The Estonia–Russia border, known in Estonia as the "temporary line of control" (Estonian: Ajutine kontrolljoon) is the disputed border between the Republic of Estonia (EU and NATO member) and the Russian Federation (CIS and CSTO member). The border is long. It emerged during World War I, in 1918, as Estonia declared its independence from the then warring Russian and German Empires. The border goes mostly along the national, administrative and ethnic boundaries that have gradually formed since the 13th century. The border is a subject of Estonian–Russian dispute that was supposed to be resolved with the signing of the Border Agreement, but neither Russia nor Estonia has ratified it. It is an external border of the European Union.
In September 2022, Estonia closed its borders to most Russian citizens in response to the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 13 September 2023, Estonia banned vehicles with vehicle registration plates of Russia from entering its territory, in accordance with a decision by the European Union. In 2025 Estonia closed access to the Saatse boot followed the sighting of armed Russian soldiers in the disputed territory.
History
Origins of the border
Until the 13th century no strict borders existed between the Slavic and Finnic peoples that populated northeastern Europe. Their mutual relationships relied on the military and dynastic alliances, tributes and religious proselytism, occasionally interrupted by military raids. Major powers in the region were the Teutonic Order and Novgorod Republic that encompassed Pskov, Karelia and Izhora that conducted trade i.a. via Estonian lands seeing them as tributaries.Zayats D., Manakov A. Will there be new Russian-Estonian border? (Быть ли новой российско-эстонской границе?) // Pskov Regionological Journal (Псковский регионологический журнал). — 2005. — No. 1. — pp. 136–145. (in Russian) https://istina.msu.ru/publications/article/10269535/ Yaroslav the Wise briefly conquered Jurjev (Tartu) in the 11th century but Estonians soon reconquered the fort. The present-day borderline between Russia and Estonia may be traced back to the 13th century when the Livonian Crusade halted on the border with Pskovian lands east of Pskovo-Chudskoye or Peipus lake basin, the Narva River and minor rivers to the south from the lake. Further campaigns of either sides have not brought any sustainable gains so Denmark, Sweden and Livonian Confederation on the western side, and Novgorod, Pskov and later Muscovy on the east established fortresses in the strategic points of the borderland which they were able to support.Selart, Anti (1996). "Narva jõgi - Virumaa idapiir keskajal". Akadeemia (in Estonian). 8 (12). Examples are Vastseliina and Narva on Estonian side with Ivangorod, Yamburg and Izborsk on the Russian side. Peace treaties mostly confirmed the basic borderline along the Narva River and the lake,Napjerski K.E., Russian-Livland Treaties (Русско-ливонские акты - Russisch-Livlaendische Urkunden) — Saint-Petersburg: Issue of the Archeographic Commission, 1868. (in Russian) such as the Treaty of Teusina (1595), which left the town of Narva with Sweden. Despite the extensive cross-border trade and mixed populations of the borderlands, the law, language, religion of Russian principalities went a different way compared to their western neighbors.Manakov A., Yevdokimov S., Sustainability of the border in Pskov region: a historical and geographical analysis (Устойчивость границ Псковского региона: историкогеографический анализ) // Pskov Regionological Journal (Псковский регионологический журнал). № 10. — Pskov State University, 2010. — pp. 29-48. (in Russian) https://istina.msu.ru/publications/article/98899527/Selart A. Eesti idapiir keskajal. Tartu, 1998 Livonia and Sweden used the border as means of containment of the rising tsardom, preventing craftsmen and arms supplies from western Europe from entering Russia.
Administrative border in Kingdom of Sweden and Russian Empire
During the early 16th century turmoil in Russia, the Kingdom of Sweden conquered the whole Novgorodian coastline of the eastern Baltics and formed Swedish Ingria. Its border with Swedish Estonia went along the Narva River, leaving the town of Narva part of Ingria. The Livonian–Russian border south of the lake was restored. After the Great Northern War Russia regained the lost territory in the Baltics and further expanded, conquering Swedish Estonia which was incorporated as a Governorate of Estonia. However, during the two centuries of Russian rule, the eastern borders of the Estonian and Livonian governorates remained mostly intact. Like Sweden, Russia did not manage to harmonize its possessions east and west of the borderline formed in the late Middle Ages, although the migration process continued for two centuries under the Russian Empire: Russian Old Believers resettled to eastern Estonia and poor Estonian peasants to the western parts of Pskov and Saint Petersburg governorates.Манаков А. Г. Динамика численности и этнического состава населения Северо-Запада России в xviii-xix вв // Псковский регионологический журнал. — 2016. — № 1 (25). — С. 59–81.
International border between Estonia and Soviet Russia
On 24 February 1918, the Estonian National Council (Maapäev) declared the independence of Estonia. It listed the Estonian regions to form the Republic and declared that the "Final determination of the boundaries of the Republic in the areas bordering on Latvia and Russia will be carried out by plebiscite after the conclusion of the present World War". The plebiscite was carried out only in the town of Narva on 10 December 1917, where the majority voted for Estonian administration. The Russian Bolshevik government accepted the results and by decree of 21 December, the town of Narva was transferred from the Russian Republic to the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia.
According to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) between Soviet Russia and German Empire, which controlled all of the Estonian territory by that time, Russia relinquished its claims to Estonia and determined that the border between the Grand Duchy of Livonia and Russia should have followed the Narva River.Lincoln, W. B. (1986). Passage through Armageddon : The Russians in War & Revolution 1914–1918. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 489–491. . In late 1918, a war broke out between Soviet Russia and Estonia supported by the White Russian Northwestern Army and the British Navy. By February 1919, Estonians repelled the Red Army back to Russia and, in April 1919, the Bolshevik government initiated peace talks with Estonia. The British government, however, pressed to continue the war and in May and October 1919 Estonian and White Russian troops attempted two major offensives towards Petrograd. As both of them failed, peace talks continued and the issue of the border was brought up on 8 December 1919. The Estonian party proposed Russian counterpart to cede about from the Petrograd and Pskov Governorates to the east of the prewar borders. The next day, the Russians reacted likewise, offering Estonia to cede its northeastern part. In December 1919, it was agreed that the boundary line would go along the actual frontline between the belligerents.
The Treaty of Tartu was signed on 2 February 1920 and Estonia gained a narrow land strip east of the Narva River (Narvataguse) including Ivangorod as well as Pechorsky uezd with Pechory town and lands southwest of Lake Peipus, including the town of Izborsk. Petseri County was inhabited predominantly by Russians as well as Setos and, unlike other regions in Estonia proper, its municipal self-governance was subject to veto power by a special officer appointed from Tallinn.Alenius, Kari, “Petserimaa ja Narvataguse integreerimine Eestiga ning idaalade maine Eesti avalikkuses 1920–1925”, Akadeemia, 11 (1999), 2301–2322.
Russia and Estonia agreed to demilitarize the near borderland and the whole lake basin, leaving armed only the required border guard. Border trespassing by the local population split between two countries was a common issue, raising concerns of smuggling and espionage on both sides. Soviet illegal immigrants who were ethnic Estonians were offered refugee status in Estonia to avoid their expulsion back to the USSR.Alenius, Kari, “Dealing with the Russian Population in Estonia, 1919–1921”, Ajalooline Ajakiri, 1/2 (2012), 167–182
Post-World War II Soviet administrative boundary until 1991
Following the Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1940, the international border was converted to the administrative demarcation line of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. According to the Internal Affairs People's Commissariat decree No. 867 of 6 December 1940, the Barrage Zone was created along the former borderline to prevent "…intrusion of spies, terrorists and anti-revolutionary elements" into the USSR mainland. Border guards were assigned to allow restricted passage through the borderline only of the persons owning the required permission.
After the 1941 Nazi German invasion of the Soviet Union the occupied territory of the Republic of Estonia was in 1941–1944 administratively organized into Generalbezirk Estland of the Reichskommissariat Ostland. The previous Soviet-Estonian international border acted as the eastern border of Generalbezirk Estland with the German military administration area of Leningrad, where Ingermanland was planned, but never established.DIE NEUORDNUNG DER BALTISCHEN LÄNDER 1941-1944 Zum nationalsozialistischen Inhalt der deutschen Besatzungspolitik (in German) // JULKAISSUT SUOMEN HISTORIALLINEN SEURA. — 1973. SEPPO MYLLYNIEMI.
In 1944 the Nazi German forces were driven out of, and the Soviet Union reinvaded and occupied, Estonia. On 23 August 1944, the Soviet government formally annexed the large majority of borderland areas that had been ceded to Estonia by the 1920 treaty (including Pechory, Izborsk, and area east of the Narva River) into the Russian SFSR. Other smaller Estonian gains of 1920, including the Piirissaar island in Lake Peipus, were unaffected by the Soviet administrative border changes. The city of Narva, situated on both sides of the Narva River, was administratively split into western (Narva) and eastern (Ivangorod) parts, thus replicating the border as it existed in the 16th century.Manakov A. G., Mikhaylova A. A. Changes in the territorial and administrative division of northwest Russia over the Soviet period // International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues. — 2015. — Vol. 5. — P. 37–40. https://istina.msu.ru/publications/article/98695617/
In 1957 the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union authorized a small exchange of territories in the administrative border area south of Lake Peipus, forming the now Russian semi-exclave of Dubki and the Estonian so-called "Saatse Boot".Границы России в XVII—XX веках / Н. А. Дьякова, М. А. Чепелкин. — М. : Центр воен.-стратег. и воен.-технол. исслед. Ин-та США и Канады, 1995. — 236 с. : By that time the borders of the Soviet republics became fully transparent and no border control was enforced. Schools for Russian- and Estonian-speaking populations existed on the both sides of the administrative border. Estonian and Russian borderland areas were connected by extensive bus, rail and ferry services.
International border of Estonia and Russia, current state