News and features about Estonia and Estonians
When the Estonian entrepreneur, Rainer Nõlvak, announced his team wants to bring together 50,000 Estonians to clean up the entire country from illegal waste in just one day, there was a lot of disbelief. Something like this had never been done anywhere in the world.* Back in 2007, nobody had an idea how much illegal […]
A crazy Estonian idea urges people to clean up their countries in one day Read More »
Estonian writer Anton Hansen Tammsaare wrote in his most famous book, “Truth and Justice”, that one must work hard and love will follow. Piret Kuusik contemplates about the true meaning of this wisdom – and says that Tammsaare thought it with irony. When I was a child, I remember my grandmother saying, “Work hard, then comes love”. From
“Work hard, then comes love”– really? Read More »
An oak tree in the Estonian island of Saaremaa has been voted the European Tree of the Year. Nearly two hundred thousand people from all over Europe took part in the voting of the European Tree of the Year contest. The winner, with 60,000 votes, is a 150-year-old oak tree on a football field in
Oak tree in Estonia named the European Tree of the Year 2015 Read More »
Estonia’s Swedes survived revolution, invasion and exile. Their struggles tell the story of 20th-century Europe. In 1993 I found myself living on a former collective farm in a remote border protection zone in western Estonia. The place was like small collective farms everywhere in the Soviet Union: there was a cultural hall, a school, a
Minority report: the plight of Estonia’s ethnic Swedes Read More »
Tomas Alexandersson, a young Swede, who moved to Tallinn, started collecting the postcards and travel brochures of the Soviet-era Estonia, ultimately dedicating an entire website to it. During the Soviet occupation of Estonia, there was only one official travel agency in the Soviet Union – Intourist. Founded in 1929 by Joseph Stalin, it was first staffed
20 pictures of Soviet-era Estonia Read More »
For the past six years, the Estonian winter capital, Otepää, has played host to a sauna marathon where hundreds of competitors sweat to visit as many of the outposts as possible in the shortest time. The European Sauna Marathon, as it’s called, will be held for the sixth time on 22 February. Participants have to
The world’s biggest sauna marathon to take place in Estonia Read More »
In “Expats corner” we catch up with foreigners who live or have lived in Estonia, to find out what they really think of the country. Scott Diel, originally from the United States, is a colourful and charismatic writer and journalist who runs Slothrop’s – the first and only second-hand English/foreign language bookshop in the Estonian capital.
An expat in Tallinn, Scott Diel, tells Estonians to “dream bigger” Read More »
Entering its third year, Estonian World is more popular than ever. We take a look back at the top 10 most popular stories in 2014. When we posted our first article on a beautiful summer day in July 2012, at a local cafe in Camden Town, London, we could not have possibly imagined that two
Estonian World’s ten most popular stories in 2014 Read More »
Estonian World’s authors choose the events that have, in their opinion, shaped the life of Estonians and their country most this year. Claire Millard “Koos” “Koos” – shorthand for kooseluseadus, the civil partnership act, which passed this year into a law in Estonia. Translated directly as “living together law”, the act covers both heterosexual
The most important events for Estonia in 2014 – as chosen by Estonian World Read More »
New York’s Times Square gave a grand welcome to an Estonian business delegation, led by Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas, in the morning of 12 December 2014. The delegation also visited NASDAQ, the largest stock exchange in the United States. I Credit: Siiri Lind and Stenbock House.
PICTURES: e-Estonia takes over Times Square in NYC Read More »
