Traits fondamentaux de la structure géographique de l'Estonie :à la charnière de la Fenno-scandie et du monde slave À la mémoire et en l'honneur de Georges Chabot et d'Edgar Kant

摘要

Basic features of Estonia 's geographical structure. Estonia, a Finnish nation of the eastern part of the Baltic area, is one of the "non-native " groups of the U.S.S.R., in the same way as it used to be part of the Empire of the Tsars after the brief episode of Independence (1920-1940). Its strategic position, in control of the Gulf of Finland and that of Riga, can make it look like another Denmark, geographically speaking, with the same natural features, such as its general outline with a sort of continental peninsula and a cluster of isles. Estonia is a « non-native » nation in front of the Slavonic and orthodox eastern world, not only because of its linguistic kinship with the big family of Uralic languages, but also because of its conversion to the Roman catholic faith at the beginning of the Northern Middle Ages, then its joining the Lutheran Reformation under the German and Swedish influences during the XVIth century, and lastly because of its traditional affinities with the Finno-Scandinavian " cultural circle " in the administrative, political, legal, economical and social fields. As an original nation, Estonia has been able to preserve its identity throughout history. Yet, being a small country, it had to undergo a number of exterior influences imposed by real occupation : successively Danish, German (military orders), Polish, Swedish and Russian — the Russian occupation is still going on at present. Estonia's destiny still depends today on Russia's treatment of the minor Baltic peoples : to that effect, Lettonia and Lithuania are, at present, as apprehensive as Estonia about the future.