1.
Estonian language
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Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken natively by about 922,000 people in Estonia and 160,000 outside Estonia. It belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family, Estonian belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages, along with Finnish, Karelian, and other nearby languages. The Uralic languages do not belong to the Indo-European languages, Estonian is distantly related to Hungarian and to the Sami languages. Estonian has been influenced by Swedish, German, and Russian, furthermore, the apocope of word-final sounds is extensive and has contributed to a shift from a purely agglutinative to a fusional language. The basic word order is subject–verb–object, modern standard Estonian has evolved on the basis of the dialects of Northern Estonia. The domination of Estonia after the Northern Crusades, from the 13th century to 1918 by Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the oldest written records of the Finnic languages of Estonia date from the 13th century. Originates Livoniae in Chronicle of Henry of Livonia contains Estonian place names, words, the earliest extant samples of connected Estonian are the so-called Kullamaa prayers dating from 1524 and 1528. In 1525 the first book published in the Estonian language was printed, the book was a Lutheran manuscript, which never reached the reader and was destroyed immediately after publication. The first extant Estonian book is a bilingual German-Estonian translation of the Lutheran catechism by S. Wanradt and J. Koell dating to 1535, an Estonian grammar book to be used by priests was printed in German in 1637. The New Testament was translated into southern Estonian in 1686, the two languages were united based on northern Estonian by Anton thor Helle. Writings in Estonian became more significant in the 19th century during the Estophile Enlightenment Period, the birth of native Estonian literature was in 1810 to 1820 when the patriotic and philosophical poems by Kristjan Jaak Peterson were published. His birthday on March 14 is celebrated in Estonia as the Mother Tongue Day, a fragment from Petersons poem Kuu expresses the claim reestablishing the birthright of the Estonian language, Kas siis selle maa keel Laulutuules ei või Taevani tõustes üles Igavikku omale otsida. In English, Can the language of this land In the wind of incantation Rising up to the heavens Not seek for eternity. Kristjan Jaak Peterson From 1525 to 191714,503 titles were published in Estonian, in modern times Jaan Kross and Jaan Kaplinski remain as two of Estonias best known and most translated writers. Writings in Estonian became significant only in the 19th century with the spread of the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, after the Estonian War of Independence in 1919, the Estonian language became the state language of the newly independent country. In 1945,97. 3% of Estonia considered itself ethnic Estonian, when Estonia was invaded and occupied by the Soviet Union in World War II, the status of the Estonian language changed to the first of two official languages. As with Latvia many immigrants entered Estonia under Soviet encouragement, in the second half of the 1970s, the pressure of bilingualism intensified, resulting in widespread knowledge of Russian throughout the country. The Russian language was termed as ‘the language of friendship of nations’ and was taught to Estonian children, although teaching Estonian to non-Estonians in schools was compulsory, in practice learning the language was often considered unnecessary
2.
Tallinn
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Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland,80 km south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm, from the 13th century until 1918, the city was known as Reval. Tallinn occupies an area of 159.2 km2 and has a population of 444,591, approximately 33% of Estonias total population lives in Tallinn. Tallinn was founded in 1248, but the earliest human settlements date back 5,000 years, making it one of the oldest capital cities of Northern Europe. The initial claim over the land was laid by the Danes in 1219 after a raid of Lyndanisse led by Valdemar II of Denmark. Due to its location, the city became a major trade hub, especially from the 14th to the 16th century. Tallinns Old Town is one of the best preserved cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tallinn is the political, financial, cultural and educational center of Estonia. Often dubbed the Silicon Valley of Europe, it has the highest number of startups per person in Europe and is a birthplace of international companies. The city is to house the headquarters of the European Unions IT agency, providing to the global cybersecurity it is the home to the NATO Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. It is ranked as a city and has been listed among the top 10 digital cities in the world. The city was a European Capital of Culture for 2011, along with Turku in Finland and it has been suggested that Quwri may have denoted a predecessor of the modern city. The earliest names of Tallinn include Kolyvan, which is known from East Slavic chronicles, up to the 13th century, the Scandinavians and Henry of Livonia in his chronicle called the town Lindanisa (or Lyndanisse in Danish, Lindanäs in Swedish and Ledenets in Old East Slavic. It has been suggested that the archaic Estonian word linda is similar to the Votic word lidna. According to this suggestion, nisa would have the meaning niemi, producing Kesoniemi, another ancient historical name for Tallinn in Finnish is Rääveli. The Icelandic Njals saga mentions Tallinn and calls it Rafala, which is a variant of the name Raphael, after the Danish conquest in 1219, the town became known in the German, Swedish and Danish languages as Reval. The name originated from Revelia Revala or Rävala, the adjacent ancient name of the surrounding area and it is usually thought to be derived from Taani-linn, after the Danes built the castle in place of the Estonian stronghold at Lindanisse. However, it could also have come from tali-linna, or talu-linna, the element -linna, like Germanic -burg and Slavic -grad / -gorod, originally meant fortress, but is used as a suffix in the formation of town names
3.
Estonia
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Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea, covering 45,339 km2 of land and water, and is influenced by a humid continental climate. The territory of Estonia has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, in 1988, during the Singing Revolution, the Estonian Supreme Soviet issued the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration in defiance of Soviet rule, and independence was restored on 20 August 1991. Estonia is a parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties. Its capital and largest city is Tallinn, with a population of 1.3 million, it is one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, OECD and Schengen Area. Estonia is a country with an advanced, high-income economy that is among the fastest growing in the EU. Its Human Development Index ranks very highly, and it performs favourably in measurements of economic freedom, civil liberties, the 2015 PISA test places Estonian high school students 3rd in the world, behind Singapore and Japan. Citizens of Estonia are provided with health care, free education. Since independence the country has developed its IT sector, becoming one of the worlds most digitally advanced societies. In 2005 Estonia became the first nation to hold elections over the Internet, in the Estonian language, the oldest known endonym of the Estonians was maarahvas, meaning country people or people of the land. The land inhabited by Estonians was called Maavald meaning Country Parish or Land Parish, one hypothesis regarding the modern name of Estonia is that it originated from the Aesti, a people described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his Germania. The historic Aesti were allegedly Baltic people, whereas the modern Estonians are Finno-Ugric, the geographical areas between Aesti and Estonia do not match, with Aesti being further down south. Ancient Scandinavian sagas refer to a land called Eistland, as the country is called in Icelandic. Early Latin and other ancient versions of the name are Estia and Hestia, esthonia was a common alternative English spelling prior to 1921. Human settlement in Estonia became possible 13,000 to 11,000 years ago, the oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement, which was on the banks of the river Pärnu, near the town of Sindi, in south-western Estonia. According to radiocarbon dating it was settled around 11,000 years ago, the earliest human inhabitation during the Mesolithic period is connected to Kunda culture, which is named after the town of Kunda in northern Estonia. At that time the country was covered with forests, and people lived in communities near bodies of water
4.
Weather vane
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A weather vane, wind vane, or weathercock is an instrument for showing the direction of the wind. They are typically used as an ornament to the highest point of a building. Although partly functional, weather vanes are generally decorative, often featuring the traditional design with letters indicating the points of the compass. Other common motifs include ships, arrows and horses, not all weather vanes have pointers. The word vane comes from the Old English word fana meaning flag, below this was a frieze adorned with the eight Greek wind deities. The eight-metre-high structure also featured sundials, and a clock inside. It dates from around 50 BCE, the oldest existing weather vane with the shape of a rooster is the Gallo di Ramperto, made in 820 CE and now preserved in the Museo di Santa Giulia in Brescia, Lombardy. Pope Leo IV had a cock placed on the Old St. Peters Basilica or old Constantinian basilica. As a result of this, the cock gradually began to be used as a weather vane on church steeples, the Bayeux Tapestry of the 1070s depicts a man installing a cock on Westminster Abbey. One alternative theory about the origin of weathercocks on church steeples is that it was an emblem of the vigilance of the calling the people to prayer. Another theory says that the cock was not a Christian symbol, a few churches used weather vanes in the shape of the emblems of their patron saints. The City of London has two surviving examples, the weather vane of St Peter upon Cornhill is not in the shape of a rooster, but a key, while St Lawrence Jewrys weather vane is in the form of a gridiron. Early weather vanes had very ornamental pointers, but modern wind vanes are usually simple arrows that dispense with the directionals because the instrument is connected to a remote reading station, modern aerovanes combine the directional vane with an anemometer. Co-locating both instruments allows them to use the same axis and provides a coordinated readout, according to the Guinness World Records, the worlds largest weather vane is a Tío Pepe sherry advertisement located in Jerez, Spain. The city of Montague, Michigan also claims to have the largest standard-design weather vane, being a ship and arrow which measures 48 feet tall, a challenger for the title of worlds largest weather vane is located in Whitehorse, Yukon. The weather vane is a retired Douglas DC-3 CF-CPY atop a swiveling support, the weather vane only requires a 5 knot wind to rotate. The term weathervane is also a word for a politician who has frequent changes of opinion. The National Assembly of Quebec has banned use of this term as a slur after its use by members of the legislature
5.
Tallinn Town Hall
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The Tallinn Town Hall is a building in the Tallinn Old Town, Estonia, next to the Town Hall Square. It is the oldest town hall in the whole of the Baltic region, the building is located in the south side of the ancient market square and is 36.8 metres long. The west wall is 14.5 metres in length, and it is a two-storey building with a spacious basement. The vane Old Thomas on the top of the Town Halls tower, the height of the tower is 64 metres. Tallinn Town Hall is located on the Town Hall Square, where the streets Kullassepa street, Dunkri street, one of the shortest streets of Tallinn is Raekoja tänav, which is located behind the Town Hall. The town hall was built by what was then the market square, the town hall square got its current length in the 1370s. Covered with a roof in 1374, the town hall was probably a single-decked stone building with a basement. The attic was used as a storeroom, the facade of this long and narrow building is now a rear wall of the arcade, where you can still see some of the simple statuary framed windows from this time. A Town Hall with a meeting room was firstly mentioned in a Real Estate book in 1322 as a consistorium. Some walls in the part of the modern town hall and seven windows in the basement. In 1364, it was called a playhouse and in 1372 a town hall, the Town council controlled the towns political, economic and partly even parlour action. The Town Hall was often a courthouse and a place to introduce goods, sometimes it was used as a room for theatre. Therefore, it was important to be placed in the heart of the town. In conjunction with the Tallinn Old Town, the Town Hall has been on the UNESCO world Heritage Sites list since 1997, in 2004, Tallinn Town Hall celebrated its 600th birthday. Europa Nostra medal was presented to Tallinn Town Hall at the ceremony on 15 September 2006 by Siim Kallas, Vice President of the European Commission, the Town Hall was initially a building where urban citizens held meetings. It was later used as a government building, a court, the building process of representational town halls started in the 12th century. Usually they were built in the centre of the town, near the market square, the Lübeck Town Hall, the Venetian Doge’s Palace, in Estonia the Town Hall of Narva and of course the Tallinn Town Hall are the most famous ones. The town hall is built out of limestone and the roof out of clay roof tiles
6.
Popinjay (sport)
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Popinjay or Papingo, also called pole archery, is a shooting sport that can be performed with either rifles or archery equipment. The rifle form is a diversion in Denmark, a Scottish variant is also known. The archery form is popular in Belgium and is occasionally in the United Kingdom under the governance of the Grand National Archery Society. In Germany a traditional shooting at wooden birds placed on a pole is called Vogelschießen. These are carried out either with small bore rifles or crossbows, the archery form of popinjay dates back to at least the fifteenth century. The event is believed to have been running since 1483, though the records are only reliable from 1688 when some archers left The Irvine Archers to form kilwinning archers the year previous. In a tradition dating back to 1488, the winner is awarded the Captains Benn, a ribbon worn over the shoulder and across the chest. The prize of an arrow was introduced in 1724, and following that became a perpetual trophy, with a medallion attached each year by the winner commemorating his name. It is officially known as the Papingo Arrow, Popinjay archery is popular in Belgium, but is less common elsewhere. Many Belgian clubs have permanently erected popinjay masts, Popinjay can also be shot horizontally rather than vertically, though this form is even less common. There are no standard rules of popinjay. The definition of rules is left to national archery organisations, the format and rules of popinjay given below are drawn from those defined for the United Kingdom by the Grand National Archery Society. The specific rules are given in the GNAS Rules of Shooting 2006, the object of popinjay is to knock artificial birds off their perches. The perches are cross-pieces on top of a 90-foot mast, the cock is set on the top cross piece. Four smaller hens are set on the next crosspiece down, two dozen or so chicks are set on the lower cross pieces. The archer stands near the base of the mast and shoots arrows upwards at the birds, the arrows are tipped with rubber blunts rather than sharp points. The blunts are between 0.75 inches and 1-inch in diameter, points are scored for each bird knocked off. Typically, the archer scores 5 points for the cock,3 points for a hen and 1 point for a chick, in Manitoba, Canada, the sport is called Pole Archery & there are currently 3 clubs shooting Vertical
7.
Baltic Germans
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The Baltic Germans are ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their resettling from Estonia and Latvia during the upheavals and aftermath of the Second World War, the largest groups of present-day descendants of the Baltic Germans are found in Germany and Canada. It is estimated that several thousand still reside in Latvia and Estonia, for centuries Baltic Germans and the Baltic nobility were a ruling class over native “Undeutsche” serfs. The emerging Baltic-German middle class was mostly urban and professional, in the 12th and 13th centuries Germans, both traders and crusaders, began settling in the eastern Baltics. After the Livonian Crusade they assumed control of government, politics, economics, education, with the decline of Latin, German became the language of all official documents, commerce, education and government. After 1710 many of these increasingly took high positions in the military, political and civilian life of the Russian Empire, Baltic Germans held citizenship of the Russian Empire until 1918 and Estonian or Latvian citizenship until 1939–40. The Baltic German population never surpassed more than 10% of the total population, in 1881 there were 180,000 Baltic Germans in Russias Baltic provinces, but by 1914 this number had declined to 162,000. In 1881 there were approximately 46,700 Germans in Estonia, according to the Russian Empire Census of 1897, there were 120,191 Germans in Latvia, or 6. 2% of the population. Baltic German history and presence in the Baltics came to an end in late 1939, following the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, almost all the Baltic Germans were resettled by Nazi Germany under the Heim ins Reich program into the newly formed Reichsgaue Wartheland and Danzig-West Prussia. In 1945, most were expelled from these lands by the Soviet army, ethnic Germans from East Prussia and Lithuania are sometimes incorrectly considered Baltic Germans for reasons of cultural, linguistic, and historical affinities. However, the Germans of East Prussia held Prussian, and after 1871, Baltic Germans were not a purely German ethnic group. The early crusaders, tradesmen and craftsmen often married local females, some noble families, like Lievens, even claimed descent from native chieftains. Many of the German Livonian Order soldiers died during the Livonian war, during this time the Low German of the original settlers was replaced by the High German. In those cases where intermarriage occurred, the ethnic group frequently assimilated into German culture, adopting language, customs. They were then considered Germans, leading to the ethnogenesis of the Baltic Germans, barclay de Tolly and George Armitstead, who arrived from the British Isles, became part of the Baltic-German community. Livland, roughly the half of present-day Estonia and the northern and eastern part of todays Latvia, major towns, Riga, Wenden, Wolmar, Walk, Dorpat, Pernau. Kurland, roughly the half of present-day Latvia, major towns. Ösel belonging to present-day Estonia, major town, Arensburg, after the heavy defeat in the 1236 Battle of Saule the Livonian Brothers of the Sword became a part of the Teutonic Order
8.
Bombing of Tallinn in World War II
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The German Luftwaffe and Soviet Long Range Aviation bombed the Estonian capital Tallinn several times during World War II. The first instance was during the Summer War of 1941, a number of bombing missions followed in 1942–43. The largest of the bombings occurred in March 1944 in connection with the Battle of Narva and is known as March bombing. Thousands of Soviet bombs set the town on fire, killed 757 people, of whom 586 were civilians and 75 prisoners of war, wounded 659, Tallinn was bombed on several occasions during May and September,1942. During 1943, several bombing missions were performed by the Red Air Force on Tallinn in February, March, May, August, the heaviest of the air assaults was on 9 March. A week before, the Mayor of Tallinn had given an order to the city dwellers to leave the town, the extent of the attack was beyond the expectations of the local people and the headquarters of the Army Group North. A bombing run consisting of 300 aircraft dropping 3068 bombs,1725 of them explosive and 1300 incendiary, the fire brigades were scarce on water, as Soviet saboteurs had blown up the city pumping station before the air raid. Military damage was minor, with a few military installations and supply stores destroyed, the major military loss was the burning of a million litres of fuel in the fuel depot. Of the enterprises with some importance, the Luther plywood factory. Most of the fell on the dwellings and public buildings, including the Estonia Theatre, St. Nicholas Church, the city synagogue, four cinemas. A large part of the wooden suburbs burnt down and the city suffered major damage. According to the report,757 people were killed, of whom 586 were civilians,50 were military personnel. 213 had serious injuries,446 had minor injuries, amongst the injured were 65 military servicemen and 75 prisoners-of-war. Later, more victims were found, with the number of estimated at up to 800. More than 20,000 people were left without a shelter in the spring thaw, immediately after the bombing raid Finnish air force bombers followed returning Soviet bombers to three military airbases near Leningrad and bombed them. Regardless of Soviet intentions, the civilian casualty toll of the raids had significantly increased the hostility of the Estonian public towards the Soviet army. On 27 February, a Soviet air raid had hit children playing in the yard of Luunja Parish. The date of their burial was turned into a memorial day
9.
Toompea Castle
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Toompea Castle is a castle on Toompea hill in the central part of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The castle, an ancient stronghold site in use since at least the 9th century, according to a myth, the whole hill of Toompea was made by Linda, who built it boulder-by-boulder with her own hands. For reasons associated with this legend, Tallinn is sometimes referred to as Lyndanisse in Estonian. The more prosaic truth is that settlers during the time of ancient Estonia made use of the hill as an easily defended stronghold. Over time, the place developed into a commercial hub. It was probably one of the first inhabited areas of what later became Tallinn, in 1219, the castle was taken over by Danish crusaders led by Valdemar II. According to a popular Danish legend, the very first flag of Denmark fell from the sky during a stage of the battle. This first proper castle was referred to as the Castle of the Danes, in Latin Castrum Danorum, from the latter, the modern name of the city of Tallinn is possibly derived. In 1227, the castle was taken over by the Order of the Brethren of the Sword, the castle they started building is to a large extent the castle that is visible today. The castle again befell the Danes just ten years later, but was sold to the Teutonic Order in 1346, as the crusading Teutonic Order was a religious order, the castle came to resemble a monastery in several ways. It included a chapel, a house and a dormitory for the knights. Tall Hermann is 48 metres tall and dominates the castle skyline, the flag of Estonia is hoisted at the top of the tower every day at sunrise, to the sound of the national anthem, and lowered at sunset. By 1561, northern Estonia had become a Swedish dominion, the Swedes transformed the castle from a crusaders fortress into a ceremonial and administrative centre of political power in Estonia, a purpose the castle has served ever since. In 1710, Sweden lost the territory of modern-day Estonia to the Russian Empire, the Russian administration eventually carried out large reconstruction schemes and turned the castle definitively into a palace. A new dominating wing in Baroque and Neoclassical style, designed by Johann Schultz, was added in the part of the castle complex. It housed the administration of the Governorate and the quarters of the governor. During the czarist era, a park was also laid out to the south-east of the castle. Following the Estonian Declaration of Independence in 1918, a building to house the parliament of the republic was erected at the site of the convent building of the Teutonic Order
