Estonia ground

Lesley Riddoch thinks that Estonia might still be under Russian control but for its declaration of UDI being recognised by Iceland (Perspective, 30 October).

But history is not on her side. Estonia was run by the Baltic Germans on behalf of the Tsar in the 18th and 19th centuries, with a good deal of administrative devolution.

It became independent in 1919 after a conflict between thebolsheviksandthewhites, which the Whites won. Swallowed up by the Soviet Union in 1940, it was occupied by the Nazis until 1944 and then reincorporated into the Soviet Union, an act without democratic mandate and one followed by mass deportations and collectivisation.

It is reasonable to expect that these events, and Estonian aloof apartness even from theirneighbours(theirdefinition of hell is a group of Latvians sitting around a campfire singing with arms linked) meant that for them support from Iceland for separation from Russia was irrelevant.

HUGH PENNINGTON Carlton Place, Aberdeen