Like many former Soviet republics, Estonia emerged from the Soviet collapse saddled with the debris of a Moscow-oriented economy; sprawling, military-focused heavy industries; and a backward agricultural sector reliant on cheap labour and backbreaking manual work.
The world’s first country to digitise 100% of its government services in 2024 had a mere 28.6% of its population connected to the internet in the year 2000.
Tucked in the Baltics across Finland, few former Soviet states have done as remarkably well as Estonia since the restoration of its independence in 1991.
