Estonian Swedes - language, history, culture

The Estonian Swedish-speaking minority lived (just some hundred of them still do) mostly in the northwestern coastal areas of Estonia. Before the Second World War there were about 8 000 of them. Some of the islands off the Latvian and Estonian coasts were totally Swedish speaking (Runö in Riga bay (or: the bay of Riga); Ormsö close to the “capital” of this population, Haapsalu). In connection with the Second World War the vast majority of them were forced to leave their homeland - Soviet Union military forces demanded their areas for bases. read more ...