After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Estonia had hoped for the return of more than 2,000 square kilometers (770 sq mi) of territory annexed by Russia after World War II in 1945.
The annexed land with Russian majority had been within the borders Estonia and Russia agreed on in the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty.
After the collapse of the Russian Empire due to the October Revolution, territorial delineation between Soviet Russia and the newly independent Estonia was determined by the 1920 Tartu peace treaty.
On the onset of World War II, Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union in the form of the Estonian SSR, as part of the overall occupation of the Baltic States.
After Estonia regained its independence from the Soviet Union following the Singing Revolution, Estonian and Russian negotiators reached a technical agreement on the Estonia–Russia border in December 1996, with the border remaining substantially the same as the one drawn by Joseph Stalin, with some minor adjustments.