In the wake of the First World War, out of the heat of a national awakening and the collapse of the Russian and German empires, Estonia was recognized as an independent nation in 1920. This was not to last--the country was tossed between the Soviets and Nazis during the Second World War, then fully integrated into the USSR, bringing on more than half a century of renewed occupation and misery. But hopes of true independence never dimmed and, in 1991, the Republic of Estonia was restored.

This unflinching history includes charming moments of color and levity, from ambassadorial reports on nude bathing and a presidential press conference deliberately held beside a dirty toilet, to the story of a blind pianist, the first foreigner allowed to visit the city of Tartu in the Soviet era.