Soviet History in Estonia

A small museum showcasing various communication equipment and laptops in the middle of the southeast Estonia countryside.

During the Soviet era, the spire of this longstanding church was used as a radio transmission tower.

This 16th-century cemetery became a recreational park during the Soviet occupation—today it's a little bit of both.

An underground nightclub helped spark a "Singing Revolution."

This striking memorial is one of Estonia’s most controversial Soviet leftovers.

A statue of the Soviet leader still stands in a quiet corner of Estonia’s most Russian city.

A series of concentric circles represented a bold new experiment in socialist urban planning, and it notoriously difficult to get around.

For the last century, this international border within a small town has appeared and disappeared various times.

Relics from an era long gone, sit idle outside this Estonian museum.

A clerical error gave rise to this imaginary micronation in the southwestern corner of Estonia.

Rusted cars, trucks, and buses form a fascinating collection of Soviet-era machinery.

This Soviet-era "closed town" was a top secret uranium producer often left off of maps.

An abandoned textile factory on the "island of crows" was home to Estonia's first workers' strike.

Wars fought and wars won are remembered by these abandoned bunker ruins.

The secret cells in the basement of the KGB's Estonian "Grey House" have been preserved as a grim Cold War museum.

This soviet pilot's graveyard is filled with headstones made of airplane fins.