Great Famine of Estonia

The Great Famine of Estonia (also The Great Starvation) killed about a fifth of the population (70,000–100,000 people) of Swedish-ruled Estonia and Livonia in the years 1695–1697.

The climate was unfavorable for crops in 1694 and the summer of 1695 was cold and rainy, followed by an early autumn frost that destroyed the summer crops. Cold conditions continued during 1696, and rain fell throughout the summer. Peasants, orphans and the elderly began to die en masse of starvation and the spring snow-melt of 1697 revealed many corpses. Meanwhile, landlords and merchants exported grain to Finland and Sweden, where crops also had failed. About a fifth of Estonian and Livonian population (70,000 to 75,000 people per one estimate, and 100,000 per another) died during the famine.

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