Estonia's first national park

Among the vast output of books in the Estonian language during the Soviet era is a beautiful coffee table book published in 1983 titled Lahemaa Rahvaspark. It appeared 12 years after the creation of Estonia’s first national park, and the first within the Soviet Union.

How the initiative sneaked through is a tribute to those who led it. July 1971 was the height of the Cold War, Leonid Brezhnev, the key Soviet player. His politburo had little interest in supporting national parks, for fear of encouraging nationalism among the socialist republics. Therefore, the proponents invoked an obscure decree of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s made on 16 September 1921 on nature protection (when Estonia was independent). Much is made of this in the book.

“The area suitable for establishing a national park should display as few traces of human action as possible and represent the typical and yet unique features of a given country,” the foreword says in its English translation. “Lahemaa National Park corresponds to those demands in every respect.”  

Lahemaa National Park, from the visit Estonia website

The 748km2 of indented coastline, erratic boulders, villages, forest, rivers, bogs and meadows are a must-see for visitors and locals alike, and yet we spent little time there. A restful stay at a summer house near Altja, cycling west in the rain, and then camping at Tsitre at the western edge of Lahemaa, where we cooked parasol mushrooms under the roof of a picnic table at a rainy RMK campsite.

From the book, I am informed that 73% of the area is in bogland and forest, the highest point is 115 metres above sealevel, the average temperature is 4.7 degC, and the average annual rainfall, 600 millimetres.

Of interest are the chapters on geology, rivers and lakes, stone fields and alvars, meadows and bogs, forests, and the impacts of human habitation.

The Lonely Planet Guide in two markedly different editions (2016 and 2024) play up the virtues of Lahemaa, particularly the local fauna, most of which one is unlikely to see, among them, beavers, elk, lynx, bears and wolves. We saw none of these anywhere in Estonia. The closest were roe deer dashing across a road in forest, and a doglike animal on Saaremaa also crossing a road in farmland and disappearing into a hedgerow. Too big for a dog or fox, it seemed to us, possibly a jackal. We had read that this pest animal had been introduced to the island.       

Back to Lahemaa and a book published in 1983 discussing the area’s history, and itself now a piece of history. Celebrating the end of the traditional life of farmers and fishers to give way to collective primary production, the writers could hardly have predicted the momentous changes afoot in Estonia, started by premier Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, leading to the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991.

Estonia today has six national parks, covering a total area of 2,441km2, or 244,100 hectares. Lahemaa is the largest, noting that its area has been extended by 13% since its establishment.