In a world where music often speaks louder than words, Arvo Pärt’s compositions resonate with profound, almost spiritual clarity, and his minimalist approach, characterised by hauntingly beautiful harmonies and meditative silence, redefines the classical genre and invites listeners into an intimate dialogue of love and transcendence; here is a visual retrospective of Pärt through the years.

Arvo Pärt was born on 11 September 1935, in the Estonian provincial town of Paide, but his parents separated and, before the onset of the war, the mother and son moved to Rakvere. The childhood and early youth of the future composer were spent in the tranquil milieu of that small town.

Continue reading Arvo Pärt: a visual retrospective at Estonian World.

Aino Lepik von Wirén, Estonia’s ambassador to the Council of Europe, will chair the group preparing a special court to prosecute those bearing the greatest responsibility for launching Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Ambassador Aino Lepik von Wirén was elected on Wednesday to chair the Council of Europe’s working group on the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. The decision was taken in Strasbourg by the permanent representatives of the Council’s member states, acting on behalf of their foreign ministers.

Her appointment gives Estonia a prominent role in one of Europe’s most significant attempts to establish individual criminal responsibility for the decision to wage war.

Continue reading Estonian envoy elected to lead work on tribunal for Russia’s invasion at Estonian World.

The Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt, has become the first Estonian to receive the Goethe Medal, one of Germany’s most prestigious cultural honours, recognising a body of work that has touched and connected listeners around the world.

Arvo Pärt has spent much of his creative life exploring what can emerge from silence. In Weimar, Germany, that pursuit was honoured with the Goethe Medal – an official decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany and the country’s most important award for international cultural exchange.

Pärt received the medal alongside the Italian translator Anita Raja and the Greek theatre director Prodromos Tsinikoris at a ceremony on 28 August, the birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Continue reading Arvo Pärt becomes the first Estonian to receive Germany’s Goethe Medal at Estonian World.

07 September 2026 – 13 September 2026

Not sure where to be this week? Every week, in partnership with Gamma, we present a hand-picked selection of the five most compelling events taking place in and around Tallinn – it’s time to plan your week with purpose.

“Could have been an email” comedy show

Ratas & Kohv Hipodroomi, Tallinn

Tuesday, 8 September, from 7pm

This improvised comedy show dives headfirst into the glorious, soul-crushing absurdity of corporate life: onboarding sessions, culture decks, vision statements, the “one big family” that definitely isn’t a family and the promised pizza that never arrives.

Continue reading Your Tallinn hit list: the top 5 events this week at Estonian World.

Estonia remains among the world’s top 10 education systems, according to the OECD’s latest PISA results; its 15-year-olds outperformed the OECD average in science, maths and reading, but the country’s reading score has fallen to its lowest level since Estonia first took part in the assessment.

More than 760,000 students in 91 countries and economies took part in PISA 2025, which measures how well 15-year-olds can apply their knowledge to unfamiliar problems.

Estonian students scored 527 points in science, 508 in mathematics and 499 in reading. A new assessment of computational problem-solving produced a score of 541. When non-OECD participants and the Chinese jurisdictions are included, Estonia ranked sixth in science, eighth in mathematics and reading, and seventh in computational problem-solving.

Continue reading Estonia remains among the world’s best education systems in PISA 2025 – but reading scores fall at Estonian World.

The Keskus International Estonian Centre in Toronto is nearing completion – but what exactly will it be? Estonian World put the question to the project lead, Ellen Valter; she says one of Keskus’s aims will be to foster a sense of engagement, interest and curiosity – and a desire to come together.

Estonian World spent two days in Toronto during KESKfEST, the Estonian festival originally intended to mark the grand opening of Keskus, the new Estonian centre being built in the Annex neighbourhood of Canada’s largest city. Alas, as is often the case with ambitious projects, things can go wrong and unexpected hitches can arise.

Continue reading How Toronto’s new Keskus aims to connect the global Estonian diaspora at Estonian World.

The median monthly salary in Estonia was €1,840 in the second quarter of 2026, up 6.1 per cent – or approximately €106 – from the same period in 2025.

The median gross wage is the wage level at which half of employees earn less and the other half earn more.

“Trends in median wages broadly mirror those in average gross wages, both across counties and economic sectors,” Krista Vaikmets, a senior analyst at Statistics Estonia, the country’s official statistics agency, said in a statement.

The average monthly gross wage in Estonia was €2,243 in the second quarter of 2026, up 5.5 per cent – or €117 – from the same period in 2025.

Continue reading Estonia’s median salary €1,840 in Q2 2026 at Estonian World.

She was five when she joined the Baltic Way, too young to understand its politics but old enough to feel thousands of voices becoming one; now, with an album 25 years in the making, the Estonian-Swiss singer-songwriter talks to Estonian World about regilaul, silence and why music became her first home.

At five, Ingrid Lukas stood in the Baltic Way and felt thousands of people become one through song. Long before she understood the politics, she understood the power of a collective voice. Decades later, after a childhood move to Switzerland, profound loneliness and a period in which her own voice disappeared, music remains her route to freedom, belonging and home.

Continue reading Ingrid Lukas: “Words tell a story – but the sound tells the truth” at Estonian World.

The Estonian defence minister, Hanno Pevkur, has accepted political responsibility and resigned after an Estonian state agency paid almost €70 million in advance to an Indian-run Italian company that had never previously sold a shell, in a procurement intended to arm Ukraine.

Pevkur announced his resignation on 2 September after revelations about a failed ammunition procurement deepened a wider crisis over the defence establishment’s financial controls.

The Estonian Centre for Defence Investments, known as ECDI, signed four contracts with Datasel S.R.L., a small Italian company acquired by an Indian defence business, and paid about €70 million in advance for artillery shells intended for Ukraine.

Continue reading Estonia’s defence minister resigns over a failed €70 million shell deal for Ukraine at Estonian World.

In the address she delivered shortly before the Estonian parliament elected her president on 2 September 2026, Ülle Madise urged Estonians to abandon political rancour, trust one another and build a freer, happier and stronger country.

Estonia’s independence gives us both the opportunity and the duty to make the best possible choices. Our people. Language. Culture. Nature. Enterprise. Freedom and responsibility. Strong, reliable allies who have reason to trust us in return. Peace.

Estonia’s greatest treasure is the people who live here. We must do everything possible to ensure there are many people to carry the Estonian language and culture forward.

Continue reading Ülle Madise: When did we stop fighting for Estonia’s future and start fighting one another? at Estonian World.

The Estonian parliament has chosen the country’s long-serving chancellor of justice and one of its leading constitutional lawyers, Ülle Madise, as its next head of state, making her the second woman to hold the office.

Madise, 51, received 71 votes in a secret ballot in the 101-seat parliament, the Riigikogu, on Wednesday, passing the two-thirds threshold of 68 required for election in the first round. She was the only candidate on the ballot.

Seventy-eight MPs took part in the vote and seven returned unmarked ballot papers. Twenty-three members did not participate.

Her election makes her the second female president of Estonia.

Continue reading Ülle Madise is elected the next president of Estonia at Estonian World.

The last Russian soldiers left Estonia on 31 August 1994, after fraught diplomacy, Western pressure and an improbable vodka session between Lennart Meri and Boris Yeltsin.

On 31 August 1994, the last Russian troops left Estonia. Their departure, three years after the country restored its independence from Soviet occupation, brought almost half a century of foreign military presence to an end and completed a decisive stage in the restoration of Estonian sovereignty.

When the Soviet Union occupied Estonia in June 1940, it stationed troops across the country. Nazi Germany invaded the following year and occupied Estonia for three years.

Continue reading How Estonia secured the withdrawal of the last Russian troops at Estonian World.

31 August 2026 – 06 September 2026

Not sure where to be this week? Every week, in partnership with Gamma, we present a hand-picked selection of the five most compelling events taking place in and around Tallinn – it’s time to plan your week with purpose.

Old Town English open mic

Kultuuriklubi Winkel, Suur-Karja 8, Tallinn

Wednesday, 02 September, from 8pm

Comedy Open Mic in English happens every Wednesday — a free, relaxed evening where new and seasoned comedians alike take the mic, try out fresh material and occasionally discover in real time what works and what absolutely does not.

Continue reading Your Tallinn hit list: the top 5 events this week at Estonian World.

The Keskus International Estonian Centre in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood is entering the final stretch of construction – during KESKfEST, the Estonian festival that ran from 20 to 23 August, Estonian World toured the building alongside architect Alar Kongats; funnily enough, Toronto’s raccoons did not want it to be built at all.

The new centre, which had been expected to open by June this year, is designed to serve as a hub for Estonian culture, showcasing Estonia and the heritage of its people. “It will be a vibrant gathering place for Estonians of all generations and backgrounds to connect, celebrate, and share our culture and achievements with each other and the world,” the centre’s website proudly boasts.

Continue reading Inside Keskus, the Estonian centre in Toronto that even raccoons could not stop at Estonian World.

On 23 August 1989, approximately two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands, forming a human chain from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius, spanning 675 kilometres, or 420 miles; it was a peaceful protest against the illegal Soviet occupation and also one of the earliest and longest unbroken human chains in history.

The Baltic Way, also known as the Baltic Chain, was organised in order to draw the world’s attention to the existence of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact – a treaty signed 50 years prior, on 23 August 1939, between the foreign ministers of the Soviet Union and Germany – Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop. 

In the secret protocols that accompanied the treaty of non-aggression, the two totalitarian powers divided Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania in violation of international law into respective spheres of influence, which led to Nazi Germany starting the Second World War on 1 September 1939 with its attack on Poland.

Continue reading Gallery: The Baltic Way in pictures at Estonian World.

There were many reasons why people all over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania took part in the Baltic Way, but for eight-year-old Anne-Marie Riitsaar, one of the biggest reasons was bananas.*

At 7:00 PM on 23 August 1989, approximately two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands, forming a human chain from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius, spanning 675 kilometres, or 420 miles. It was a peaceful protest against the illegal Soviet occupation and also one of the earliest and longest unbroken human chains in history.

Two million people joined hands, forming a human chain from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius.

Continue reading The Baltic Way – the longest unbroken human chain in history at Estonian World.

On 23 August 1939, Nazi Germany’s foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and his Soviet counterpart, Vyacheslav Molotov, signed a non-aggression treaty known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Its secret protocols divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. Meelis Maripuu reflects on an agreement whose consequences haunted Estonia until it restored its independence in 1991.*

In the second half of the 1930s, two totalitarian regimes established themselves as major forces in European politics, each feverishly preparing to extend its power.

Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany had gained a head start over Joseph Stalin’s communist Soviet Union. By 1939, Germany had annexed Austria and seized much of Czechoslovakia.

Continue reading Estonia in the grip of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and great-power realpolitik at Estonian World.

Siim Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister and European Commission vice-president who helped give the newly independent country its own currency and economic footing, has died aged 77.

His daughter, Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief and herself a former Estonian prime minister, announced his death on Saturday morning.

“It is with sadness that I must announce that my dear father, Siim Kallas, died last night,” she wrote on social media.

Kallas, who died in the early hours of 22 August, was one of the central figures in Estonia’s transformation from a Soviet republic into a liberal, market-based European state.

Continue reading Siim Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister who led Estonia’s currency reform, dies at 77 at Estonian World.

KESKfEST is bringing hundreds of singers, dancers, designers and artists to Toronto for a four-day celebration as the C$56 million Keskus International Estonian Centre enters the final stretch of construction.

Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood is becoming a showcase for Estonian culture as a four-day festival fills venues along the city’s Bloor Street Culture Corridor with music, dance, fashion, film, theatre and public debate.

KESKfEST, running from 20 to 23 August, comes as work nears completion on the Keskus International Estonian Centre, a 36,000-square-foot cultural complex being built at 9 Madison Avenue. A festival tent across the road will serve as one of the event’s main gathering points.

Continue reading An Estonian festival takes over Toronto as the new cultural centre nears completion at Estonian World.

On 20 August 1991, Estonia declared formal independence during the Soviet military coup attempt in Moscow, reconstituting the pre-1940 state.

In the evening of 20 August 1991, Estonian politicians declared the nation’s independence – even as Soviet tanks were rolling through the countryside to quell the independence movement and the Soviet paratroopers were taking charge of the Tallinn TV Tower, preparing to cut off communication channels.

The fate of Estonia was on peril. Yet, most Estonian politicians and the greater part of the public showed great resolve in the face of this danger.

Estonian volunteers surrounded the TV Tower and wouldn’t let themselves to be intimidated by the Soviet troops.

Continue reading Estonia celebrates the restoration of independence at Estonian World.