The coat of arms of Estonia is a golden shield, framed by a golden oak wreath, depicting three azure leopards. These leopards symbolize the power of the fortifications of the capital of the country - Tallinn. But not all Estonians, not to mention residents of other states, know that this coat of arms is actually Danish.
How the blue leopard coat of arms first appeared in Estonia
The Estonian coat of arms has a long history. It was last adopted as one of the symbols of Estonia even before the collapse of the USSR in 1990.
At the turn of the XII-XIII centuries. German crusaders began active colonization of the Baltic states. In 1201, they began the construction of the port city of Riga, forcibly converting the local pagan inhabitants to Christianity. Faced with active resistance and realizing that he could not cope with his own forces, the Bishop of Riga in 1218 asked for help from the Danish king Valdemar II. Already in the summer of the next 1219, Danish troops, seizing the lands of the Estonian tribes, destroyed their fortress and in its place began to build a new fortification, giving it the name Taanilinna (translated as "Danish city").
Subsequently, slightly modified, it began to sound like "Tallinn".
As a sign that Denmark now owns these lands, the fortress was given a Danish coat of arms depicting three azure leopards.
The further fate of the coat of arms of Estonia
The Baltic lands, including those on which today's Estonia is located, were often the scene of violent clashes and passed from hand to hand. After Tallinn was captured by the Swedes in 1561, the new masters created the Duchy of Estland and gave it a modified coat of arms, which no longer depicted leopards, but lions under golden crowns. And after the bloody Northern War (1700 - 1721), the Baltic States, together with the Duchy of Estonia, became part of the Russian Empire. Accordingly, the coat of arms has changed again.
As a result of the October Revolution and the Civil War, Estonia gained independence and regained the old Danish coat of arms. But this did not last long. In 1940, Estonia was annexed to the USSR as one of the union republics.
Its emblem is the image of crossed hammer and sickle framed by pine branches and rye ears against the background of the rising sun.
After the policy of so-called "perestroika", pursued by the leadership of the USSR, headed by M. S. Gorbachev since 1985, failed, separatist sentiments sharply increased in the national republics. The three Baltic republics (Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian) were at the forefront of them. The logical result was that even before the official collapse of the USSR, in 1990, the authorities of the Estonian SSR decided to return the old Danish coat of arms to the republic.
