Conference turris::scandia

    
    And if you don't mind me asking,
    Who are the Estonians ?
    Is Estonia part of a province in...?
    
    Thanx.
    k@b.
    

    Estonia was a Swedish possession from the later half of the 16th
    century until the early 18th century. I believe it is now in Soviet
    hands.

Estonia is one of the baltic countries  (the other two being Lithuania and
Latvia) that extend from Poland to Finland along the Baltic.  They are now
part of the USSR (and not very happy about it -- a lot of the nationalistic
protests going on over their under Glasnost are in the Baltic states).

The language and culture there, as I understand it, is related to that of 
Finland.

Chad

    RE: 2 & 3
    
    Thanks for the geography, I previously thought it was an independent 
    nation. 
    
    Gracias/merci/thanx.
    
    
    k@b.
    

Group soc.culture.nordic
article 382 [Excerpted]
                                                                     
From: [email protected] (Anders Andersson)
Subject: Baltic connections (was Re: Hungarian, Estonian...)
Organization: Uppsala University, Sweden                    

    Estonia and Latvia have historical bonds to Sweden, from their time as
    the Baltic provinces of Livonia and Kurland (English name for that?).
    According to concordant sources, the time of Swedish rule is generally
    rumored among the locals as "the good time" when compared to the rule
    of German crusaders, Russian czars and now Soviet occupation. The
    University of Tartu (former Dorpat), Estonia, was founded by King
    Gustav II Adolf in 1632 (he died later the same year).

    The rumor may very well be true, but it's sort of embarrassing to hear
    for someone who has learned to know this period of Swedish imperialism
    as a time when our monarchs led troops to death and destruction to
    either their enemies or themselves down on the continent, and even more
    so considering the relative ignorance shown towards the Baltic
    republics since WWII.

    Fortunately, things have changed recently. While Mr. Donahue has been
    busy hosting TV bridges between Washington and Moscow, we have had our
    own bridge between Stockholm and Tallinn. It was pretty easy for us:
    All the six guests in the Estonian studio spoke perfect Swedish, and
    were urging us to make space for the imminent Estonian embassy in
    Stockholm...

    Some voices have been heard advocating the formal admittance of Estonia
    into the cooperative bodies of the Nordic countries, but sofar the
    Nordic Council has rejected the idea -- at least for the present.

    From: [email protected] (Salmela Jarmo)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Lithuania & Sweden (and maybe even Finland)
    Date: 24 Mar 90 12:06:35 GMT
    Organization: Tampere University of Technology, Finland
 
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] ((Timo
Eronen), University of Turku, Finland.) writes: >In article
<[email protected]>, [email protected] writes: 
 
>> Would Finland recognize Estonia if they declared their independence
from the USSR?
	>The people yes, but unfortunately the politicians no.
 
    What is an independent country? Usually Finland do not recognize
    different goverments (and political systems), and also it is expected
    that the independant country should have some kind of territority of
    its own.
 
    Namibia is now an idependent country. A week ago it was not. Are the
    'countries' inside SouthAfrica independant? They are recognized by the
    goverment of South Africa...
 
    I think that people remains the same regardless the goverment and the
    name of country.
 
    The goverment of USSR is reacting against the independence of baltic
    countries, and that is quite natural. Those areas have relatively good
    economical situation, and USSR has plenty of troops located there. And
    because of Poland, it is expected that they have military interest to
    keep the troops there.
 
    Nobody wants to have Nothern Ireland also here near Baltic. We have
    enough problems with the enviromental catastrof, and the dying of the
    Baltic Sea.
 
    terv, - jarmo salmela
 
   Disclaimer: Opinios are my opinions, my employers have own opinions.
   Kirjoituksessa esitetyt n�kemykset ja suositukset eiv�t ole
   ty�nantajani tai kenenk��n muun virallisia kommentteja.
      "I must remember to be cheerful and obedient."

	Experience Russia and the  Baltic Republic of Estonia through
the eyes of three Digital Employees.

	In the fall of 89, we had the opportunity to visit Russia and
Estonia as citizen diplomats.  Thru the sponsorship of Bridges for Peace
we were the guests of the Soviet Peace Committee for two weeks and traveled
to Moscow and Estonia.  We had the unique experience of living with Estonian
families in their homes for several days during our visit.

	You are invited to come and hear about our experiences and see our
souveniers (including some slides).   QUESTIONS WELCOME

		WHEN:  April 9, 1990 at 12:00 noon
		WHERE:  Babbage Auditorium, ZK01
		WHO:  Marylyn Colburn, Pat Cox, Bob Ross

    Estonia is independent AGAIN!!! After 51 years of opression Estonia
    reached it's independancy again 22-aug-1991. Horray!!
    
    
    	Jaak Arendi
    

   From: [email protected] (Erkki Ruohtula)            
   Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
   Subject: Estonian & Finnish (Re: Denmark to open Embassies...)
   Date: 30 Aug 91 15:36:49 GMT
   Sender: [email protected] (USENET at noknic)
   Organization: /user1/u2/eru/.organization
  
   In article <[email protected]>
   [email protected] (Anders Engwall) writes:

    >
    >Are Finnish and Estonian mutually understandable, like 
    >Swedish/Norwegian/Danish?
 
    Almost. The difference is perhaps bigger than the difference of Swedish
    and Danish, but as a native Finnish speaker, I can usually get some
    idea of what is being talked about in Estonian, without having studied
    it. However, there are lots of pitfalls: many similar-sounding words
    have totally different meanings, or almost similar meanings but
    different connotations...
 
    Based on this, some Estonians recently published an amusing dictionary
    called "Soome-eesti eksityssonastik/Suomi-viro eksytyssanakirja"
    ("Finnish-Estonian Misleading Dictionary", I probably misspelled the
    Estonian version of the name, before the slash). Actually, when Finns
    travel to Estonia, they usually do not have much language problems,
    because the people there often know Finnish, especially in those
    regions where the Finnish television is visible. It is interesting to
    see if this continues to be true in the future.  Maybe after some
    decades we will prefer English for mutual conversation :-(

   --
   Erkki Ruohtula     / Nokia Telecommunications
   [email protected] / P.O. Box 33 SF-02601 Espoo, Finland
   (My private opinions, of course.)

	The "language-group" consists of Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian
	and 3 or 4 very small languages (ie small = internationally unkown).

	As .9 stated Finnish and Estonian are very much alike but
	still not because of the same words meaning different things .
	As an example:
	The Finnish word hallitus means government and the Estonian
	word hallitus means mould ;-).



			Jaak