Pakri islands (, ) are two

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n islands in the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...

of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

: Suur-Pakri and Väike-Pakri ( and ). Administratively the islands are part of the town of

Paldiski Paldiski is a seaside Populated places in Estonia, town in northwestern Estonia, located on the Pakri Peninsula and adjacent Pakri Islands, Pakri islands in the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea. It is the administrative centre of the Lääne- ...

. For centuries the two islands were inhabited by

Estonian Swedes The Estonian Swedes (, or ''aibofolke'', "island people"; , or ''rannarootslased'', "coastal Swedes") are a Swedish language, Swedish-speaking minority traditionally residing in the coastal areas and islands of what is now western and northern ...

, until during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

their entire civilian population was forced to leave.

Etymology

The Swedish name of the islands ''Rågöarna'' means ''Rye Islands'' - historically

rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...

was the primary crop grown on the island. Thus ''Stora Rågö'' and ''Lilla Rågö'' mean ''Big Rye Island'' and ''Small Rye Island'', respectively. Alternative names for the two islands are ''Västra Rågö''/''Västerö'' and ''Östra Rågö''/''Österö'' (''West Island'' and ''East Island''). In terms of area Väike-Pakri (''Lesser Pakri'') is actually somewhat larger than Suur-Pakri (''Greater Pakri''). The reason for this contradiction is probably that Suur-Pakri had more inhabitants and better farming lands and was reckoned as more important.

Geography

The islands lie a few kilometers off the Estonian coast. Väike-Pakri lies 3 km west of the town center of

on the Pakri Peninsula, separated from it by an over 20 m deep bay. The shallow 3 km wide Kurkse strait separates the islands from the mainland in south. The area of Väike-Pakri, the eastern island, is 12.9 km², Suur-Pakri covers 11.6 km² (8th and 9th largest islands in Estonia). Väike-Pakri is also higher than Suur-Pakri (17 m and 8 m, respectively). Both islands are about 6 km long (in southeast–northwest direction) and 2-2.5 km wide. A few

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

s are situated in the 1-1.5 km wide and shallow (2–4 m deep) strait between the two islands. A

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

cliff borders the northern coast of both islands and also the eastern coast of Väike-Pakri. Part of the Baltic Klint, it rises up to 4 m on Suur-Pakri and up to 13 m on Väike-Pakri. Both islands are essentially part of a larger limestone plateau in Northern Estonia.

Villages

Before the Second World War the two islands had 5 villages, three on Suur-Pakri and two on Väike-Pakri. Suur-Pakri *Storbyn () (100 inhabitants in 1935) *Strandbyn or Åsbyn () (59) *Bisagidbyn () (38) Väike-Pakri *Storbyn () (88) *Lillbyn () (72) File:Suur küla (Storbyn), Suur Pakrisaar (Stora Rågö) SLS 443 11 - 1934.jpg, alt=, Suurküla (Storby) on Suur-Pakri in 1934 File:Suur küla (Storbyn), Suur Pakrisaar (Stora Rågö) SLS 443 9 - 1934.jpg, alt=, Suurküla (Storby) on Suur-Pakri in 1934 File:Ranna küla (Åsbyn), Suur Pakrisaar (Stora Rågö) SLS 443 12 - 1934.jpg, alt=, Ranna küla (Åsbyn) on Suur-Pakri in 1934 File:Irjas och Mickels och Oskit kvarnar, Rågöarna 1932 SLS 451 19.jpg, alt=, Windmills on Pakri Islands in 1932

History

When the people started to live in the islands, is unknown. In 1345, five Swedish families bought the western island from Padise monastery. According to the 1934

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

in Estonia, the islands had 354 inhabitants, all of them

Swedes Swedes (), or Swedish people, are an ethnic group native to Sweden, who share a common ancestry, Culture of Sweden, culture, History of Sweden, history, and Swedish language, language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countries, ...

except for 13

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

. There were 5 villages, a total of 119 households, a small folk museum (opened in 1935, closed in 1940) and both islands had their own church and school. Following the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact, the outbreak of World War II, and the Soviet ultimatums to Estonia in September 1939, all of the islanders were soon forced to leave, as the islands became a Soviet military base. Most of the local Swedes left for

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

before the second Soviet invasion of Estonia in 1944. After World War II, Väike-Pakri had a few civilian inhabitants until 1965. During the 1944-1991 Soviet occupation of Estonia, the two islands were used as a military

proving ground A proving ground is an installation or reservation in which technology such as weapons, military tactics and automobile prototypes are experimented with or tested. Proving grounds can be operated by government bodies or civilian industries. The ...

for aerial bombardment. In 1952, the Soviet military built a narrow embankment (consisting of several consecutive rock dams and wooden bridges) to connect the two main islands and some of the islets between them. After the last Russian military units left the islands in 1994, the Estonian authorities started to clear the area of

unexploded ordnance Unexploded ordnance (UXO, sometimes abbreviated as UO) and unexploded bombs (UXBs) are explosive weapons (bombs, shell (projectile), shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines, cluster munition, and other Ammunition, munitions) that did not e ...

. Thousands of explosive devices were destroyed and the work was mostly completed by 1997. During the land reform after the 1991 restoration of the independence of Estonia some of the land in the islands was returned to its pre-war owners. The northern parts of the islands and the southern part of Väike-Pakri were incorporated to Pakri Landscape Conservation Area, created in 1998 to protect the limestone cliffs, alvars and rare species. In 2004, the islands got their first permanent inhabitant in decades, when a person born there during the Second World War returned to rebuild his parents' farm. At the end of 2009 the islands had 6 permanent inhabitants.

Climate

References

External links

The Pakri Islands' Development Foundation
{{Authority control Estonian islands in the Baltic Landforms of Harju County Gulf of Finland