WELCOME TO ESTONIA Dagmar Narusson

With an area of sq. km, Estonia is larger for example than Slovenia, Holland, Denmark or Switzerland; a little smaller, in other words, than New Hampshire and Massachusetts combined. Estonia stretches 350 km from east to west and 240 km from north to south. Sea islands form one tenth and lakes about one twentieth of Estonia's territory. Conversely, Estonia's population ranks amongst the smallest in the world: as of January 2000, an estimated people live in Estonia — a density of only 30.2 people per sq. km. ESTONIA

The larger of these in descending order are: the university town of Tartu ( inhabitants); the industrial border town of Narva (68 117); and the summer capital Pärnu (45 040) — the popular vacation destination on the southwestern coast, where summer air and water temperatures can reach those of the Mediterranean region. The closest major city to Tallinn is the Finnish capital Helsinki, located at a distance of 85 km on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Finland. Riga is only one day's drive away (307 km). It's also a relatively short trip to St Petersburg (395 km) and Stockholm (405 km). Tallinn- capital of Estonia Tallinn, with its medieval city centre, is Estonia's capital. Approximately a third of the nation ( people) live in Tallinn and about 67% of the population reside in cities in general.

Estonia has stood on the cultural dividing line between Eastern and Western Europe for centuries, one could even say for millennia. The impact that such a position has had on the characteristic features of the folk culture is tremendous. The Estonian cultural scene can be characterised by a multitude of peculiarities, the origins of which date back to the very distant past. In order to understand Estonian folk culture, it has to be recognised that this is a highly complicated and multilayered way of existence of a small nation who used to belong to the lower social status in its own country. Bridge in Tartu

For a small country like Estonia its political-geographic location means, above all, what are the great powers that surround it. For Estonia, such great powers have been mainly Germany and Russia, but also Sweden during its period of ascendancy in Europe. From the aspect of economic geography, Estonia's location on the Baltic Sea provides the country with a sea connection with many countries, in particular the Baltic Sea countries. Also, Estonia constitutes a part of the North Eastern coast of Europe, through which Northern Russia communicates with the rest of the world. The economic-geographic position of Estonia has changed with the times.

Goverment The 1922 constitution stipulates that executive power in Estonia belongs to the Government of the Republic. The government carries out the country’s domestic and foreign policy, shaped by parliament; it directs and co-ordinates the work of government institutions and bears full responsibility for everything occurring within the authority of executive power. The government, headed by the Prime Minister, thus represents the political leadership of the country and makes decisions in the name of the whole executive power. The large coat of arms

The national colours While the coat of arms has its origin in the times of foreign rule in Estonia, the blue, black and white national colours are much younger and are closely connected to the Estonian people. They date back to the end of the 19th century. At that time, the Baltic states, Finland and the greater part of Poland were under Tsarist rule. The period is known in Estonia as the era of National Awakening. The colours were chosen by a group of young intellectuals in The flag was, at first, the symbol of the Estonian Students’ Society, but it quickly gained a much wider use. The state flag

Population On the threshold of the 21st century, Estonia faces the same problems as all developed European states. Like in Europe, the main trend in population processes is expressed in the ageing of the population. There are, however, several factors that are typical of Estonia only. On the one hand, Estonian indigenous population had no explosive population growth, on the other, the 50-year Soviet occupation has certainly left its impact, together with the immigration from demographically less advanced areas.

Language The ancestors of the Estonians arrived at the Baltic Sea years ago when the mainland glaciers of the last Ice Age had retreated from the area now designated as Estonia. The first settlers who followed the reindeer herds came here from south, from Central Europe. Although the vocabulary and grammar of the language used by people in those days have changed beyond recognition, the mentality of the tundra hunters of thousands of years ago can be still perceived in modern Estonian. The Estonian language belongs to the Finnic branch of Finno- Ugric group of languages. It is not therefore related to the neighbouring Indo-European languages such as Russian, Latvian and Swedish. Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian are the best known of the Finno- Ugric languages. Estonian differs from its closest large related language, Finnish, at least as much as English differs from Frisian. The difference between Estonian and Hungarian is about as significant as between German and Persian.

Education Since the economic and political opening-up of Estonian society in the late 1980s, the broader context in which education functions — its economic, social and cultural environment — has been characterised by change. Estonia has had to cope with transition to a democratic form of government, similarly to other post-socialist countries, and this has been accompanied by continuous institutional changes, the invasion of market relations into most spheres, and a modification of values. In the centre of these changes has been a transition to an information society.

Education (continues) In higher education, the social sciences, business and law are the dominant subjects; for example, in 1999/2000 approximately 41% of all students studied in these fields. The popularity of these disciplines can be explained by their strong ideological bias in the Soviet period. Many economics subjects were not taught at all in those days. On the other hand, the number of students going into law, social sciences, political sciences, economics and public administration has grown because after the restoration of the Estonian Republic the service sector quickly expanded and many highly-paid jobs became available. However, at the turn of the century a surplus of specialists in these areas has been noticeable.

University town - TARTU Tartu is one of the oldest university towns in Europe. In 1632, Swedish King Gustavus II Adolphus decided, on the earnest request of his teacher Johan Skytte, to open Academia Gustaviana here which was the predecessor of the University of Tartu. For centuries, the University of Tartu developed our town into an internationally recognised place for the exchange of knowledge hosting researchers and students from many countries of the world. Tartu Tourist Information Centre

Video of University of Tartu is on the web-page headword: Video of University of Tartu

References: Estonica Encyclopedia about Estonia. [Online]. [ ]. Available from World Wide Web (*comment from web-page: The material available in the web encyclopaedia Estonica can be freely copied and used, as long as this does not serve any business interests.) Tartu University. Tartu Tourist Information Centre. [Online]. [ ]. Available from World Wide Web Video of University of Tartu [Online]. [ ]. Available from World Wide Web