Aiboland (also known as Swedish Estonia and Egeland) is the

Estonian Swedish Estonian Swedish ( sv, estlandssvenska; et, rannarootsi keel, lit=Coastal Swedish) are the eastern varieties of Swedish that were spoken in the formerly Swedish-populated areas of Estonia (locally known as '' Aiboland'') on the islands of Orm ...

name for the historically Swedish-speaking areas and towns of northern and western

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

. Historical Aiboland encompasses Nuckö, Ormsö, Runö, Odensholm, Dagö, Ösel, Moon, Nargö, Rågöarna, and the towns around Hapsal on the Estonian mainland. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, in the summer of 1944, nearly all of the Estonian Swedes living in Aiboland fled to Sweden before the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

invaded An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...

the Baltic states.

External links

Aibolands Museum
in Haapsalu Historical regions in Estonia Swedish diaspora {{sweden-hist-stub