13 ATLASES

History of Estonia in maps

Estonia as it appears in 13 interactive history atlases, from 1789 to 2015: Estonia, Soviet Union, Soviet Estonia. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.

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Map of Europe in June 1940, showing Estonia — MAP OF EUROPE IN JUNE 1940

These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v0.2.1 — dated political boundaries · French Ministry of the Armed Forces — La ligne de démarcation · IGM Fiume, 1:25,000, sheet53B II SE — boundary established in1924 · Natural Earth — physical reference geography · Yugoslavia (1929–1939) location map — international frontier and Adriatic coast · Treaty of Rome (1924), division of Fiume and west-bank boundary · Murli / rowanwindwhistler — Slovakia border changes, 1938–1945 · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — The Holocaust in Slovakia · Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute — The First Vienna Award

Source details

Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY4.0 · Dated polity and constituent territory selections; campaign-dependent occupation overlays reconstructed separately.
Ministère des Armées. Historical facts consulted; actual polygon imported from Cliopatria
Istituto Geografico Militare, Fiume (printed1946; 1927 survey with1931–1940 updates), reproduced by Istituto regionale per la storia della Resistenza e dell’Età contemporanea nel Friuli Venezia Giulia. Independent reconstruction from graticule coordinates and boundary observations; archive page reserves artwork rights.. Geographical-fact reconstruction; original archive artwork not distributed
Natural Earth. Public domain
NordNordWest/Wikipedia. Converted from the published SVG to WGS84; eastern Italian regional territory extracted. Source cites Velhagen & Klasings Großer Volksatlas (1938).. CC BY-SA 3.0 Germany
1924 agreement interpreted alongside the regional history institute and City of Rijeka’s explanation of the Donja/Gornja Drenova division.. Historical geographic facts; citation only
Murli; SVG adaptation by rowanwindwhistler (2021). CC BY-SA 2.5; derived geographic paths under the same license · Georeferenced actual published vector regions using eight printed city positions; no map artwork or labels in the atlas.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — The Holocaust in Slovakia. Historical chronology consulted; no source prose or artwork republished
Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute — The First Vienna Award. Historical territorial chronology consulted; no source artwork or prose republished

Slovak territory is reconstructed from the published 1938–1945 border-change map, which separates the client state from Hungarian and German annexations. This regional source does not resolve small northern frontier changes or survey-level detail. After August 1944, German military occupation supersedes the client-state fill.

The eastern Italian frontier uses the published 1930s regional map and a reconstruction of the 1924 Fiume boundary. Source conquests after April 1941 remain separately dated.

reconstruction: 1936–1940 · reconstruction: 1936–1941 · reconstruction: 1936–1942 · reconstruction: 1939–1944 · reconstruction: 1940.5 · reconstruction: 1940–1940 · reconstruction: 1940–1941 · vector: 1912–1955 · vector: 1924–1940 · vector: 1936–1941 · vector: 1936–1944 · vector: 1936–1945 · vector: 1938–1972 · vector: 1939–1944 · vector: 1939–2023 · vector: 1940–1940 · vector: 1940–1941 · vector: 1940–1942 · vector: 1940–1943

Layer records and reconstruction methods

What was Estonia before it was Estonia? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.

Estonia · Norse and Aztecs

c. 790

Other peoples and states — the opening position

NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Danish Estonia · Mongol Empire

1206	Beyond the conquests — the opening position

MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Estonia (Russian Empire) · Industrial Revolution

1890	Industrialising — the opening position
1890	Industrialising
1890	Industrialising

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Estonia · Age of Revolutions

JUL 1789

The conservative monarchies — the opening position

AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Estonia · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia

Estonia, the smallest Baltic republic, was annexed in 1940 under the Nazi–Soviet Pact. Mass song festivals in 1988 helped give its “Singing Revolution” a public voice, and on 23 August 1989 Estonians formed the northern link of the Baltic Way. Independence was recognized in September 1991. Estonia then pursued rapid market reforms and introduced its own currency in 1992, becoming one of the more successful post-Soviet states.

OCT 1964	The USSR, then Russia — the opening position
OCT 1990	War, rebellion, breakaway
DEC 1991	Independent neighbours

MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Estonia (Estland) · Russian Revolution

After declaring independence in February 1918, Estonia had to survive both German occupation and a Bolshevik invasion. Its own army, helped by the British navy, secured its freedom by 1920, when Soviet Russia recognized it. Estonia remained independent until Stalin annexed it in 1940.

SEP 1855	The Tsarist empire — the opening position
MAR 1917	Provisional Government, then the Whites
NOV 1917	Soviet power
MAR 1918	Breakaway national states

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Estonia (Russian Empire) · WWI

JAN 1894	The Entente & Allies — the opening position
JAN 1894	The Entente & Allies
NOV 1917	Russia in revolution
MAR 1918	Under Central Powers occupation
JUN 1919	Neutral or unaligned
NOV 1918	Neutral or unaligned

WWI: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Estonia · Stalin’s Soviet Union

Estonia’s independence, gained in 1918, ended when the Red Army occupied it in June 1940 under the secret protocol of the Nazi–Soviet Pact. A staged election preceded annexation in August. About 10,000 people were deported on 14 June 1941. Germany occupied Estonia in 1941–44, after which Soviet rule returned. The “forest brothers” resisted into the 1950s; Operation Priboi deported some 20,000 more Estonians in March 1949.

JUN–AUG 1940	Annexed by the USSR, 1939–45 — the opening position
JUN–AUG 1940	Annexed by the USSR, 1939–45
DEC 1941	Under German occupation
SEP 1945	Annexed by the USSR, 1939–45

STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →