Estonia played a pivotal role in the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In April 1988 Estonia formed a Popular Front - a political party in all but name, in a country where only the Communist Party was allowed to exist, and became the first of the Soviet republics to proclaim sovereignty. It unilaterally declared independence during the coup in August 1991.
Having been forcibly incorporated into the USSR in 1940, the Baltic states never really felt part of the Soviet Union. They have now gone further than all the other former republics in their bid to become integrated into Western institutions.
Estonia is in the first wave of applicants to join the EU, and is the second Baltic country to have joined the WTO.
But the transition has been marred by tensions. Many of its Russian inhabitants have no citizenship as a result of strict language tests.