Paldiski is a town and Baltic Sea Port. It was founded as a fishing village by Estonian Swedes with the name Rågervik. Peter the Great chose the location in 1715 for a naval base, and construction started in 1716. It was meant to be a sea fortress and in 1790, during the Russo-Swedish War, it was conquered by the Swedes through trickery, when a Swedish warship sailing under a Dutch flag was allowed to dock. Paldiski came under Soviet rule due to the “Soviet–Estonian Mutual Assistance Treaty” of 1939. From that year Paldiski became gradually closed city for average Estonian residents until 1990. In 1962, Paldiski became a Soviet Navy Nuclear Submarine training centre.
Because of its importance, the whole city was closed off with barbed wire until the last Russian warship left in August 1994, when the city ceased to be a closed city.
This followed the events of 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Estonia regained independence. To house the stationing troops and those in training, many barracks buildings were built, which have since been left in disrepair. Russia relinquished control of reactor facilities in September 1995; the nuclear reactors were shut down, and nuclear material was transported back to Russia. (wiki)
