Portrait of the Regions - ESTONIA - KIRDE-EESTI - Geography and history

Portrait of the Regions - ESTONIA - KIRDE-EESTI - Geography and history

KIRDE-EESTI - Geography and history

Kirde-Eesti is located in the northeastern part of Estonia and covers the part of the historic Virumaa region on the southern shores of the Gulf of Finland.The first find of a 5 000-year-old piece of pottery, the oldest ever discovered on Estonian territory, occurred on the banks of the Narva River.

The history of Kirde-Eesti is replete with battles and changes in foreign rule. At the beginning of the 13th century, German Teutonic knights conducted looting raids into Virumaa. In 1220, Kirde-Eesti was conquered and christianised by the Danes, then ruled by Germans, Swedes and Russians. At the end of the 19th century, the national movement gained strength in Kirde-Eesti. In November 1918, the War of Independence broke out with the capture of Narva by the Red Army. The January 1919 counterattack by the Estonians put an end to the Bolshevik power base at Narva and the front moved to southern Estonia. It was at Narva in 1939 that ratification of the military bases agreement put an end to the 22-year period of Estonian independence, since Soviet troops entered Estonia's territory under this agreement, and Estonia became part of the Soviet Union, remaining in it for 50 years, up to 1991. At the end of World War II, severe battles were fought in vain in the Sinimäe hills near Narva. Narva, a city of unique architectural heritage, was razed to the ground.

Due to the development of large'scale industry in the border republics, and in order to meet the industrial needs of this mineral-rich region, workers were imported from other republics of the former Soviet Union, mainly from Russia and the Ukraine. After Estonia regained its independence, most of these foreign workers decided to remain in Kirde-Eesti. All this accounts for the large majority of Russians and Russian speakers in Kirde-Eesti.

Kirde-Eesti consists of one county, Ida-Viru and has 7 cities and 16 rural municipalities. All the cities are located along the Tallinn-Narva axis beside the road and railway corridor. Ida-Viru can justifiably be considered an urbanised industrial region with the majority of its population concentrated in the three bigger industrial cities of Narva, Kohtla-Järve, and Sillamäe. The administrative centre is Jõhvi (11 743 inhabitants at 1st of January 2003), but the largest city in Kirde-Eesti and the third-largest in Estonia is the border city of Narva (67 752). The city of Kohtla-Järve (46 765 inhabitants) is an industrial agglomeration based on the oilshale basin and Sillamäe (16 901 inhabitants) is a settlement with population migrated in from the former Soviet Union.

Characteristic of Kirde-Eesti is its frontier location, with the main trade routes from Russia passing through Narva. The region's eastern border follows the Narva River and is also Estonia's eastern frontier.

Kirde-Eesti's location tends to favour the development of transit and border trade. With the north-west Russian market around St. Petersburg sitting on its eastern border, and Finland lying close by, the development of trilateral economic links is important. Other positive factors relate to the main cities being situated on the major transit routes, to the workforce available and to the good infrastructure. Taken together, these factors encourage some foreign investment here.

A further advantage can be found in the picturesque coastline along the Gulf of Finland and on the banks of Lake Peipsi in the south, which are both valuable assets for the tourist industry.

There are, however, a number of important weaknesses. They include factors such as the difficulties in converting large-scale industry, the region's negative image (environmental damage, high unemployment, the high proportion of non-Estonians), an insufficient support to entrepreneurs, as well as a lack of capital. The high number of non-nationals with no or limited qualifications is a further addition to this list. All this hinders the flow of further foreign investment to Kirde-Eesti, deters potential entrepreneurs and makes the development of new and modern business sectors more difficult.

Kirde-Eesti covers 3 364 km2, extending from the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland in the north to Lake Peipsi in the south. The Narva River, which runs from the lake to the sea, forms the border with Russia in the east. The main natural regions are the Northeast Estonian Plateau in the north and the forested Alutaguse Area in the south. A peculiar characteristic of the landscape is the long and steep northern cliff coast, which reaches its highest point in Ontika, where the cliff rises some 56 m above sea level.

Kirde-Eesti is lacking large rivers (except the Narva River) and lakes, but Estonia's largest swamps and wooded areas are situated in the central and southern parts of the region. Forests cover 57% of Kirde-Eesti. The percentage of land occupied by mires is among the highest in Kirde-Eesti. Estonia's largest mire, Puhatu mire complex (571 km2), is situated in this region. Muraka bog (128 km2) is the second large mire in Kirde-Eesti.

Kirde-Eesti is rich in natural resources such as oilshale, phosphorite, blue clay, building sand, peat, and forests. The world's largest exploited oilshale deposit is to be found here (3.9 billion tons). Oilshale, the most important mineral in the country, comes from the remains of animals and plants deposited on the sea-floor during the Ordovician Period. It is unique in the world for its relatively high heating value, low sulphur content and good oil concentration and separation capacity from organic substance. The bulk of oilshale produced is used by power plants and as a raw material by the chemical industry. 10 513 tons were mined in 2002.

Blue clay and building sand are mostly used in the building materials industry. Peat is used to produce peat briquettes for heating purposes in small boilerhouses, and in horticulture. Pollution risks have so far blocked exploitation of phosphorite deposits.

There are many picturesque beaches here, 70 km along the sea coast, and 42 km along the shore of Lake Peipsi.

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Text finalised in December 2003