Editing History of Estonia (section)

===National awakening===
{{Main|Estonian national awakening}}
A cultural movement sprang forth to adopt the use of [[Estonian language|Estonian]] as the language of instruction in schools, all-Estonian song festivals were held regularly after 1869, and a national literature in Estonian developed. ''[[Kalevipoeg]]'', Estonia's national epic, was published in 1861 in both Estonian and German.

1889 marked the beginning of the central government-sponsored policy of [[Russification]]. The impact of this was that many of the [[Baltic German]] legal institutions were either abolished or had to do their work in Russian – a good example of this is the [[University of Tartu]].

As the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]] swept through Estonia, the Estonians called for [[freedom of the press]] and [[freedom of assembly|assembly]], for universal [[suffrage|franchise]], and for national autonomy. Estonian gains were minimal, but the tense stability that prevailed between 1905 and 1917 allowed Estonians to advance the aspiration of national statehood.