title: Joseph Wheeler

text: Wheeler and his troopers guarded the army's left flank at Chickamauga in September 1863, and after the routed Union Army collected in Chattanooga, Gen. Bragg sent Wheeler's men into central Tennessee to destroy railroads and Federal supply lines in a major raid. On October 2 his raid at Anderson's Cross Roads (also known as Powell's Crossroads) destroyed more than 700 Union supply wagons, tightening the Confederates siege on Chattanooga. Pursued by his Union counterparts, Wheeler advanced to McMinnville and captured its 600-man garrison. There were more actions at Murfreesboro and Farmington, but by October 9 Wheeler had safely crossed the Tennessee River at Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The extensive raid and a subsequent northern movement to assist Longstreet in his siege of Knoxville, would cause the mounted arm of the army to miss the battles for Chattanooga (November 23–25). Wheeler covered Bragg's retreat from Chattanooga following the Union breakthrough at Missionary Ridge on November 25 and received a wound in his foot as his cavalry and Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne's infantry fought at the Battle of Ringgold Gap on November 27.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: During Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's Atlanta Campaign Wheeler's cavalry corps screened the flanks of the Army of Tennessee as Gen. Joseph E. Johnston drew back from several positions toward Atlanta. In July, Sherman sent two large cavalry columns to destroy the railroads supplying the defenders of Atlanta. With fewer than 5,000 cavalrymen, Wheeler defeated the enemy raids, resulting in the capture of one of the two commanding generals, Maj. Gen. George Stoneman (the highest ranking Union prisoner of war). In August, Wheeler's corps crossed the Chattahoochee River in an attempt to destroy the railroad Sherman was using to supply his force from Chattanooga. Wheeler's men captured the town of Dalton, but he was unable to defeat the Union garrison, which was protected in a nearby fort. Wheeler then took his men into East Tennessee, crossing the Tennessee River above Knoxville. His raid continued to the west, causing minor interruptions in the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad and then continued south through Franklin until he recrossed the Tennessee at Tuscumbia. The raid Wheeler was ordered to undertake was described by historian Ed Bearss as a "Confederate disaster" because it caused minimal damage to the Union while denying Gen. John Bell Hood, now in command of the Army of Tennessee, the direct support of his cavalry arm. Without accurate intelligence of Sherman's dispositions, Hood was beaten at Jonesborough and forced to evacuate Atlanta. Wheeler rendezvoused with Hood's army in early October after destroying the railroad bridge at Resaca. That said, the blame for this defeat cannot be laid at Wheeler's feet.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: In late 1864, Wheeler's cavalry did not accompany Hood on his Franklin–Nashville Campaign back into Tennessee and was virtually the only effective Confederate force to oppose Sherman's March to the Sea to Savannah. However, his resistance to Sherman did little to comfort Georgia civilians, and lax discipline within his command caused great dissatisfaction. Robert Toombs said, "I hope to God he will never get back to Georgia." Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill wrote that "the whole of Georgia is full of bitter complaints of Wheeler's cavalry."


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: Wheeler and his men continued to attempt to stop Sherman in the 1865 Carolinas Campaign. He defeated a Union cavalry force under Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick in South Carolina at the Battle of Aiken on February 11. He was replaced as cavalry chief by Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton and fought under him at the Battle of Bentonville on March 19–20. While attempting to cover Confederate President Jefferson Davis's flight south and west in May, Wheeler was captured at Conyer's Station just east of Atlanta. He had intended to reach the Trans-Mississippi and Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, still resisting out west, and had with him three officers from his staff and 11 privates when he was taken. Wheeler was imprisoned for two months, first at Fort Monroe and then in solitary confinement at Fort Delaware, where he was paroled on June 8.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: During his career in the Confederate States Army, Wheeler was wounded three times, lost 36 staff officers to combat, and a total of 16 horses were shot from under him. Military historian Ezra J. Warner believed that Wheeler's actions leading cavalry in the conflict "were second only to those of Bedford Forrest".


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: After the war, Wheeler became a planter and a lawyer near Courtland, Alabama, where he married and raised a family. His home, Pond Spring, in an area now known as Wheeler, Alabama, is a historic site owned by the Alabama Historical Commission.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: In 1880, Wheeler was elected from Alabama as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives. Wheeler's opponent, Greenback incumbent William M. Lowe, contested the election, and after a contentious legal battle which lasted over a year, Lowe was declared the winner and assumed the seat on June 3, 1882. Lowe, however, served only four months before dying of tuberculosis. Wheeler won a special election to return and serve out the remaining weeks of the term.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: Wheeler supported the election of Luke Pryor in 1882 and did not run for reelection, but was elected again in 1884, and re-elected to seven subsequent terms before resigning in 1900. While in Congress, Wheeler strove to heal the breach between the North and the South, and championed economic policies that would help rebuild the Southern states. At the 1884 Democratic National Convention Wheeler supported Grover Cleveland to be the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: In foreign policy Wheeler was outspokenly Anglophile, he sought a closer relationship between the United States and the British Empire, and is regarded as one of the earliest advocates of what would later be called the "Special Relationship" between the United States of America and the United Kingdom. When he was asked during the 1888 United States presidential election if he believed that President Grover Cleveland was "as pro-British as people say" Wheeler replied by saying "No, but he ought to be." While in Washington DC throughout 1886 and 1887, he formed a friendship with Lionel Sackville-West, 2nd Baron Sackville, the British "Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States". He described Sackville West "an absolute gentlemen" and "very forward" as well as "manful" and "impeccably honest." By contrast, he described French President Jules Grévy as "a dumb sumbitch" in a statement which he later refused to retract, despite pressure from allies in Washington DC to do so.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: In January 1890, when House Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed, began the process of eliminating the disappearing quorum, by calling the names of House members who refused to answer, Wheeler climbed on to one of the desks and then proceeded to leap from desk to desk in an attempt to reach the center and stop the Speaker.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: In 1898, Wheeler, now aged 61, volunteered for the Spanish–American War, receiving an appointment to major general of volunteers from President William McKinley. He assumed command of the cavalry division, which included Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, and was nominally second-in-command of the Fifth Army Corps. He sailed for Cuba and was charged with scouting for the U.S. advance by General William Rufus Shafter, overall commander of V Corps. He was ordered not to engage the enemy on his own until the American troop disembarkation had been completed.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: Approaching Las Guasimas de Sevilla on June 24, American reports suggested the Spaniards were digging in with a field gun; however, Cuban scouts contradicted these, revealing the Spaniards were preparing to abandon their position. In fact, the Spanish troops at the position had received orders to fall back on Santiago. Wheeler requested the assistance of the attached Cuban forces in an immediate attack, but their commander, Col. Gonzales Clavel, refused. Wheeler decided to attack anyway, rushing his men forward with two guns to the front, with Colonel Young's brigade leading the advance against the Spanish columns in what came to be called the Battle of Las Guasimas, the first major engagement of the war.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: During the excitement of the battle, Wheeler is said to have called out "Let's go, boys! We've got the damn Yankees on the run again!" Wheeler's forces moved to encircle the Spaniards' first battle line, assaulting its front and right flank, but were repelled. During a pause in the fighting, both sides reinforced their positions. The Spaniards sent forward two companies of the "San Fernando Battalion", along with the artillery. After midday the U.S. attack was renewed, but Spanish Comandante Andrés Alcañiz, leading the "Provisional de Puerto Rico Battalion", once again checked the American assault.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: After halting the American advance, the Spanish resumed their ongoing withdrawal towards Santiago's outer defenses according to their original plans. The battle had cost U.S. forces 17 dead and 52 wounded, while Spanish forces suffered seven dead and seven wounded.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: Wheeler fell seriously ill during the campaign and turned over command of the division to Brig. Gen. Samuel S. Sumner. Wheeler was still incapacitated in July when the Battle of San Juan Hill began but once he heard the sound of guns, the "War Child" returned to the front despite his illness. Being the senior officer present at the front he first issued orders to the 1st Division, under Jacob F. Kent, before returning to his own command. Upon taking the heights, Wheeler assured General William R. Shafter that the position could be held against a possible counterattack. He led the division through the Siege of Santiago and was a senior member of the peace commission.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: Wheeler's youngest son died shortly after his return from serving in Cuba; he drowned while swimming in the ocean. When back in the United States, Wheeler commanded the convalescent camp of the army at Montauk Point, now a state park in New York.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: Wheeler sailed for the Philippines to fight in the Philippine–American War, arriving in August 1899. He commanded the First Brigade in Arthur MacArthur's Second Division during the Philippine–American War until January 1900. During this period, Wheeler was mustered out of the volunteer service and commissioned a brigadier general in the regular army, reentering the organization he had resigned from over 39 years before, both on June 16, 1900. After hostilities he commanded the Department of the Lakes until his retirement on September 10, 1900, and moved to New York City.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: General "Fighting Joe" Wheeler insisted that it was the Filipinos who had mutilated their own dead, murdered women and children, and burned down villages, solely to discredit American soldiers. But this is only based on the notorious General Otis' claims.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: Wheeler was the author of several books on military history and strategy, as well as about civil subjects. His first was "A Revised System of Cavalry Tactics, for the Use of the Cavalry and Mounted Infantry, C.S.A." in 1863, a manual that saw use by the Confederacy. His other works include: "Fitz-John Porter" in 1883, "The Santiago Campaign" in 1898, "Confederate Military History: Alabama" in 1899, and "Report on the Island of Guam" in 1900. Wheeler also co-wrote several more books throughout the rest of his life, the last of which, "The New America and the Far East: A Pictureque and Historic Description of These Lands and Peoples", was published in 1907, after his death.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: Wheeler also appeared in an early film called "Surrender of General Toral" (1898) with William Rufus Shafter.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: While attending the hundredth anniversary celebration of the U.S. Military Academy (West Point, New York) in 1902, Wheeler approached the old West Point hotel, where his Confederate comrades James Longstreet and Edward Porter Alexander were seated on the porch. At the festivities Wheeler wore his dress uniform of his most recent rank, that of a general in the U.S. Army. Longstreet recognized him coming near, and reportedly said, "Joe, I hope that Almighty God takes me before he does you, for I want to be within the gates of hell to hear Jubal Early cuss you in the blue uniform." (Longstreet did in fact predecease Wheeler, dying in January 1904.)


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: General Wheeler was a member of the District of Columbia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (joined in 1898) and the Society of Colonial Wars.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: After long illness, Wheeler died in Brooklyn on January 25, 1906, at the age of 69. He is one of the few former Confederate officers to be buried within Arlington National Cemetery.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: In 1925, the state of Alabama donated a bronze statue of Joseph Wheeler to the National Statuary Hall Collection at the United States Capitol. Additionally, several locations in Alabama are named after Wheeler including Joe Wheeler State Park, Wheeler Lake and Dam, and the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Also, Joseph Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia, and Wheeler County, Georgia are named after him. During World War II, the United States Navy named a Liberty Ship in honor of Wheeler. Wheeler Road, a main thoroughfare through west Augusta is named after him as well. Furthermore, Joe Wheeler Electric Cooperative in northwest Alabama also honors him. Also Camp Wheeler, near Macon, Georgia (which served as an army base during both World Wars) was named for Wheeler.


title: Joseph Wheeler

text: The City of Derby, Connecticut, where Wheeler grew up, named him as one of the first members of its Hall of Fame in 2007.


title: 2019 Indian general election in West Bengal

text: The 2019 Indian general election were held in India between April and May 2019 to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha.


text: On 12 March 2019, party president Mamata Banerjee announced the party candidates for the election. 41% of the candidates were women. Notable exclusions from the list were the party's general secretary Subrata Bakshi and Sugata Bose. Bose did not get permission from Harvard University, where he is a professor, to contest the election. Notable inclusions were Bengali actresses Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan.


text: There has been a major political shift from the left to the right in the 2019 general elections in West Bengal. "The Statesman" says, “Making an aggressive penetration in Bengal for the first time since its inception in 1980, BJP alone has dramatically increased its vote share close to 40 percent this time. Thus, it has virtually made the CPI-M into a mere marginalised political party and at the same time the saffron party set a strong challenge before the Trinamool Congress hardly two years ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled in 2021 in the state.” This obviously is the most important impact of the general elections in the state visible in the voting pattern right across the state, irrespective of who won or lost a particular seat.


text: TMC won 3 out of 3 assembly seats in the next assembly by-elections in November 2019. Even the seat of State BJP president Dilip Ghosh which fell vacant due to Dilip Ghosh's win in Loksabha election, Kharagpur Sadar was won by TMC by a lead of 22,000 votes. TMC was trailing in that seat by 158,000 votes in 2019 general elections.


title: History of Estonia

text: The history of Estonia forms a part of the history of Europe. Humans settled in the region of Estonia near the end of the last glacial era, beginning from around 8500 BC.


title: History of Estonia

text: The region has been populated since the end of the Late Pleistocene glaciation, about 10,000 BC. The earliest traces of human settlement in Estonia are connected with the Kunda culture. The early mesolithic Pulli settlement is located by the Pärnu River. It has been dated to the beginning of the 9th millennium BC. The Kunda culture received its name from the "Lammasmäe" settlement site in northern Estonia, which dates from earlier than 8500 BC. Bone and stone artifacts similar to those found at Kunda have been discovered elsewhere in Estonia, as well as in Latvia, northern Lithuania and southern Finland. Among minerals, flint and quartz were used the most for making cutting tools.


title: History of Estonia

text: The beginning of the Neolithic Period is marked by the ceramics of the Narva culture, and appear in Estonia at the beginning of the 5th millennium. The oldest finds date from around 4900 BC. The first pottery was made of thick clay mixed with pebbles, shells or plants. The Narva-type ceramics are found throughout almost the entire Estonian coastal region and on the islands. The stone and bone tools of the era have a notable similarity with the artifacts of the Kunda culture.


title: History of Estonia

text: Around the beginning of 4th millennium BC Comb Ceramic culture arrived in Estonia. Until the early 1980s the arrival of Balto-Finnic peoples, the ancestors of the Estonians, Finns, and Livonians, on the shores of the Baltic Sea was associated with the Comb Ceramic Culture. However, such a linking of archaeologically defined cultural entities with linguistic ones cannot be proven, and it has been suggested that the increase of settlement finds in the period is more likely to have been associated with an economic boom related to the warming of climate. Some researchers have even argued that a Uralic form of language may have been spoken in Estonia and Finland since the end of the last glaciation.


title: History of Estonia

text: The burial customs of the comb pottery people included additions of figures of animals, birds, snakes and men carved from bone and amber. Antiquities from comb pottery culture are found from northern Finland to eastern Prussia.


title: History of Estonia

text: The beginning of the Late Neolithic Period about 2200 BC is characterized by the appearance of the Corded Ware culture, pottery with corded decoration and well-polished stone axes (s.c. boat-shape axes). Evidence of agriculture is provided by charred grains of wheat on the wall of a corded-ware vessel found in Iru settlement. Osteological analysis show an attempt was made to domesticate the wild boar.


title: History of Estonia

text: Specific burial customs were characterized by the dead being laid on their sides with their knees pressed against their breast, one hand under the head. Objects placed into the graves were made of the bones of domesticated animals.


title: History of Estonia

text: The beginning of the Bronze Age in Estonia is dated to approximately 1800 BC. The development of the borders between the Finnic peoples and the Balts was under way. The first fortified settlements, Asva and Ridala on the island of Saaremaa and Iru in northern Estonia, began to be built. The development of shipbuilding facilitated the spread of bronze. Changes took place in burial customs, a new type of burial ground spread from Germanic to Estonian areas, and stone cist graves and cremation burials became increasingly common, alongside a small number of boat-shaped stone graves.


title: History of Estonia

text: About 325 BC, the Greek explorer Pytheas possibly visited Estonia. The Thule island he described has been identified as Saaremaa by Lennart Meri, though this identification is not widely considered probable, as Saaremaa lies far south of the Arctic Circle.


title: History of Estonia

text: The Pre-Roman Iron Age began in Estonia about 500 BC and lasted until the middle of the 1st century AD. The oldest iron items were imported, although since the 1st century iron was smelted from local marsh and lake ore. Settlement sites were located mostly in places that offered natural protection. Fortresses were built, although used temporarily. The appearance of square Celtic fields surrounded by enclosures in Estonia date from the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The majority of stones with man-made indents, which presumably were connected with magic designed to increase crop fertility, date from this period. A new type of grave, quadrangular burial mounds, began to develop. Burial traditions show the clear beginning of social stratification.


title: History of Estonia

text: The Roman Iron Age in Estonia is roughly dated to between 50 and 450 AD, the era that was affected by the influence of the Roman Empire. In material culture this is reflected by a few Roman coins, some jewellery and artefacts. The abundance of iron artefacts in southern Estonia speaks of closer mainland ties with southern areas, while the islands of western and northern Estonia communicated with their neighbors mainly by sea. By the end of the period three clearly defined tribal dialectical areas—northern Estonia, southern Estonia, and western Estonia including the islands—had emerged, the population of each having formed its own understanding of identity.


title: History of Estonia

text: The name "Estonia" occurs first in a form of Aestii in the 1st century AD by Tacitus; however, it might have indicated Baltic tribes living in the area. In the Scandinavian sagas (9th century) the term started to be used to indicate the Estonians.


title: History of Estonia

text: Ptolemy in his "Geography III" in the middle of the 2nd century CE mentions the Osilians among other dwellers on the Baltic shore.


title: History of Estonia

text: According to the 5th-century Roman historian Cassiodorus, the people known to Tacitus as "Aestii" were the Estonians. The extent of their territory in early medieval times is disputed, but the nature of their religion is not. They were known to the Scandinavians as experts in wind-magic, as were the Lapps (known at the time as Finns) in the North. Cassiodorus mentions Estonia in his book V. Letters 1–2 dating from the 6th century.


title: History of Estonia

text: The Chudes, as mentioned by a monk Nestor in the earliest Kyivan Rus chronicles, were the Ests or Esthonians.


title: History of Estonia

text: In the 1st centuries AD political and administrative subdivisions began to emerge in Estonia. Two larger subdivisions appeared: the parish ("kihelkond") and the county ("maakond"). The parish consisted of several villages. Nearly all parishes had at least one fortress. The defense of the local area was directed by the highest official, the parish elder. The county was composed of several parishes, also headed by an elder. By the 13th century the following major counties had developed in Estonia: Saaremaa (Osilia), Läänemaa (Rotalia or Maritima), Harjumaa (Harria), Rävala (Revalia), Virumaa (Vironia), Järvamaa (Jervia), Sakala (Saccala), and Ugandi (Ugaunia).


title: History of Estonia

text: Varbola Stronghold was one of the largest circular rampart fortresses and trading centers built in Estonia, Harju County () at the time.


title: History of Estonia

text: In the 11th century the Scandinavians are frequently chronicled as combating the Vikings from the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.


title: History of Estonia

text: With the rise of Christianity, centralized authority in Scandinavia and Germany eventually led to the Baltic crusades.


title: History of Estonia

text: The east Baltic world was transformed by military conquest: first the Livs, Letts and Estonians, then the Prussians and the Finns underwent defeat, baptism, military occupation and sometimes extermination by groups of Germans, Danes and Swedes.


title: History of Estonia

text: Estonia was one of the last corners of medieval Europe to be Christianized. In 1193 Pope Celestine III called for a crusade against pagans in Northern Europe. The Northern Crusades from northern Germany established the stronghold of Riga (in modern Latvia). With the help of the newly converted local tribes of Livs and Letts, the crusaders initiated raids into part of what is present-day Estonia in 1208. Estonian tribes fiercely resisted the attacks from Riga and occasionally themselves sacked territories controlled by the crusaders. In 1217 the German crusading order the Sword Brethren and their recently converted allies won a major battle in which the Estonian commander Lembitu was killed.


title: History of Estonia

text: Northern Estonia was conquered by Danish crusaders led by king Waldemar II, who arrived in 1219 on the site of the Estonian town of Lindanisse (now Tallinn) at (Latin) "Revelia" (Estonian) "Revala" or "Rävala", the adjacent ancient Estonian county. The Danish Army defeated the Estonians at the Battle of Lindanise.


title: History of Estonia

text: The Estonians of Harria started a rebellion in 1343 (St. George's Night Uprising). The province was occupied by the Livonian Order as a result. In 1346, the Danish dominions in Estonia (Harria and Vironia) were sold for 10 000 marks to the Livonian Order.


title: History of Estonia

text: The first written mention of the Estonian Swedes comes from 1294, in the laws of the town of Haapsalu. Estonian Swedes are one of the earliest known minorities in Estonia. They have also been called "Coastal Swedes" ("Rannarootslased" in Estonian), or according to their settlement area Ruhnu Swedes, Hiiu Swedes etc. They themselves used the expression "aibofolke" ("island people"), and called their homeland "Aiboland".


title: History of Estonia

text: The ancient areas of Swedish settlement in Estonia were Ruhnu Island, Hiiumaa Island, the west coast and smaller islands (Vormsi, Noarootsi, Sutlepa, Riguldi, Osmussaar), the northwest coast of the Harju District (Nõva, Vihterpalu, Kurkse, the Pakri Peninsula and the Pakri Islands), and Naissaar Island near Tallinn. The towns with a significant percentage of Swedish population have been Haapsalu and Tallinn.


title: History of Estonia

text: In earlier times Swedes also lived on the coasts of Saaremaa, the southern part of Läänemaa, the eastern part of Harjumaa and the western part of Virumaa.


title: History of Estonia

text: In 1227 the Sword Brethren conquered the last indigenous stronghold on the Estonian island of Saaremaa. After the conquest, all the remaining local pagans of Estonia were ostensibly Christianized. An ecclesiastical state Terra Mariana was established. The conquerors exercised control through a network of strategically located castles.


title: History of Estonia

text: The territory was then divided between the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order, the Bishopric of Dorpat (in Estonian: "Tartu piiskopkond") and the Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek (in Estonian: "Saare-Lääne piiskopkond"). The northern part of Estonia – more exactly Harjumaa and Virumaa districts (in German: Harrien und Wierland) – was a nominal possession of Denmark until 1346. Tallinn (Reval) was given the Lübeck Rights in 1248 and joined the Hanseatic League at the end of the 13th century. In 1343 the people of northern Estonia and Saaremaa (Oesel) Island started a rebellion (St. George's Night Uprising) against the rule of their German-speaking landlords. The uprising was put down, and four elected Estonian "kings" were killed in Paide during peace negotiations in 1343. Vesse, the rebel King of Saaremaa, was hanged in 1344.


title: History of Estonia

text: Despite local rebellions and Muscovian invasions in 1481 and 1558, the local Low German-speaking upper class continued to rule Estonia. By the end of the Middle Ages, these Baltic Germans had established themselves as the governing elite in Estonia, both as traders and the urban middle-class in the cities, and as landowners in the countryside, through a network of manorial estates.


title: History of Estonia

text: The Protestant Reformation in Europe that began in 1517 with Martin Luther (1483–1546) spread to Estonia in the 1520s. The Reformation in Estonia was inspired and organized by local and Swedish secular and religious authorities – especially after the end of the Livonian War in 1582. Lutheranism spread literacy among the young, and it transformed religious art. However, the peasants were traditionalists and were more comfortable with Catholic traditions; they delayed the adoption of the new religion. After 1600, Swedish Lutheranism began to dominate the building, furnishing, and (modest) decoration of new churches. Church architecture was now designed to encourage congregational understanding of and involvement in the services. Pews and seats were installed for the common people to make listening to the sermon less of a burden, and altars often featured depictions of the Last Supper, but images and statues of the saints had disappeared. The Baltic German elite promoted Lutheranism, and language, education, religion and politics were greatly transformed. Church services were now given in the local vernacular, instead of Latin, and the first book was printed in Estonian.


title: History of Estonia

text: During the Livonian War in 1561, northern Estonia submitted to Swedish control, while southern Estonia briefly came under the control of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 1580s. In 1625, mainland Estonia came entirely under Swedish rule. Estonia was administratively divided between the provinces of Estonia in the north and Livonia in southern Estonia and northern Latvia, a division which persisted until the early 20th century.


title: History of Estonia

text: Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor asked for help of Gustav I of Sweden, and the Kingdom of Poland also began direct negotiations with Gustavus, but nothing resulted because on 29 September 1560, Gustavus I Vasa died. The chances for success of Magnus von Lyffland and his supporters looked particularly good in 1560 and 1570. In the former case he had been recognised as their sovereign by the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek and the Bishopric of Courland, and as their prospective ruler by the authorities of the Bishopric of Dorpat; the Bishopric of Reval with the Harrien-Wierland gentry were on his side; and the Livonian Order conditionally recognised his right of ownership of the principality of Estonia. Then, along with Archbishop Wilhelm von Brandenburg of the Archbishopric of Riga and his coadjutor Christoph von Mecklenburg, Kettler gave to Magnus the portions of the Kingdom of Livonia which he had taken possession of, but they refused to give him any more land. Once Eric XIV of Sweden became king, he took quick actions to get involved in the war. He negotiated a continued peace with Muscovy and spoke to the burghers of Reval city. He offered them goods to submit to him, as well as threatening them. By 6 June 1561, they submitted to him, contrary to the persuasions of Kettler to the burghers. The King's brother Johan married the Polish princess Catherine Jagiellon. Wanting to obtain his own land in Livonia, he loaned Poland money and then claimed the castles they had pawned as his own instead of using them to pressure Poland. After Johan returned to Finland, Erik XIV forbade him to deal with any foreign countries without his consent. Shortly after that Erik XIV started acting quickly and lost any allies he was about to obtain, either from Magnus or the Archbishop of Riga. Magnus was upset he had been tricked out of his inheritance of Holstein. After Sweden occupied Reval, Frederick II of Denmark made a treaty with Erik XIV of Sweden in August 1561. The brothers were in great disagreement, and Frederick II negotiated a treaty with Ivan IV on 7 August 1562, in order to help his brother obtain more land and stall further Swedish advance. Erik XIV did not like this and the Northern Seven Years' War between the Free City of Lübeck, Denmark, Poland, and Sweden broke out. While only losing land and trade, Frederick II and Magnus were not faring well. But in 1568, Erik XIV became insane, and his brother Johan III took his place. Johan III ascended to the throne of Sweden, and due to his friendship with Poland he began a policy against Muscovy. He would try to obtain more land in Livonia and exercise strength over Denmark. After all parties had been financially drained, Frederick II let his ally, King Sigismund II Augustus of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, know that he was ready for peace. On 13 December 1570, the Treaty of Stettin was concluded. It is, however, more difficult to estimate the scope and magnitude of the support Magnus received in Livonian cities. Compared to the Harrien-Wierland gentry, the Reval city council, and hence probably the majority of citizens, demonstrated a much more reserved attitude towards Denmark and King Magnus of Livonia. Nevertheless, there is no reason to speak about any strong pro-Swedish sentiments among the residents of Reval. The citizens who had fled to the Bishopric of Dorpat or had been deported to Muscovy hailed Magnus as their saviour until 1571. The analysis indicates that during the Livonian War a pro-independence wing emerged among the Livonian gentry and townspeople, forming the so-called "Peace Party". Dismissing hostilities, these forces perceived an agreement with Muscovy as a chance to escape the atrocities of war and avoid the division of Livonia. That is why Magnus, who represented Denmark and later struck a deal with Ivan the Terrible, proved a suitable figurehead for this faction.


title: History of Estonia

text: The Peace Party, however, had its own armed forces – scattered bands of household troops ("Hofleute") under diverse command, which only united in action in 1565 (Battle of Pärnu and Siege of Reval, 1565), in 1570–1571 (Siege of Reval, 1570–1571; 30 weeks), and in 1574–1576 (first on Sweden's side, then came the sale of Wiek to the Danish Crown and the loss of the territory to the Muscovites). In 1575 after Muscovy attacked Danish claims in Livonia, Frederick II dropped out of the competition, as did the Holy Roman Emperor. After this Johan III held off on his pursuit for more land due to Muscovy obtaining lands that Sweden controlled. He used the next two years of truce to get in a better position. In 1578, he resumed the fight for not only Livonia, but also everywhere due to an understanding he made with Rzeczpospolita. In 1578 Magnus retired to Rzeczpospolita, and his brother all but gave up the land in Livonia.


title: History of Estonia

text: Having rejected peace proposals from its enemies, Ivan the Terrible found himself in a difficult position by 1578, when the Crimean Khanate devastated Muscovian territories and burnt down Moscow (see Russo-Crimean Wars), the drought and epidemics had fatally affected the economy, the policy of oprichnina had thoroughly disrupted the government, while the Grand Principality of Lithuania had united with the Kingdom of Poland and acquired an energetic leader, Stefan Batory, supported by the Ottoman Empire (1576). Batory replied with a series of three offensives against Muscovy, trying to cut the Kingdom of Livonia from Muscovian territories. During his first offensive in 1579 with 22,000 men he retook Polotsk. During the second, in 1580, with a 29,000-strong army he took Velikie Luki, and in 1581 with a 100,000-strong army he started the Siege of Pskov. Frederick II had trouble continuing the fight against Muscovy unlike Sweden and Poland. He came to an agreement with John III of Sweden in 1580 giving him the titles in Livonia. That war would last from 1577 to 1582. Muscovy recognized Polish–Lithuanian control of Ducatus Ultradunensis only in 1582. After Magnus von Lyffland died in 1583, Poland invaded his territories in the Duchy of Courland and Frederick II decided to sell his rights of inheritance. Except for the island of Œsel, Denmark was out of the Baltic by 1585. In 1598 Polish Livonia was divided into:


title: History of Estonia

text: The Duchy of Estonia placed itself under Swedish rule in 1561 to receive protection against Russia and Poland as the Livonian Order lost their foothold in the Baltic provinces. Territorially it represented the northern part of present-day Estonia.


title: History of Estonia

text: Livonia was conquered from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1629 in the Polish–Swedish War. By the Treaty of Oliva between the Commonwealth and Sweden in 1660 following the Northern Wars the Polish–Lithuanian king renounced all claims to the Swedish throne and Livonia was formally ceded to Sweden. Swedish Livonia represents the southern part of present-day Estonia and the northern part of present-day Latvia (Vidzeme region).


title: History of Estonia

text: In 1631, Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden forced the nobility to grant the peasantry greater autonomy, and in 1632 established a printing press and university in the city of Tartu.


title: History of Estonia

text: Sweden's defeat by Russia in the Great Northern War resulted in the capitulation of Estonia and Livonia in 1710, confirmed by the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, and Russian rule was then imposed on what later became modern Estonia. Nonetheless, the legal system, Lutheran church, local and town governments, and education remained mostly German until the late 19th century and partially until 1918.


title: History of Estonia

text: The Russian era from the 1720s to the First World War was the golden age of the German elites. They owned most of the land and businesses, controlled the serfs, dominated all the cities, and got along quite well with the Russian imperial authorities. Unrest and rebellion was uncommon. The Germans were Lutherans, and so were the vast majority of the Estonian population, but the Germans had full control of the Lutheran churches. Moravian Protestant missionaries made an impact in the eighteenth century, and translated the complete Bible into Estonian. The Germans complained, so the imperial government banned the Moravians from 1743 to 1764. A theological faculty opened at the University of Dorpat (Tartu), with German professors. The local German gentry controlled the local churches and rarely hired Estonian graduates, but they made their mark as intellectuals and Estonian nationalists. In the 1840s, there was a movement of Lutheran peasants into the Russian Orthodox Church. The czar discouraged them when he realized they were challenging the local authorities. The German character of the Lutheran churches alienated many nationalists, who emphasized the secular in their subcultures. For example, choral societies offered a secular alternative to church music.


title: History of Estonia

text: By 1819, the Baltic provinces were the first in the Russian empire in which serfdom was abolished, the largely autonomous nobility allowing the peasants to own their own land or move to the cities. These moves created the economic foundation for the coming to life of the local national identity and culture as Estonia was caught in a current of national awakening that began sweeping through Europe in the mid-19th century.


title: History of Estonia

text: Tartu was a multicultural crossroads with strong representation of Russians, Germans and Estonians. Orthodox, Lutherans and Jews, scientists and humanists, all were quite active at the city's university. The students seemed uninterested in the Russification programs introduced in the 1890s.


title: History of Estonia

text: Educated German immigrants and local Baltic Germans in Estonia, educated at German universities, introduced Enlightenment ideas of rational thinking, ideas that propagated freedom of thinking and brotherhood and equality. The French Revolution provided a powerful motive for the enlightened local upper class to create literature for the peasantry. The freeing of the peasantry from serfdom on the nobles' estates in 1816 in southern Estonia: Governorate of Livonia (Russian: Лифляндская губерния) and 1819 in Northern Estonia: Governorate of Estonia (Russian: Эстляндская губерния) by Alexander I of Russia gave rise to a debate as to the future fate of the former enslaved peoples. Although Baltic Germans by and large regarded the future of the Estonians as being a fusion with the Baltic Germans, the Estophile educated class admired the ancient culture of the Estonians and their era of freedom before the conquests by Danes and Germans in the 13th century. The Estophile Enlightenment Period formed the transition from religious Estonian literature to newspapers written in Estonian for the mass public.


title: History of Estonia

text: A cultural movement sprang forth to adopt the use of Estonian as the language of instruction in schools, all-Estonian song festivals were held regularly after 1869, and a national literature in Estonian developed. "Kalevipoeg", Estonia's national epic, was published in 1861 in both Estonian and German.


title: History of Estonia

text: 1889 marked the beginning of the central government-sponsored policy of Russification. The impact of this was that many of the Baltic German legal institutions were either abolished or had to do their work in Russian – a good example of this is the University of Tartu.


title: History of Estonia

text: As the Russian Revolution of 1905 swept through Estonia, the Estonians called for freedom of the press and assembly, for universal franchise, and for national autonomy. Estonian gains were minimal, but the tense stability that prevailed between 1905 and 1917 allowed Estonians to advance the aspiration of national statehood.


title: History of Estonia

text: Estonia as a unified political entity first emerged after the Russian February Revolution of 1917. With the collapse of the Russian Empire in World War I, Russia's Provisional Government granted national autonomy to a unified Estonia in April. The Governorate of Estonia in the north (corresponding to the historic Danish Estonia) was united with the northern part of the Governorate of Livonia. Elections for a provisional parliament, "Maapäev", was organized, with the Menshevik and Bolshevik factions of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party obtaining a part of the vote. On 5 November 1917, two days before the October Revolution in Saint Petersburg, Estonian Bolshevik leader Jaan Anvelt violently usurped power from the legally constituted Maapäev in a coup d'état, forcing the Maapäev underground.


title: History of Estonia

text: In February, after the collapse of the peace talks between Soviet Russia and the German Empire, mainland Estonia was occupied by the Germans. Bolshevik forces retreated to Russia. Between the Russian Red Army's retreat and the arrival of advancing German troops, the Salvation Committee of the Estonian National Council Maapäev issued the Estonian Declaration of Independence in Pärnu on 23 February 1918.


title: History of Estonia

text: After the collapse of the short-lived puppet government of the United Baltic Duchy and the withdrawal of German troops in November 1918, an Estonian Provisional Government retook office. A military invasion by the Red Army followed a few days later, however, marking the beginning of the Estonian War of Independence (1918–1920). The Estonian army cleared the entire territory of Estonia of the Red Army by February 1919. On 5–7 April 1919 the Estonian Constituent Assembly was elected.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 2 February 1920, the Treaty of Tartu was signed by the Republic of Estonia and the Russian SFSR. The terms of the treaty stated that Russia renounced in perpetuity all rights to the territory of Estonia. The first Constitution of Estonia was adopted on 15 June 1920. The Republic of Estonia obtained international recognition and became a member of the League of Nations in 1921.


title: History of Estonia

text: In nearby Finland similar circumstances resulted in a bloody civil war. Despite repeated threats from fascist movements, Finland became and remained a free democracy under the rule of law. By contrast Estonia, without a civil war, started as a democracy and was turned into a dictatorship in 1934.


title: History of Estonia

text: The first period of independence lasted 22 years, beginning in 1918. Estonia underwent a number of economic, social, and political reforms necessary to come to terms with its new status as a sovereign state. Economically and socially, land reform in 1919 was the most important step. Large estate holdings belonging to the Baltic nobility were redistributed among the peasants and especially among volunteers in the Estonian War of Independence. Estonia's principal markets became Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, and western Europe, with some exports to the United States and to the Soviet Union.


title: History of Estonia

text: The first constitution of the Republic of Estonia, adopted in 1920, established a parliamentary form of government. The parliament ("Riigikogu") consisted of 100 members elected for three-year terms. Between 1920 and 1934, Estonia had 21 governments.


title: History of Estonia

text: A mass anticommunist and antiparliamentary Vaps Movement emerged in the 1930s. In October 1933 a referendum on constitutional reform initiated by the Vaps Movement was approved by 72.7 percent. The league spearheaded replacement of the parliamentary system with a presidential form of government and laid the groundwork for an April 1934 presidential election, which it expected to win. However, the Vaps Movement was thwarted by a pre-emptive coup d'état on 12 March 1934, by Head of State Konstantin Päts, who then established his own authoritarian rule until a new constitution came to force. During the Era of Silence, political parties were banned, and the parliament was not in session between 1934 and 1938 as the country was ruled by decree by Päts. The Vaps Movement was officially banned and finally disbanded in December 1935. On 6 May 1936, 150 members of the league went on trial and 143 of them were convicted to long-term prison sentences. They were granted an amnesty and freed in 1938, by which time the league had lost most of its popular support.


title: History of Estonia

text: The interwar period was one of great cultural advancement. Estonian language schools were established, and artistic life of all kinds flourished. One of the more notable cultural acts of the independence period, unique in western Europe at the time of its passage in 1925, was a guarantee of cultural autonomy to minority groups comprising at least 3,000 persons, including Jews (see history of the Jews in Estonia). Historians see the lack of any bloodshed after a nearly "700-year German rule" as indication that it must have been mild by comparison.


title: History of Estonia

text: Estonia had pursued a policy of neutrality, but it was of no consequence after the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on 23 August 1939. In the agreement, the two great powers agreed to divide up the countries situated between them (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland), with Estonia falling in the Soviet "sphere of influence". After the invasion of Poland, the "Orzeł" incident took place when Polish submarine ORP "Orzeł" looked for shelter in Tallinn but escaped after the Soviet Union attacked Poland on 17 September. Estonia's lack of will and/or inability to disarm and intern the crew caused the Soviet Union to accuse Estonia of "helping them escape" and claim that Estonia was not neutral. On 24 September 1939, the Soviet Union threatened Estonia with war unless provided with military bases in the country—an ultimatum with which the Estonian government complied.


title: History of Estonia

text: Following the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Soviet invasion of Poland, warships of the Red Navy appeared off Estonian ports on 24 September 1939, and Soviet bombers began a threatening patrol over Tallinn and the nearby countryside. Moscow demanded Estonia assent to an agreement which allowed the USSR to establish military bases and station 25,000 troops on Estonian soil for the duration of the European war. The government of Estonia accepted the ultimatum, signing the corresponding agreement on 28 September 1939.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 12 June 1940, the order for a total military blockade of Estonia by the Soviet Baltic Fleet was given.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 14 June 1940, while the world's attention was focused on the fall of Paris to Nazi Germany a day earlier, the Soviet military blockade of Estonia went into effect, and two Soviet bombers downed Finnish passenger airplane "Kaleva" flying from Tallinn to Helsinki carrying three diplomatic pouches from the U.S. legations in Tallinn, Riga and Helsinki. US Foreign Service employee Henry W. Antheil Jr. was killed in the crash.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 16 June 1940, the Soviet Union invaded Estonia. Molotov accused the Baltic states of conspiracy against the Soviet Union and delivered an ultimatum to Estonia for the establishment of a government approved of by the Soviets.


title: History of Estonia

text: The Estonian government decided, given the overwhelming Soviet force both on the borders and inside the country, not to resist, to avoid bloodshed and open war. Estonia accepted the ultimatum, and the statehood of Estonia de facto ceased to exist as the Red Army exited from their military bases in Estonia on 17 June. The following day, some 90,000 additional troops entered the country. The military occupation of the Republic of Estonia was rendered "official" by a communist coup d'état supported by the Soviet troops, followed by "parliamentary elections" where all but pro-Communist candidates were outlawed. The "parliament" so elected proclaimed Estonia a Socialist Republic on 21 July 1940 and unanimously requested Estonia to be "accepted" into the Soviet Union. Those who had fallen short of the "political duty" of voting Estonia into the USSR, who had failed to have their passports stamped for so voting, were allowed to be shot in the back of the head by Soviet tribunals. Estonia was formally annexed into the Soviet Union on 6 August and renamed the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1979, the European Parliament would condemn "the fact that the occupation of these formerly independent and neutral States by the Soviet Union occurred in 1940 following the Molotov/Ribbentrop pact, and continues," and sought to help restore Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian independence through political means.


title: History of Estonia

text: The Soviet authorities, having gained control over Estonia, immediately imposed a regime of terror. During the first year of Soviet occupation (1940–1941) over 8,000 people, including most of the country's leading politicians and military officers, were arrested. About 2,200 of the arrested were executed in Estonia, while most of the others were moved to Gulag prison camps in Russia, from where very few were later able to return alive. On 14 June 1941, when mass deportations took place simultaneously in all three Baltic countries, about 10,000 Estonian civilians were deported to Siberia and other remote areas of the Soviet Union, where nearly half of them later perished. Of the 32,100 Estonian men who were forcibly relocated to Russia under the pretext of mobilisation into the Soviet army after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, nearly 40 percent died within the next year in the so-called "labour battalions" of hunger, cold and overworking. During the first Soviet occupation of 1940–41 about 500 Jews were deported to Siberia.


title: History of Estonia

text: Estonian graveyards and monuments were destroyed. Among others, the Tallinn Military Cemetery had the majority of gravestones from 1918 to 1944 destroyed by the Soviet authorities, and this graveyard became reused by the Red Army. Other cemeteries destroyed by the authorities during the Soviet era in Estonia include Baltic German cemeteries established in 1774 (Kopli cemetery, Mõigu cemetery) and the oldest cemetery in Tallinn, from the 16th century, Kalamaja cemetery.


title: History of Estonia

text: Many countries including the United States did not recognize the seizure of Estonia by the USSR. Such countries recognized Estonian diplomats and consuls who still functioned in many countries in the name of their former governments. These aging diplomats persisted in this anomalous situation until the ultimate restoration of Baltic independence.


title: History of Estonia

text: Ernst Jaakson, the longest-serving foreign diplomatic representative to the United States, served as vice-consul from 1934, and as consul general in charge of the Estonian legation in the United States from 1965 until reestablishment of Estonia's independence. On 25 November 1991, he presented credentials as Estonian ambassador to the United States.


title: History of Estonia

text: After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, and the Wehrmacht reached Estonia in July 1941, most Estonians greeted the Germans with relatively open arms and hoped to restore independence. But it soon became clear that sovereignty was out of the question. Estonia became a part of the German-occupied "Ostland". A "Sicherheitspolizei" was established for internal security under the leadership of Ain-Ervin Mere. The initial enthusiasm that accompanied the liberation from Soviet occupation quickly waned as a result, and the Germans had limited success in recruiting volunteers. The draft was introduced in 1942, resulting in some 3,400 men fleeing to Finland to fight in the Finnish Army rather than join the Germans. Finnish Infantry Regiment 200 (Estonian: "soomepoisid") was formed out of Estonian volunteers in Finland. With the Allied victory over Germany becoming certain in 1944, the only option to save Estonia's independence was to stave off a new Soviet invasion of Estonia until Germany's capitulation.


title: History of Estonia

text: By January 1944, the front was pushed back by the Soviet Army almost all the way to the former Estonian border. Narva was evacuated. Jüri Uluots, the last legitimate prime minister of the Republic of Estonia (according to the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia) prior to its fall to the Soviet Union in 1940, delivered a radio address that implored all able-bodied men born from 1904 through 1923 to report for military service. (Before this, Uluots had opposed Estonian mobilization.) The call drew support from all across the country: 38,000 volunteers jammed registration centers. Several thousand Estonians who had joined the Finnish army came back across the Gulf of Finland to join the newly formed Territorial Defense Force, assigned to defend Estonia against the Soviet advance. It was hoped that by engaging in such a war Estonia would be able to attract Western support for the cause of Estonia's independence from the USSR and thus ultimately succeed in achieving independence.


title: History of Estonia

text: The initial formation of the volunteer SS Estonian legion created in 1942 was eventually expanded to become a full-sized conscript division of the Waffen-SS in 1944, the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. The Estonian units saw action defending the Narva line throughout 1944.


title: History of Estonia

text: As the Germans started to retreat on 18 September 1944, Jüri Uluots, the last Prime Minister of the Estonian Republic prior to Soviet occupation, assumed the responsibilities of president (as dictated in the Constitution) and appointed a new government while seeking recognition from the Allies. On 22 September 1944, as the last German units pulled out of Tallinn, the city was re-occupied by the Soviet Red Army. The new Estonian government fled to Stockholm, Sweden, and operated in exile from 1944 until 1992, when Heinrich Mark, the prime minister of the Estonian government in exile acting as president, presented his credentials to incoming president Lennart Meri.


title: History of Estonia

text: The process of Jewish settlement in Estonia began in the 19th century, when in 1865 Russian Tsar Alexander II granted them the right to enter the region. The creation of the Republic of Estonia in 1918 marked the beginning of a new era for the Jews. Approximately 200 Jews fought in combat for the creation of the Republic of Estonia, and 70 of these men were volunteers. From the very first days of its existence as a state, Estonia showed tolerance towards all the peoples inhabiting its territories. On 12 February 1925, the Estonian government passed a law pertaining to the cultural autonomy of minority peoples. The Jewish community quickly prepared its application for cultural autonomy. Statistics on Jewish citizens were compiled. They totaled 3,045, fulfilling the minimum requirement of 3,000. In June 1926 the Jewish Cultural Council was elected and Jewish cultural autonomy was declared. Jewish cultural autonomy was of great interest to the global Jewish community. The Jewish National Endowment presented the Government of the Republic of Estonia with a certificate of gratitude for this achievement.


title: History of Estonia

text: There were, at the time of Soviet occupation in 1940, approximately 2,000 Estonian Jews. Many Jewish people were deported to Siberia along with other Estonians by the Soviets. It is estimated that 500 Jews suffered this fate. With the invasion of the Baltics, it was the intention of the Nazi government to use the Baltic countries as their main area of mass genocide. Consequently, Jews from countries outside the Baltics were shipped there to be exterminated. Out of the approximately 4,300 Jews in Estonia prior to the war, between 1,500 and 2,000 were entrapped by the Nazis, and an estimated 10,000 Jews were killed in Estonia after having been deported to camps there from Eastern Europe.


title: History of Estonia

text: There have been seven ethnic Estonians – Ralf Gerrets, Ain-Ervin Mere, Jaan Viik, Juhan Jüriste, Karl Linnas, Aleksander Laak and Ervin Viks – who have faced trials for crimes against humanity since the reestablishment of Estonian independence and the formation of the Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity. Markers were put in place for the 60th anniversary of the mass executions that were carried out at the Lagedi, Vaivara and Klooga (Kalevi-Liiva) camps in September 1944.


title: History of Estonia

text: The Baltic Germans had voluntarily evacuated to Germany (in accordance with Hitler's order) following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939.


title: History of Estonia

text: Almost all the remaining Estonian Swedes fled Aiboland in August 1944, often in their small boats to the Swedish island of Gotland.


title: History of Estonia

text: In World War II Estonia had suffered huge losses. Ports had been destroyed, and 45% of industry and 40% of the railways had become damaged. Estonia's population had decreased by one-fifth, about 200,000 people. Some 10% of the population (over 80,000 people) had fled to the West between 1940 and 1944, first to countries such as Sweden and Finland and then to other western countries, often by refugee ships such as the . More than 30,000 soldiers had been killed in action. In 1944 Russian air raids had destroyed Narva and one-third of the residential area in Tallinn. By the late autumn of 1944, Soviet forces had ushered in a second phase of Soviet rule on the heels of the German troops withdrawing from Estonia, and followed it up by a new wave of arrests and executions of people considered disloyal to the Soviets.


title: History of Estonia

text: An anti-Soviet pro-Nazi guerrilla movement known as the "Metsavennad" ("Forest Brothers") developed in the countryside, reaching its zenith in 1946–48. It is hard to tell how many people were in the ranks of the "Metsavennad"; however, it is estimated that at different times there could have been about 30,000–35,000 people. Probably the last Forest Brother was caught in September 1978, and killed himself during his apprehension.


title: History of Estonia

text: In March 1949, 20,722 people (2.5% of the population) were deported to Siberia. By the beginning of the 1950s, the occupying regime had suppressed the resistance movement.


title: History of Estonia

text: After the war the Communist Party of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ECP) became the pre-eminent organization in the republic. The ethnic Estonian share in the total ECP membership decreased from 90% in 1941 to 48% in 1952.


title: History of Estonia

text: After Stalin's death, Communist Party membership vastly expanded its social base to include more ethnic Estonians. By the mid-1960s, the percentage of ethnic Estonian membership stabilized near 50%. On the eve of perestroika the ECP claimed about 100,000 members; less than half were ethnic Estonians and they totalled less than 7% of the country's population.


title: History of Estonia

text: One positive aspect of the post-Stalin era in Estonia was the regranting of permission in the late 1950s for citizens to make contact with foreign countries. In the 1960s, Estonians were thus able to start watching Finnish television. This electronic "window to the West" afforded Estonians more information on current world affairs and more access to contemporary Western culture and thought than any other group in the Soviet Union.


title: History of Estonia

text: In the late 1970s, Estonian society grew increasingly concerned about the threat of cultural Russification to the Estonian language and national identity. By 1981, Russian was taught in the first grade of Estonian-language schools and was also introduced into Estonian pre-school teaching.


title: History of Estonia

text: Tallinn was selected as the host of the sailing events which led to controversy since many governments had not "de jure" recognized ESSR as part of the USSR. During the preparations to the Olympics, sports buildings were built in Tallinn, along with other general infrastructure and broadcasting facilities. This wave of investment included Tallinn Airport, Hotell Olümpia, Tallinn TV Tower, Pirita Yachting Centre and Linnahall.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 10 November 1982, Leonid Brezhnev died and was succeeded by Yuri Andropov, the former head of the KGB. Andropov introduced limited economic reforms and established an anti-corruption program. On 9 February 1984, Andropov died and was succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko who in turn died on 10 March 1985.


title: History of Estonia

text: By the beginning of the Gorbachev era, concern over the cultural survival of the Estonian people had reached a critical point. The ECP remained stable in the early perestroika years but waned in the late 1980s. Other political movements, groupings and parties moved to fill the power vacuum. The first and most important was the Estonian Popular Front, established in April 1988 with its own platform, leadership and broad constituency. The Greens and the dissident-led Estonian National Independence Party soon followed.


title: History of Estonia

text: The Estonian Sovereignty Declaration was issued on 16 November 1988. By 1989 the political spectrum had widened, and new parties were formed and re-formed almost daily. The republic's Supreme Soviet transformed into an authentic regional lawmaking body. This relatively conservative legislature passed an early declaration of sovereignty (16 November 1988); a law on economic independence (May 1989) confirmed by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union that November; a language law making Estonian the official language (January 1989); and local and republic election laws stipulating residency requirements for voting and candidacy (August, November 1989).


title: History of Estonia

text: Despite the emergence of the Popular Front and the Supreme Soviet as a new lawmaking body, since 1989 the different segments of the indigenous Estonian population had been politically mobilized by different and competing actors. The Popular Front's proposal to declare the independence of Estonia as a new, so-called "third republic" whose citizens would be all those living there at the moment, found less and less support over time.


title: History of Estonia

text: A grassroots Estonian Citizens' Committees Movement launched in 1989 with the objective of registering all pre-war citizens of the Republic of Estonia and their descendants in order to convene a Congress of Estonia. Their emphasis was on the illegal nature of the Soviet system and that hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of Estonia had not ceased to be citizens of the Estonian Republic which still existed "de jure", recognized by the majority of Western nations. Despite the hostility of the mainstream official press and intimidation by Soviet Estonian authorities, dozens of local citizens' committees were elected by popular initiative all over the country. These quickly organized into a nationwide structure, and by the beginning of 1990 over 900,000 people had registered themselves as citizens of the Republic of Estonia.


title: History of Estonia

text: The spring of 1990 saw two free elections and two alternative legislatures developed in Estonia. On 24 February 1990, the 464-member Congress of Estonia (including 35 delegates of refugee communities abroad) was elected by the registered citizens of the republic. The Congress of Estonia convened for the first time in Tallinn 11–12 March 1990, passing 14 declarations and resolutions. A 70-member standing committee (Eesti Komitee) was elected with Tunne Kelam as its chairman.


title: History of Estonia

text: In March 1991 a referendum was held on the issue of independence. This was somewhat controversial, as holding a referendum could be taken as signalling that Estonian independence would be established rather than "re"-established. There was some discussion about whether it was appropriate to allow the Russian immigrant minority to vote, or if this decision should be reserved exclusively for citizens of Estonia. In the end all major political parties backed the referendum, considering it most important to send a strong signal to the world. To further legitimise the vote, all residents of Estonia were allowed to participate. The result vindicated these decisions, as the referendum produced a strong endorsement for independence. Turnout was 82%, and 64% of all possible voters in the country backed independence, with only 17% against.


title: History of Estonia

text: Although the majority of Estonia's large Russian-speaking diaspora of Soviet-era immigrants did not support full independence, they were divided in their goals for the republic. In March 1990 some 18% of Russian speakers supported the idea of a fully independent Estonia, up from 7% the previous autumn, and by early 1990 only a small minority of ethnic Estonians were opposed to full independence.


title: History of Estonia

text: In the 18 March 1990, elections for the 105-member Supreme Soviet, all residents of Estonia were eligible to participate, including all Soviet-era immigrants from the U.S.S.R. and approximately 50,000 Soviet troops stationed there. The Popular Front coalition, composed of left and centrist parties and led by former Central Planning Committee official Edgar Savisaar, gained a parliamentary majority.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 8 May 1990, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Estonia (renamed the previous day) changed the name to the Republic of Estonia. Through a strict, non-confrontational policy in pursuing independence, Estonia managed to avoid the violence which Latvia and Lithuania incurred in the bloody January 1991 crackdowns and in the border customs-post guard murders that summer. During the attempted August coup in the U.S.S.R., Estonia was able to maintain constant operation and control of its telecommunications facilities, thereby offering the West a clear view into the latest developments and serving as a conduit for swift Western support and recognition of Estonia's own "confirmation" of independence on 20 August 1991. 20 August remains a national holiday in Estonia because of this. Russia as a republic of the U.S.S.R. formally recognized Estonia's independence on 25 August 1991 and called on the U.S.S.R. union government to follow suit. United States intentionally delayed recognition to 2 September, and the State Council of the Soviet Union issued its recognition on 6 September.


title: History of Estonia

text: Since the debates about whether the future independent Estonia would be established as a new republic or a continuation of the first republic were not yet complete by the time of the August coup, while the members of the Supreme Soviet generally agreed that independence should be declared rapidly, a compromise was hatched between the two main sides: instead of "declaring" independence, which would imply a new start, or explicitly asserting continuity, the declaration would "confirm" Estonia as a state independent of the Soviet Union, and willing to reestablish diplomatic relations of its own accord. The text of the statement was in Estonian and only a few paragraphs in length.


title: History of Estonia

text: After more than three years of negotiations, on 31 August 1994, the armed forces of Russia withdrew from Estonia. Since fully regaining independence Estonia has had sixteen governments with ten prime ministers: Mart Laar, Andres Tarand, Tiit Vähi, Mart Siimann, Siim Kallas, Juhan Parts, Andrus Ansip, Taavi Rõivas, Jüri Ratas and Kaja Kallas. The PMs of the interim government (1990–1992) were Edgar Savisaar and Tiit Vähi.


title: History of Estonia

text: Since the last Russian troops left in 1994, Estonia has been free to promote economic and political ties with Western Europe. Estonia opened accession negotiations with the European Union in 1998 and joined in 2004, shortly after becoming a member of NATO.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 28 June 1992, Estonian voters approved the constitutional assembly's draft constitution and implementation act, which established a parliamentary government with a president as chief of state and with a government headed by a prime minister. The Riigikogu, a unicameral legislative body, is the highest organ of state authority. It initiates and approves legislation sponsored by the prime minister. The prime minister has full responsibility and control over his cabinet.


title: History of Estonia

text: Parliamentary and presidential elections were held on 20 September 1992. Approximately 68% of the country's 637,000 registered voters cast ballots. Lennart Meri, an outstanding writer and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, won this election and became president. He chose 32-year-old historian and Christian Democratic Party founder Mart Laar as prime minister.


title: History of Estonia

text: In February 1992, and with amendments in January 1995, the Riigikogu renewed Estonia's 1938 citizenship law, which also provides equal civil protection to resident aliens. Elected on an ambitious programme of reform, Mart Laar's cabinet took several decisive measures (shock therapy). Fast privatization was pursued and the role of the state in the economy as well as in the social affairs was reduced dramatically. After an initial steep decline in GDP, the Estonian economy started to grow again in 1995. Changes came with a social price: the average life expectancy in Estonia in 1994 was lower than in Belarus, Ukraine and even Moldova. Among the vulnerable sectors of society, the radical reforms sparked an outrage. In January 1993, a pensioners' demonstration took place in Tallinn, as pensioners felt it was impossible to live with a pension as low as the one in effect at the time (260 EEK (around 20 EUR) a month). The meeting was aggressive and demonstrators attacked the minister of social affairs Marju Lauristin.


title: History of Estonia

text: The opposition won the 1995 election, but to a large extent continued with the previous governments' policies.


title: History of Estonia

text: In 1996, Estonia ratified a border agreement with Latvia and completed work with Russia on a technical border agreement. President Meri was re-elected in free and fair indirect elections in August and September in 1996. During parliamentary elections in 1999, the seats in the Riigikogu were divided as follows: the Estonian Centre Party received 28, the Pro Patria Union 18, the Estonian Reform Party 18, the People's Party Moderates (election cartel between Moderates and People's Party) 17, Coalition Party 7, Country People's Party (now People's Union of Estonia) 7, and the United People's Party's electoral cartel 6 seats. Pro Patria Union, the Reform Party, and the Moderates formed a government with Mart Laar as prime minister, whereas the Centre Party with the Coalition Party, People's Union, United People's Party, and members of parliament who were not members of factions formed the opposition in the Riigikogu.


title: History of Estonia

text: The 1999 Parliamentary election, with a 5% threshold and no electoral cartel allowed, resulted in a disaster for the Coalition Party, which achieved only seven seats together with two of its smaller allies. Estonian Ruralfolk Party, which participated the election on its own list, obtained seven seats as well.


title: History of Estonia

text: The programme of Mart Laar's government was signed by Pro Patria Union, the Reform Party, the Moderates, and the People's Party. The latter two merged soon after, so Mart Laar's second government is widely known as "Kolmikliit", or the Tripartite coalition. Notwithstanding the different political orientation of the ruling parties, the coalition stayed united until Laar resigned in December 2001, after the Reform Party had broken up the same coalition in Tallinn municipality, making opposition leader Edgar Savisaar the new mayor of Tallinn. After the resignation of Laar, the Reform Party and Estonian Centre Party formed a coalition that lasted until the next parliamentary election, in 2003.


title: History of Estonia

text: The Moderates joined with the People's Party on 27 November 1999, forming the People's Party Moderates.


title: History of Estonia

text: In fall 2001 Arnold Rüütel became the President of the Republic of Estonia, and in January 2002 Prime Minister Laar stepped down. On 28 January 2002, the new government was formed from a coalition of the centre-right Estonian Reform Party and the more left wing Centre Party, with Siim Kallas from the Reform Party of Estonia as Prime Minister.


title: History of Estonia

text: Following parliamentary elections in 2003, the seats were allocated as follows (the United People's Party failed to meet the 5% threshold):


title: History of Estonia

text: Voter turnout was higher than expected at 58%. The results saw the Centre Party win the most votes, but they were only 0.8% ahead of the new Res Publica party. As a result, both parties won 28 seats, which was a disappointment for the Centre Party who had expected to win the most seats. Altogether the right of centre parties won 60 seats, compared to only 41 for the left wing, and so were expected to form the next government. Both the Centre and Res Publica parties said that they should get the chance to try and form the next government, while ruling out any deal between themselves. President Rüütel had to decide who he should nominate as Prime Minister and therefore be given the first chance at forming a government. On 2 April he invited the leader of the Res Publica party, Juhan Parts, to form a government, and after negotiations a coalition government composed of Res Publica, the Reform Party and the People's Union of Estonia was formed on 10 April.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 14 September 2003, following negotiations that began in 1998, the citizens of Estonia were asked in a referendum whether or not they wished to join the European Union. With 64% of the electorate turning out, the referendum passed with a 66.83% margin in favor, 33.17% against. Accession to the EU took place on 1 May of the following year.


title: History of Estonia

text: In February 2004 the People's Party Moderates renamed themselves the Social Democratic Party of Estonia.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 8 May 2004, a defection of several Centre Party members to form a new party, the Social Liberal Party, over a row concerning the Centrists' "no" stance to joining the European Union changed the allocation of the seats in the Riigikogu. Social-liberals had eight seats, but a hope to form a new party disappeared by 10 May 2005, because most members in the social-liberal group joined other parties.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 24 March Prime Minister Juhan Parts announced his resignation following a vote of no confidence in the Riigikogu against Minister of Justice Ken-Marti Vaher, which was held on 21 March. The result was 54 pro (Social Democrats, Social Liberals, People's Union, Pro Patria Union and Reform Party) with no against or neutral MPs. 32 MPs (Res Publica and Centre Party) did not take part.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 4 April 2005, President Rüütel nominated Reform party leader Andrus Ansip as Prime Minister designate and asked him to form a new government, the eighth in twelve years. Ansip formed a government out of a coalition of his Reform Party with the People's Union and the Centre Party. Approval by the Riigikogu, which by law must decide within 14 days of his nomination, came on 12 April 2005. Ansip was backed by 53 out of 101 members of the Estonian parliament. Forty deputies voted against his candidature. The general consensus in the Estonian media seems to be that the new cabinet, on the level of competence, is not necessarily an improvement over the old one.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 18 May 2005, Estonia signed a border treaty with the Russian Federation in Moscow. The treaty was ratified by the Riigikogu on 20 June 2005. However, in the end of June the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed that it did not intend to become a party to the border treaty and did not consider itself bound by the circumstances concerning the object and the purposes of the treaty because the Riigikogu had attached a preambule to the ratification act that referenced earlier documents that mentioned the Soviet occupation and the uninterrupted legal continuity of the Republic of Estonia during the Soviet period. The issue remains unsolved and is the focus of European-level discussions.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 4 April 2006, Fatherland Union and Res Publica decided to form a united right-conservative party. The two parties joining was approved on 4 June by both parties in Pärnu. The joined party name is Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit (Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica).


title: History of Estonia

text: In September 2006, Toomas Hendrik Ilves was elected as the new president of Estonia. He defeated in the Electoral Assembly incumbent one-term president Arnold Rüütel.


title: History of Estonia

text: The 2007 parliamentary elections have shown an improvement in the scores of the Reform Party, gaining 12 seats and reaching 31 MPs; the Centre Party held, while the unified right-conservative Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica lost 16. Socialdemocrats gained 4 seats, while the Greens entered the Parliaments with 7 seats, at the expense of the agrarian People's Union which lost 6. The new configuration of the Estonian Parliament shows a prevalence of centre-left parties. The Centre Party, led by the mayor of Tallinn Edgar Savisaar, has been increasingly excluded from collaboration, since his open collaboration with Putin's United Russia party, real estate scandals in Tallinn, and the Bronze Soldier controversy, considered as a deliberate attempt of splitting the Estonian society by provoking the Russian minority. The lack of a concrete possibility for government alternance in Estonia has been quoted as a concern.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 14 September 2003, following negotiations that began in 1998, the citizens of Estonia were asked in a referendum whether or not they wished to join the European Union. With 64% of the electorate turning out the referendum passed with a 66.83% margin in favor, 33.17% against. Accession to the EU took place on 1 May of the following year.


title: History of Estonia

text: In its first European Parliament elections in 2004, Estonia elected three MEPs for the Social Democratic Party (PES), while the governing Res Publica Party and People's Union polled poorly, not being able to gain any of the other three MEP posts. The voter turnout in Estonia was one of the lowest of all member countries, at only 26.8%. A similar trend was visible in most of the new member states that joined the EU in 2004.


title: History of Estonia

text: The European Parliament election of 2009 in Estonia scored a 43.9% turnout – about 17.1% higher than during the previous election, and slightly above the European average of 42.94%. Six seats were up for taking in this election: two of them were won by the Estonian Centre Party. Estonian Reform Party, Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica, Social Democratic Party and an independent candidate Indrek Tarand (who gathered the support of 102,460 voters, only 1,046 votes less than the winner of the election) all won one seat each. The success of independent candidates has been attributed both to general disillusionment with major parties and the use of closed lists which rendered voters incapable of casting a vote for specific candidates in party lists.


title: History of Estonia

text: On 1 January 2011 Estonia adopted the euro. The enlargement of the eurozone was hailed as a good sign in a period of global financial crisis. However, the government cut down public service salaries; the only opposition, in the absence of organised unions, came from Estonian teachers, whose salary cuts were therefore limited.


title: History of Estonia

text: Estonian euro coins entered circulation on 1 January 2011. Estonia was the fifth of ten states that joined the EU in 2004, and the first ex-Soviet republic to join the eurozone. Of the ten new member states, Estonia was the first to unveil its design. It originally planned to adopt the euro on 1 January 2007; however, it did not formally apply when Slovenia did, and officially changed its target date to 1 January 2008, and later, to 1 January 2011. On 12 May 2010 the European Commission announced that Estonia had met all criteria to join the eurozone. On 8 June 2010, the EU finance ministers agreed that Estonia would be able to join the euro on 1 January 2011. On 13 July 2010, Estonia received the final approval from the ECOFIN to adopt the euro as from 1 January 2011. On the same date the exchange rate at which the kroon would be exchanged for the euro (€1 = 15.6466 krooni) was also announced. On 20 July 2010, mass production of Estonian euro coins began in the Mint of Finland.


title: History of Estonia

text: Being a member of the eurozone, NATO and the European Union, Estonia is the most integrated in Western European organizations of all Nordic states.


title: History of Estonia

text: Estonia–Russia relations remain tense. According to the Estonian Internal Security Service, Russian influence operations in Estonia form a complex system of financial, political, economic and espionage activities in the Republic of Estonia for the purposes of influencing Estonia's political and economic decisions in ways considered favourable to the Russian Federation and conducted under the sphere-of-influence doctrine known as "near abroad". According to the Centre for Geopolitical Studies, the Russian information campaign, which the centre characterises as a "real mud-throwing" exercise, had provoked a split in Estonian society amongst Russian speakers, inciting some to riot over the relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, a cenotaph commemorating the soldiers killed in World War II. Estonia regarded the 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia as an information operation intended to influence the decisions and actions of the Estonian government. While Russia denied any direct involvement in the attacks, hostile rhetoric in the media from the political elite influenced people to attack. Following the 2007 cyber-attacks, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) was established in Tallinn.


title: History of Estonia

text: In August 2011, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves was re-elected in a vote in parliament for the second five-year term. Center-right Reform Party was the biggest party in 2011 and 2015 parliamentary elections. Estonian prime minister Andrus Ansip resigned in March 2014, after nine years in office since 2005. He wanted his successor to lead the Reform Party into 2015 elections. In April 2014, Taavi Rõivas of the Reform party became new prime minister. In October 2016, Estonia's parliament elected Kersti Kaljulaid as the new president of Estonia. The role of president is a largely ceremonial. In November 2016, chairman of the Centre Party Jüri Ratas became the new prime minister of Estonia, after Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas had lost a parliamentary vote on confidence.


title: History of Estonia

text: In March 2019, Estonian parliamentary election the center-right opposition party Reform won the elections and ruling Centre was the second. Far-right Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) came third. After the election prime minister Ratas formed a new three-party coalition government with far-right EKRE and rightwing Isamaa


title: History of Estonia

text: In January 2021, prime minister Jüri Ratas resigned over a corruption scandal in his Centre Party. The leader of Reform party Kaja Kallas formed a new two-party coalition government between the Reform and Center parties. She was the first female prime minister of Estonia. Her father Siim Kallas was the founder of the Reform party and he was prime minister of Estonia in 2002–2003.


title: History of Estonia

text: After the formation of the new government in 2021, Estonia was the only country in the world that was led by elected women as the head of state and as the head of government: both the president, Kersti Kaljulaid, and prime minister, Kaja Kallas, were female.


title: History of Estonia

text: In the cabinet of Kaja Kallas there were also several women in other key positions, both foreign minister and finance minister were female. However, Mr. Alar Karis was sworn in as Estonia's sixth President on October 11, 2021.


title: History of Estonia

text: In July 2022, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas formed a new three-party coalition by her liberal Reform Party, the Social Democrats and the conservative Isamaa party. Her previous government had lost its parliamentary majority after the center-left Center Party left the coalition.


title: The Woman in the Window (novel)

text: The Woman in the Window is a thriller novel by American author AJ Finn, published by William Morrow on January 2, 2018.


title: The Woman in the Window (novel)

text: Anna Fox suffers from agoraphobia due to a traumatic car accident and lives a reclusive life at her large home in New York City. She recently separated from her husband, Ed, who has custody of their nine-year-old daughter Olivia. However, they frequently talk on the phone.


title: The Woman in the Window (novel)

text: To pass the time, Anna spends her days drinking too much alcohol, playing online chess, communicating with other recluses through the "Agora online forum," watching old movies, and meeting with her shrink and physical therapist. She also spends time spying on her neighbors, including the Russells, a family that moved in across the street. There is Ethan, the reserved and polite teenage son; Alistair, the controlling father; and Jane, a friendly woman with whom Anna shares many interests. One evening, while looking out the window, Anna witnesses Jane being stabbed and calls the police. The Russells deny that any sort of attack took place. The police, including detectives Little and Norelli, also don't believe Anna's story as another woman who claims to be Jane is alive and uninjured. Anna insists the woman claiming to be Jane is not the same woman she met before.


title: The Woman in the Window (novel)

text: Anna has a number of encounters with the Russells and becomes convinced that something is suspicious about them. After she receives an anonymous email with a picture of herself sleeping, she calls the police. A detective confronts her with the tragic truth: Her husband and daughter died in the car accident that triggered her agoraphobia, and she has been imagining her conversations with them. Knowing her medications can cause hallucinations, they theorize that Anna could have taken the picture and emailed it to herself. Anna realizes that the murder may have been a hallucination as well.


title: The Woman in the Window (novel)

text: Anna finds a picture she had taken of the Jane she met and shows it to Ethan. He breaks down and tells her the truth: Jane and Alistair are his adoptive parents, and Katie, the woman Anna assumed was Jane, is his biological mother. Katie tracked down the family in order to see her son again, but her frequent unwanted visits led to an altercation with Jane, which resulted in Katie being stabbed. Alistair and Jane hid the body and lied to the police.


title: The Woman in the Window (novel)

text: Anna urges Ethan to talk to the police, but he convinces her that he will talk his parents into turning themselves in. Ethan later sends a text confirming he and his parents are going to the police. That night, Anna realizes that Ethan mentioned something that he couldn't have known. She is startled by Ethan in her room, where he confesses that he has psychopathic tendencies, that he has been sneaking into her home at night to watch her, and that he has stalked other women as well. He reveals that he was the one who killed Katie because of his resentment about the abuse and neglect he faced as a child under her care, and that his father knew, but kept it a secret to protect Jane.


title: The Woman in the Window (novel)

text: Realizing that he intends to kill her too, Anna flees. He pursues her to the roof where she pushes him through an old skylight to his death. Alistair is arrested as an accessory to Katie's murder, and Anna slowly starts her life over again.


title: The Woman in the Window (novel)

text: The novel stayed at number one for two weeks on the "New York Times" best sellers list. Book Marks reported that 38% of critics gave the book a "rave" review, and another 38% of the critics expressed "positive" impressions, based on a sample of 13 reviews.


title: The Woman in the Window (novel)

text: According to Alexandra Alter in "The New York Times", the book is "strikingly similar" to the earlier published novel "Saving April" by Sarah A. Denzil, with "parallels [that] are numerous, and detailed." The book's publisher responded "the outline of "The Woman in the Window," including characters and main plot points, was fully formed by Sept. 20, 2015, before "Saving April" was released."


title: The Woman in the Window (novel)

text: A 2019 "New Yorker" article noted that Finn's "The Woman in the Window" has the same setup, without attribution, as the film "Copycat". When notified of this, director Jon Amiel said, "Wow. [It's probably] not actionable, but certainly worth noting, and one would have hoped that the author might have noted it himself."


title: The Woman in the Window (novel)

text: A Netflix film based on the novel directed by Joe Wright, with a screenplay by Tracy Letts and starring Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Fred Hechinger, Wyatt Russell, Brian Tyree Henry, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Julianne Moore was released on May 14, 2021.


title: The Woman in the Window (novel)

text: A parody version of this book "The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window".


title: Era Vulgaris (album)

text: Era Vulgaris is the fifth studio album by American rock band Queens of the Stone Age. Recorded from July 2006 to April 2007, it was released on June 11, 2007 in the United Kingdom and June 12 in the United States, having been released on June 8 in other countries. The single "Sick, Sick, Sick" was released in May, followed by second single "3's & 7's" in early June, and third single "Make It wit Chu" in October. The album debuted at No. 14 on the U.S. "Billboard" 200 charts, selling 52,000 copies in its first week. It reached top ten positions in other countries, such as No. 7 in the UK, No. 5 in Canada, and No. 4 in Australia. It was the band's last album with Interscope Records.


title: Era Vulgaris (album)

text: While 2002's "Songs for the Deaf" was said to be inspired by frontman Josh Homme's tedious drives through the Southern Californian desert, the inspiration for "Era Vulgaris" came from his daily drives through Hollywood. He described the record as "dark, hard, and electrical, sort of like a construction worker" and said "it's like dirt, clearly seen". The album's title refers to the Latin term for Common Era. The title was chosen by Homme because he thought "it sounds like 'the Vulgar Era', which I like, because that sounds like something that I would like to be part of... I mean I think we're in it, and I'm stoked". Two tracks from the album had previously been released or performed elsewhere. "Into the Hollow" had been performed by Homme and Chris Goss as The Fififf Teeners (with the two also producing "Era Vulgaris"), and "Make It wit Chu" had been recorded as a Desert Sessions track, as well as appearing on the live album "Over the Years and Through the Woods".


title: Era Vulgaris (album)

text: In June 2006, in an interview on the Australian radio station Triple J, bassist Jesse F. Keeler from Death from Above 1979 revealed that he would be playing bass on an upcoming Queens of the Stone Age album, but that he would more than likely not be touring with the band due to his desire to spend more time with his girlfriend. Eventually, on his band's internet forum, Keeler revealed that he would not be appearing on the album due to conflicting schedules. In a July interview with "NME", Homme confirmed that the band was back in the studio and writing, but he remained unwilling to reveal who would appear in the band on the new record, stating, "That's not a healthy question. You'll ruin the surprise. We've gotta keep our cool." The album was expected to include guest performances by Trent Reznor, Julian Casablancas, Mark Lanegan, Billy Gibbons, and (jokingly) deceased humorist Erma Bombeck. Of these, however, only Casablancas' and Lanegan's tracks appear on the U.S. release: Casablancas performed synth guitar and backing vocals on "Sick, Sick, Sick", while Lanegan sang backing vocals on "River in the Road". Scheduling conflicts prevented Gibbons from appearing on the record, while the album's title track (featuring Reznor) was released separately on the "You Know What You Did" promotional CD and the UK edition of the album.


title: Era Vulgaris (album)

text: The album was recorded with "exactly zero input from [record label] Interscope Records" between July 2006 and April 2007 at Cherokee Studios in Hollywood, Steakhouse Studios in Los Angeles, and Sound City Studios in Van Nuys. It was mixed at Bay 7 Studios in North Hollywood. The album was recorded and mixed by Alain Johannes, and produced by Josh Homme and Chris Goss under the name The Fififf Teeners. The primary contributors to the recording were Homme, Troy van Leeuwen, Joey Castillo, Johannes, and Goss.


title: Era Vulgaris (album)

text: In an interview with SuicideGirls on June 16, 2007, Van Leeuwen said, "We basically started a year ago. And like I said, we didn't really have anything written. So it was a long process. It was the longest I've ever taken to make a record, frankly. I've made records over the process of a year but this was the first time it's ever been my total focus for that long. This was the first time I've ever done that... total focus for 10 months."


title: Era Vulgaris (album)

text: Goss and Johannes were replaced by Dean Fertita (keyboard) and Michael Shuman (bass) for later bonus track recordings and the subsequent supporting tour. Regarding the band's line-up changes for "Era Vulgaris", Homme commented, "I like combinations that no one would expect... it's the cool part of any surprise party."


title: Era Vulgaris (album)

text: "Era Vulgaris" displays influences from many different genres. The album departs from the softer, hollow-body guitar sound of their previous album "Lullabies to Paralyze" with heavy, crunchy guitars and some electronic influences. "Rolling Stone" noted the influence of Gary Numan "all over this record". Musically, the album has been described as "brand new retro", a fusion of "punk, rock, blues, and southern grit" (in an "FHM" review), and slower, moodier, and groggier than the band's previous efforts.


title: Era Vulgaris (album)

text: Shortly after the album's announcement in February 2007, a video was posted on the band's official website showing Homme, Castillo, and Van Leeuwen jamming. Along with brief footage of the recording session for "Misfit Love", the last six or seven seconds of the video contained footage of the recording of "3's & 7's" accompanied by studio-mastered audio. A second video of the recording of the album surfaced subsequently on YouTube, depicting the band (this time including Johannes) recording a new track, "Turning on the Screw", in the studio.


title: Era Vulgaris (album)

text: In early April, the band's website was updated with a 37-second excerpt from "Sick, Sick, Sick". This was replaced by the song "3's and 7's" in its entirety, which was later removed. Fan site thefade.net announced a promotional contest for fans to win a "special package" from the band, confirmed as legitimate by the band's webmaster. On April 13, packages were sent to selected winners containing a CD entitled "You Know What You Did" with the sole track "Era Vulgaris", which Homme confirmed would not be appearing on the record despite being the title track, although it was included as a bonus track on the UK edition.


title: Era Vulgaris (album)

text: The song "The Fun Machine Took a Shit & Died" was recorded for a CD single released with pre-ordered copies of the album at Insound.com and Newbury Comics, and it later appeared as a bonus track on the Brazilian, German, and Japanese editions of the album.


title: Era Vulgaris (album)

text: The full track "Sick, Sick, Sick" was leaked online, countered by the posting of a promotional video to the band's site featuring a "sales pitch" for "Era Vulgaris" by two anthropomorphic lightbulbs, followed by an official streaming of "Sick, Sick, Sick" with lyrics displayed in the background.


title: Era Vulgaris (album)

text: On May 2, 2007, Homme, Van Leeuwen, and new band member Dean Fertita appeared on London radio station Xfm, performing an acoustic set that included the tracks "3's & 7's", "Into the Hollow", and "Suture Up Your Future".