Estonia is the northernmost of the three Baltic countries.  Its land borders are with Russia to the East and Latvia in the south.  To the west is the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga with the the Gulf of Finland to the north.  Estonia includes two large islands and several smaller ones.
     Like its Baltic neighbors Estonia became an independent country after World War I and was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 and invaded by Germany in 1941.  With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 Estonia became independent once again.  Russian troops left the country in 1994 and Estonia joined NATO and the EU in 2004.