Estonia and Related Topics

Estonian Students' Society

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360° view of the library of the Estonian Students' Society, Tartu

The Estonian Students' Society (Eesti Üliõpilaste Selts; commonly used acronym: EÜS) is the largest and oldest all-male academical student society in Estonia, and is similar to the Baltic German student organizations known as corporations (Corps) (not to be confused with US college fraternities).

Meeting at Hendaye between Franco and Hitler in October 1940.

Neutral powers during World War II

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The neutral powers were countries that remained neutral during World War II.

🇪🇪 Estonia, 🇱🇻 Latvia, and 🇱🇹 Lithuania – The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, jointly declared their neutrality on 18 November 1938, in Riga, at the Conference of Baltic Foreign Ministers with their respective parliaments passing neutrality laws later that year. Despite that, all three of them were occupied twice by the Soviet Union and once by Nazi Germany.

Battle of Lihula

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The Battle of Lihula or Battle of Leal was fought between invading Swedes and Estonians for the control of a castle in Lihula, Estonia in 1220.

Reichskommissariat Ostland

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Established by Nazi Germany in 1941 during World War II.

Soviet operations, 19 August to 31 December 1944

The Greater German Reich (red) and its allies in 1942, with Reichskommissariats

Administrative divisions of Reichskommissariat Ostland

It became the civilian occupation regime in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the western part of Byelorussian SSR.

Estonian Salvation Committee

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The Estonian Salvation Committee (Eestimaa Päästekomitee or Päästekomitee) was the executive body of the Estonian Provincial Assembly that issued the Estonian Declaration of Independence.

Statue representing Europa at Palazzo Ferreria, in Valletta, Malta

Europe

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Landmass, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere.

First map of the world according to Anaximander (6th century BC)

A medieval T and O map printed by Günther Zainer in 1472, showing the three continents as domains of the sons of Noah — Asia to Sem (Shem), Europe to Iafeth (Japheth) and Africa to Cham (Ham)

A New Map of Europe According to the Newest Observations (1721) by Hermann Moll draws the eastern boundary of Europe along the Don River flowing south-west and the Tobol, Irtysh and Ob rivers flowing north

1916 political map of Europe showing most of Moll's waterways replaced by von Strahlenberg's Ural Mountains and Freshfield's Caucasus Crest, land features of a type that normally defines a subcontinent

Paleolithic cave paintings from Lascaux in France ( 15,000 BCE)

Stonehenge in the United Kingdom (Late Neolithic from 3000 to 2000 BCE).

Animation showing the growth and division of the Roman Empire (years CE)

Viking raids and division of the Frankish Empire at the Treaty of Verdun in 843

The maritime republics of medieval Italy reestablished contacts between Europe, Asia and Africa with extensive trade networks and colonies across the Mediterranean, and had an essential role in the Crusades.

Tancred of Sicily and Philip II of France, during the Third Crusade (1189–1192)

The sacking of Suzdal by Batu Khan in 1238, during the Mongol invasion of Europe.

The School of Athens by Raphael (1511): Contemporaries, such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci (centre), are portrayed as classical scholars of the Renaissance.

Habsburg dominions in the centuries following their partition by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The principal military base of Philip II in Europe was the Spanish road stretching from the Netherlands to the Duchy of Milan.

The national boundaries within Europe set by the Congress of Vienna

Marshall's Temple Works (1840), the Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain

Map of European colonial empires throughout the world in 1914.

Map depicting the military alliances of World War I in 1914–1918

Serbian war efforts (1914–1918) cost the country one quarter of its population.

Nazi Germany began a devastating World War II in Europe by its leader, Adolf Hitler. Here Hitler, on the right, with his closest ally, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, in 1940

Bombed and burned-out buildings in Hamburg, 1944/45

The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference in 1945; seated (from the left): Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin

The Schuman Declaration led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community. It began the integration process of the European Union (9 May 1950, at the French Foreign Ministry).

Flag of Europe, adopted by the Council of Europe in 1955 as the flag for the whole of Europe

Map of populous Europe and surrounding regions showing physical, political and population characteristics, as per 2018

Köppen-Geiger climate classification map for Europe.

The Volga, as seen in Yaroslavl. It flows from Central Russia and into the Caspian Sea and is the longest river in Europe.

Mount Elbrus in Southern Russia, is the highest mountain in Europe.

Europa Point as seen from the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates the continents of Europe and Africa, also being between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Danube, as seen in Đerdap National Park. It flows from the Black Forest and into the Black Sea and is the second-longest river in Europe, which also passes through the largest number of countries in the world at 10.

Sutjeska National Park contains Perućica, which is one of the last remaining primeval forests in Europe.

Land use map of Europe with arable farmland (yellow), forest (dark green), pasture (light green) and tundra, or bogs, in the north (dark yellow)

Floristic regions of Europe and neighbouring areas, according to Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch

Biogeographic regions of Europe and bordering regions

A brown bear near the Russian border in the forests of Kainuu, Finland

Once roaming the great temperate forests of Eurasia, European bison now live in nature preserves in Białowieża Forest, on the border between Poland and Belarus.

One of Kosovo's main economical sources is mining, because it has large reserves of lead, zinc, silver, nickel, cobalt, copper, iron and bauxite. Miners at the Trepča Mines in Mitrovica, Kosovo in 2011.

Population growth in and around Europe in 2021

Map purportedly displaying the European continent split along cultural and state borders as proposed by the German organization Ständiger Ausschuss für geographische Namen (StAGN).

Tallinn, the medieval capital of Estonia in the Baltic States, is a mixture of Western and Eastern architectural cultures.

Russia was plunged into the Russian Revolution, which threw down the Tsarist monarchy and replaced it with the communist Soviet Union, leading also to the independence of many former Russian governorates, such as Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as new European countries.

Vaps Movement

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Vaps Movement meeting in Pärnu Estonia, Artur Sirk speaking

The Vaps Movement (Eesti Vabadussõjalaste Keskliit, later Eesti Vabadussõjalaste Liit, vabadussõjalased, or colloquially vapsid, a single member of this movement was called vaps) was an Estonian political organization.

Tharapita

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Prominent god in Estonian mythology, with a strong resemblance to the Finnish Ukko and the Germanic Thor.

The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia mentions Tharapita as the superior god of the Oeselians (inhabitants of Saaremaa), also well known to Vironian tribes in northern Estonia.

Finnish soldiers at the VT-line of fortifications during the Soviet Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive in June 1944

Continuation War

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Conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II.

Finnish flags at half-mast in Helsinki on 13 March 1940 after the Moscow Peace Treaty became public

Vasilievsky Island in Saint Petersburg, pictured in 2017. During the Winter and Continuation Wars, Leningrad, as it was then known, was of strategic importance to both sides.

The geopolitical status in Europe in May 1941:Note how Finland is marked as a German ally.

Joachim von Ribbentrop (right) bidding farewell to Vyacheslav Molotov in Berlin on 14 November 1940 after discussing Finland's coming fate

Finnish, German and Soviet military formations at the start of the Continuation War in June and July 1941

A Bristol Blenheim bomber-aircraft belonging to the Finnish Air Force in March, 1944.

Finnish soldiers crossing the Murmansk railway in 1941

President Risto Ryti giving his famous radio speech about the Continuation War on June 26, 1941.

Subphases of the Finnish invasion of Karelia during the 1941 general offensive. The old 1939 border is marked in grey.

A Finnish military parade next to the Round Tower in Viipuri (now Vyborg, Russia) on 31 August 1941, celebrating its recapture

A Finnish soldier with a reindeer in Lapland. Reindeer were used in many capacities, such as pulling supply sleighs in snowy conditions.

Finnish soldiers crossing the 1940-agreed border (Moscow Peace Treaty) at Tohmajärvi on 12 July 1941, two days after the invasion started

A Soviet prisoner-of-war and a puppy pictured in August 1941 at Lupasalmi (Лубосалма) in Karelia

Finnish soldiers searching for remains of eventual victims at a burned-down house after a Soviet partisan attack on the village of Viianki, in Suomussalmi. The burnt bodies of over ten civilians, including women and children, were found.

The Soviets conducted four attacks in the first half of 1942, all of which were repelled by Finnish and German troops.

Keitel (left), Hitler, Mannerheim and Ryti meeting at Immola Airfield on 4 June 1942. Hitler made a surprise visit in honour of Mannerheim's 75th birthday and to discuss plans.

Soviet women having breakfast next to burning trash at a Finnish concentration camp in Petrozavodsk

Administrative map of Finland and occupied territories 1942–1944

Finnish soldiers in front of a field synagogue

Bombing destruction in Helsinki, the night of 6–7 February 1944.

Finnish soldiers carrying Panzerfäuste on their shoulders pass by the remains of a destroyed Soviet T-34 tank at the Battle of Tali-Ihantala

The front lines on 4 September 1944, when the ceasefire came into effect and two weeks before the war concluded

A Soviet (left) and a Finnish officer compare their watches on 4 September 1944 at Vyborg.

Areas ceded by Finland to the Soviet Union following the Moscow Armistice displayed in red

A memorial close to the Svir River in Russia with "The enemy was stopped here" ("Здесь был остановлен враг") written on it

On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in which both parties agreed to divide the independent countries of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania into spheres of interest, with Finland falling within the Soviet sphere.