be noted that I was born in Estonia and …

Liberal Democrat Lembit Öpik’s great-uncle Oskar Öpik was a senior member of Estonian nazi puppet government during the nazi occupation and was accused of collaborating in crimes against humanity.
The Daily Mail has exclusive photos of Oskar Öpik giving the nazi salute as a senior member of the nazi regime in Estonia, and on another photo Öpik is pictured being sworn in as a member of the nazi directorate in 1943. Oskar Öpik was the politician …

This is a house in Tallinn, near the centre of the city. It’s an old cellulose factory that was turned into an apartment building some years ago. But apparently the problem that it’s built on top of radon (which is a radioactive gaseous chemical element and extremely dangerous to one’s health) is a minor one, considering it was probably designed by a drunk and/or idiot architect. It’s a real architectural perversion.

What did you do 15 years ago today? Do you remember 28th September 1994 clearly like it was yesterday?
Most people in the world probably don’t. But there are about 1.4 million who know this date exactly and remember in details what they did on that day.
I was in 11th grade in high school. School started at 7:45am and I usually woke up at 6:30. I turned on the news on Finnish TV (I liked Finnish …

On 18th October, local elections take place in all Estonia’s counties, towns and cities (well, city). Estonian election campaigns have always been quite… colourful might be the right word. Mostly the campaign ads tell people how everyone is bad, except the specific advertiser. Well, not all, but many resort to this. Election debates and shows on TV are quite loud and everyone accuses everyone else. Taking responsibility in Estonian political system is almost non-existing.
But that …

A 34-year-old Estonian woman considered the local highway code too complicated to learn and decided to drive around without completing the course and passing the exams.
The woman, only named Ene by newspaper Virumaa Teataja, had been fined by the police several times for driving without a licence, and yesterday the county court sentenced her to 5 days shock arrest.
The last time the woman was caught by the police was on Tuesday morning, when she was …

Despite that Russia’s propaganda machine tried to claim earlier that they arrested four Estonian citizens for “hijacking” the Russian vessel Arctic Sea, Estonian Security Police says that actually only one of the so-called “pirates” is an Estonian citizen, however, five others are Estonian residents.
According to the Estonian Security Police, Russian authorities have arrested six Estonian residents – two Russian citizens, one Estonian citizen and three people without a citizenship, Estonian Daily Newspaper reports.
All the people …

Russian authorities say that Estonian, Latvian and Russian men were behind the hijacking of the ship Arctic Sea that disappeared in the English Channel and was recovered west of Senegal.
Russia’s Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that eight armed men stormed the Arctic Sea in Swedish waters and took control of the vessel, according to The Times.
Serdyukov said that the eight hijackers were still on board with the 15-man crew when the Russian navy and air …

Nothing is sacred for some people, apparently: one of many afterparties after Madonna’s concert in Estonia’s capital Tallinn was held in an active Lutheran church.
The afterparty in Tallinn’s Church of the Holy Spirit took place on 4th August, after Madonna had given her first concert in this tiny Nordic republic. Church officials, including reverend Gustav Piir, said that the event was unplanned – as there was a private birthday party in the churchyard, and then …

Today 90 years ago, on 23rd June 1919, the Estonian forces and their allies defeated German forces, who sought to re-assert German control over the Baltics. The battle of Võnnu (Cesis) was an important milestone in Estonian War of Independence. Today, Victory Day, celebrated on 23rd of June, marks the contributions of all Estonians in their fight to regain and retain their independence.
Here’s an overview of the events after I World War and during Estonian …

And times like this make me glad I don’t live in this country any more. Turns out that Estonian Centre Party, the most left populist party in Estonia and the only party in the country who has a co-operation agreement with United Russia – the Putin’s party – got two seats in today’s European Parliament elections. The Centre Party (don’t let the name fool you) is the most hated party in Estonia, and nevertheless it …

Estonian blue-black-white tricolour flag celebrates its 125th birthday today. It was on 4th of June, 1884 when the Estonian Students’ Society – the authors of the flag – consecrated it in the hall of the pastorate of Otepää.
Years later, when Estonia was trying to break off from Russian Empire, that flag became a symbol of nationalism (in the positive sense) and independence. When the Declaration of Independence was issued on 24th of February, 1918, this …