According to the 2021 census, 58% of the people residing in Estonia don’t feel an affiliation to any religion, and this has increased from 54% in 2011; 29% are estimated to be affiliated with a religion and the most prevalent faith in Estonia is Orthodox Christianity.
When local TikToker, Ksenia Niglas, posed a question to her followers about the national identity of Estonia’s ethnic Russian population, the response was nothing short of mixed. Now, journalist Svetlana Stsur attempts to tackle the question through the historical lens of ethnic nationalism, while making a case for why it may be more damaging to call native Estonians with a Russian-speaking background Estonian Russians, or “eestivenelased” in Eesti.