ABSTRACT
Estonia belongs to the group of Baltic states which have always occupied a very specific position among former Soviet Union republics and post-Soviet successor states. In the 1920-30s, the Baltic states were not part of the USSR and, unlike the other Union republics, had a history of independent statehood. During the Soviet years, the number of non-Estonians increased from 23,0 in 1945 to 602,000 in 1989. Since a majority of the immigrants differed from the indigenous populations in several important respects, the demographic change also led to new political and socio-economic cleavages. The liberalization attempted under glasnost and perestroika encouraged aspirations among Estonians. Emerging political pluralism and popular mobilization in Estonia manifested in the form of environmental protests in Spring 1987, especially by students at Tartu University, against the threat of the expanded phosphate mining. Estonian national movement combined the issues of national liberation with the tasks of advancing political democratization.
