Send Gift Baskets to Sillamae, Estonia

Sillamäggi is one of the oldest towns in Estonia and dates back to 1502. The bridge across Sõtke and a mill in Sillamäggi are among the oldest structures in the town.

“Sillamäggi” means “place that is quiet and peaceful.” It was developed in the 1800s into a resort village offering a more tranquil experience than the nearby resort town of “Hungerburg”. Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov owned a dacha in Sillamäggi and vacationed there during his summer breaks from 1891-1917. Among other famous vacationers of Sillamäggi were poet Konstantin Balmont (1905), painter Albert Benois (1898 and 1899), physicist Paul Ehrenfest (1908–1912), botanist Andrei Famintsyn (the 1890s), historian Mikhail Gershenzon (1911–1914), inventor Boris Rosing (1902–1911), composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1868).

During the 1920s and 1930s, the oil shale mining industry began to take off in the area surrounding Sillamäe. This Swedish company began work in 1927 to build an oil shale processing plant and a power station at the location of Türsamäe manor, on the western side of Sillamäe. The Kamoosi Plant, located in Sillamäe, Estonia, reached a total capacity of 500 tonnes per day in the mid-1930s. As the importance and potential of the plant grew, a small harbor was constructed to support its activities. However, much of this harbor was destroyed during World War II.

German forces built several concentration camps in the area around Sillamäe, employing laborers to work in local mines. By 1944, they withdrew from the city and sabotaged their processing plant. The Tannenberg Line was the name given to a defensive position in Central-Eastern Europe during World War I. It is known for its defense against Soviet attacks at the Battle of Narva.

From 1946–1948, the former oil shale processing plant in Sillamäe was rebuilt by the Soviets to extract uranium oxide from the locally mined Dictyonema argillite ore (a type of oil shale). During that time, many war prisoners were employed in the construction and mining activities in Sillamäe.

When looking at the history of how uranium became a part of WWII, we can find that the Soviets were playing an important role in the process. In 1946-1948, they rebuilt a former oil shale processing plant in Sillamäe to extract uranium oxide from the sands. Uranium was then shipped to Moscow for conversion and use in their nuclear weapons program.

Sillamäe was officially made a town in 1957, but it has been around for over 500 years. It grew out to include Kannuka and Türsamäe several centuries ago and even before that, it included Sillamäggi and many other settlements. During the Soviet Regime, a town in Estonia named Sillamäe was closed down due to its role as a local production hub for uranium. They had to rely on secrecy and security measures related to uranium production for this reason.