Last modified: 2023-06-03 by zachary harden
Keywords: estonia | subdivisions |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
by Antonio Broto, 31 July 2001
See also:
My knowledge of Estonian is close to nil, but I did do some
checking with a dictionary and with a colleague teaching
political science at the University of Tartu. 'Linn' in Estonian
means 'castle' and also 'city', 'town' (as in Tallinn -City of
the Danes), 'linnad' is plural. 'Vallad' is plural of 'vald',
which as far as I could gather from the dictionary, originally
means parish. From what I was told about Estonian administrative
structure, the 'vallad' are rural municipalities while the
'linnad' are urban municipalities. 'Maakond' means county or
province, 'maakonnad' is plural. IIRC I have seen the term
'district' is used for 'maakon' in vexillological literature,
though 'county' was the translation offered from Tartu today. The
1993 local government act changed the relationship between the
various layers and subdivisions. The counties, maakonad, are no
longer a part of the local government structure, instead they
have been transformed into regional departments of the central
government.
Jan Oscar Engene, 13 June 1997
According to estonian site some linguistic comments. There are
4 sections for estonian state symbols. 1st one (Eesti vabariigi)
is for state symbols . 2nd (Eesti maakonnad) for 1st level
administrative divisions (maakond) . 3rd (Eesti vallad ja alevid)
for 2nd level rural municipalities (valla & alev) . 4th
(Eesti linnad) for cities (linn)
Gvido Pētersons, 10 January 1999
Estonia (like in Latvia too) have 2 level administrative
divisions. Administrative means with selfgovernment. 1st one is
district (maakond). There are 15 districts. 2nd order
administrative units are cities (linn) and rural parishes
(valla). There are also boroughs (alev), former soviet time
townships (alevik). Boroughs have some limited selfgoverning
rules inside of parishes (valla).
Gvido Pētersons, 12 January 1999
A word about the flags of the counties (maakoad). These are
all based on the same model: Horizontal bicolour of white over
green with the county arms in the centre of the white stripe. The
book _EEsti vapid ja lipud: 16 sajand-1940_ by Tiiu Oja and Eero
Medijainen (Tallinn, 1993) says the county flags were confirmed
in 1939. Many Estonian civic flags existed before the Soviet
occupation, including most of the county flags.
Jan Oscar Engene, 13 June 1997
I have dug into the Flag Bulletin archives and found an article by Arnold Rabbow that was published in FB Vol. III, No. 2 [10], Winter 1963-64, entitled "The Last 365 Days of Freedom: District Flags of Estonia" which is about the 'maakonnad' flags of white over green with the arms centered on the white stripe. Although much of the information is the same as that posted on the Estonian web site at <www.rk.ee>, there are some significant differences, particularly in the number of maakonnad there are. According to Rabbow, there were 11 maakonnad; the ee website says 15. Rabbow lists one not on that site and that site lists 5 not in the Rabbow article. Rabbow gives the arms of the two maakonnad which are listed on the site without illustrations ("POLE VEEL OLEMAS ... ...ON TULEMAS" whatever that means), Harjumaa and Valgamaa. Here is a chart listing the maakonnad from each source and the differences in or the additional arms listed in the FB.
web site |
Differences in Arms/flag in FB |
1. Harjumaa |
1. Harjumaa White Latin Cross on red |
2. Hiiumaa | NOT LISTED |
3. Ida-Virumaa | NOT LISTED |
4. Jõgevamaa | NOT LISTED |
5. Järvamaa | 2. Järvamaa Waves do not touch edge of shield |
6. Läänemaa | 3. Läänemaa |
7. Lääne-Virumaa | 4. Virumaa |
8. Põlvamaa | NOT LISTED |
9. Pärnumaa | 5. Pärnumaa |
NOT LISTED | 6. Petserimaa Yellow harp on blue |
10. Raplamaa | NOT LISTED |
11. Saaremaa | 7. Saaremaa Waves do not touch edge of shield |
12. Tartumaa | 8. Tartumaa |
13. Valgamaa | 9. Valgamaa Div. diag. from canton, 4 W 5-pointed stars/B over W |
14. Viljandimaa | 10. Viljandimaa |
15. Võrumaa | 11. Võrumaa |
According to Rabbow, the arms were granted to the
11 maakonnad on 5 February 1937 by decisions No. 50-60 of the
Head of State (President Konstantin Päts) and published in the
"Estonian State Gazette" ("Riigi Teataja") of
31 March, 1937, No. 26, Arts. 224-234. He also says the see
"EESTI, Teatmeteos, IV Osa, Kultuur, ERS-i ja EükS-i
väljaanne" (Geislingen/St.: 1949), plate IV. Eight of the
11 district arms weredepicted on two Estonian welfare stamp
issues of 1939 and 1940. The flags were granted to the 11
maakonnad on 7 August 1939 by President Päts; the decree was
published in the "State Gazette" of 15 August 1939, No.
68, Art. 554. It was signed by President Päts, Prime Minister
Charles Eenpalu, and the Minister of Justice A. Assor (acting for
the Minister of the Interior). The Soviet union annexed Estonia
on 6 August 1940; the 11 maakonnad were abolished formally in
October 1950 when 39 rayony (administrative units) were
established. I'm not sure what happened after 1989. Rabbow says
the flags were all specified by the 1939 decree to be 110 x 220
cm (1:2) with the arms to be 42 cm in height.
Dave Martucci, 20 June 1997
At the end of the Second World War there were 11 counties
(maakonnad, singular - maakond). 1945 Petserimaa is divided
between Pskov Region in Russia SFSR and Võrumaa and Tartumaa in
Estonian SSR (10 counties). 1946 new county of Hiiumaa is added
(11 counties). 1949 new counties of Jõgevamaa and Jõhvimaa are
added (13 counties).
On 26 September, 1950 all counties are divided between 39
districts (rajoonid, singular - rajoon). This were Abja, Antsla,
Elva, Haapsalu, Harju, Hiiumaa, Jõgeva, Jõhvi, Kallaste, Keila,
Kilingi-Nõmme, Kingissepa (1950-1952 Kuressaare), Kiviõli,
Kose, Lihula, Loksa, Mustvee, Märjamaa, Orissaare, Otepää,
Paide, Põltsamaa, Põlva, Pärnu, Pärnu-Jaagupi, Rakvere,
Rapla, Räpina, Suure-Jaani, Tapa, Tartu, Tõrva, Türi, Valga,
Vastseliina, Viljandi, Väike-Maarja, Vändra, Võru.
From 1952 to 1953 there were also 3 regions (oblastid, singular -
oblast) - Pärnu, Tallinn, Tartu. All 39 districts were then
subdivisions of regions.
1957 Loksa and Pärnu were abolished (37 districts).
1959 Antsla, Jõhvi, Kallaste, Kilingi-Nõmme, Kiviõli, Kose,
Mustvee, Orissaare, Otepää, Pärnu-Jaagupi, Suure-Jaani,
Tõrva, Türi, Vastseliina were abolished (23 districts).
1961 Lihula, Räpina abolished (21 districts).
1962 Abja, Elva, Keila, Märjamaa, Põltsamaa, Tapa,
Väike-Maarja, Vändra were abolished. Pärnu was added. (14
districts)
1964 Kohtla-Järve was added. (15 districts)
The districts were divided to urban settlements (towns (linnad,
singular - linn) and boroughs (alevid, singular - alev)) and to
rural municipalities (külanõukogud, singular - külanõukogu).
The number of these changed also over the period. 1986 there were
33 towns, 24 boroughs, 189 rural municipalities.
In addition to the districts there were 6 towns under direct
government administration. Kohtla-Järve, Narva, Pärnu,
Sillamäe, Tallinn, Tartu. These were not part of the districts
even the four of these were sites for the district
administration. Tallinn was divided to 4 subdivisions
(linnarajoonid, singular - linnarajoon). Mererajoon, Kalinini,
Lenini, Oktoobri.
On 1 January, 1990 all districts were renamed to counties. You
have to note that the borders of current counties and
municipalities don't match with the borders during the first
Estonian Republic even if the names are same.
Source: Estonian Encyclopedia.
Erki Kurrikoff, 8 April 2001