Estonia's Path to Independence

A curved oak trunk with branches on one side and leaves on the other. The branches symbolise the era of revolution and hardship that preceded Estonia's independence, while the leaves represent the nation's strength, achievements, and longevity. Below left of the trunk the inscription "MAAPÄEV" (the Provincial Diet of Estland) and above it the year "1917". Below right appear the issuing country "EESTI" and the year of issue "2017".

Estonia's history of independence is closely bound up with the great political upheavals of the early 20th century. After centuries under Danish, Swedish, and finally Russian rule, the First World War and the Russian Revolution opened a window for national self-determination. On 24 February 1918, the Estonian Salvation Committee proclaimed the Republic of Estonia in Reval — today's Tallinn. What followed was no peaceful transition: in the Estonian War of Independence (1918–1920), the young country fought simultaneously against Bolshevik troops and Baltic German Landeswehr units. With the Peace of Tartu in February 1920, Soviet Russia became the first great power to recognize Estonian independence — a moment that remains central to Estonian collective memory to this day.

The interwar period brought Estonia a phase of independent statehood that was violently interrupted in 1940 by the Soviet annexation. Only with the collapse of the USSR was Estonia able to proclaim the restoration of its independence on 20 August 1991 — thereby linking back, both legally and symbolically, to the republic of 1918. Accession to NATO and the European Union in 2004 permanently anchored the country within the Western alliance and value framework. In 2017, on the 99th anniversary of the declaration of independence, Estonia honored this path with a 2-euro commemorative coin — one year before the great centenary of 2018, when the republic marked its hundredth birthday.