Enciclopedia Cattolica

ESTONIA

Volume V · p. 399 · 1950

English translation · Testo originale italiano

ESTONIA. - Costituisce dal 3 nov. 1940 una delle repubbliche federate dell'Unione Sovietica; già dominio danese, polacco, svedese (1629) e russo (1721), s'era resa indipendente nel 1918.
ESTONIA. - Costituisce dal 3 nov. 1940 una delle repubbliche federate dell'Unione Sovietica; già dominio danese, polacco, svedese (1629) e russo (1721), s'era resa indipendente nel 1918.

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

ESTONIA. — Since 3 November 1940 it has constituted one of the federated republics of the Soviet Union; formerly a Danish, Polish, Swedish (1629) and Russian (1721) dominion, it had become independent in 1918.

I. GEOGRAPHY

The territory (46,200 sq. km.; twice the size of Lombardy) is a strip of the Sarmatic lowland (the small peninsula enclosed between the gulfs of Riga and Finland, which extends inland to Lake Peipus), flat or slightly hilly. Of the population (1.2 million inhabitants, 26 per sq. km.), Estonians (80%) predominate; they are of Finno-Ugric stock and profess Lutheranism. The economy is based on agriculture and livestock (butter and meat), with modest industrial development (textiles, cellulose). The capital Tallinn (Reval; 155,100 inhabitants) is a port on the Gulf of Finland; inland is Tartu (Dorpat; 60,000 inhabitants), an intellectual centre (university).
BIBL.: E. Migliorini, Finlandia - Stati Baltici, Rome 1937; J. Jackson, F., London 1941; E. G. Woods, The Baltic Region. (Russeppe Caraci 1945).