The first decades of urban geography in Estonia

A great deal of research was made into Estonian towns and other settlements before World War TT. Tn 1938 all larger settlements: were accorded the sta tus of "town" - up to then descriptions of urban settlements had been publi shed for Tartumaa, Vorumaa, Setumaa, Parnumaa, Valgamaa and Saaremaa. The f irst part of the monograph on Tallin and the regional sections of the manus cripts on Laanemaa and Viljandimaa (dealing with the towns there) had been finished when the Soviet troops occupied the country and publication became impossible. Scientific papers had, however, appeared in the series "Public ationes Instituti Universtitatis Tartuensis (Dorpatensis) Geographici" and "Publicationes Seminarii Universitatis Tartuensis Oeconomico-Geographici", either in a foreign language or at least with a summary in a foreign langua ge. Therefore they were taken note of outside Estonia, too. The studies on the urban geography of Tartu were especially well received internationally and became a methodological model for, e.g., research into Finnish towns su ch as Turku. In the prewar period Estonian geography became well-known in connection wit h research into central places. At about the same time CHRISTALLER's book w as published there existed already a description of the distribution of cen tral places in Estonia. BOUSTEDT, who was to become one of the leading figu res in urban research in Germany, gained experiences here at first that inf luenced his studies later on. Estonian geography spearheaded human ecology as well. This period of great achievements, especially of scientists like GRANO, KANT and TAMMEKANN, came to an abrupt end with the Soviet invasion. There was some hope of revival after the invasion by German troops in 1941, but it was short-lived: the re sults of many other studies could not be published, and a great deal of the m are irrevocably lost, such as the studies on Virumaa and Jarvamaa.