[1] The initiative to establish the Estonian independentist party came from Vello Väärtnõu, the leader of a local Buddhist group.
On 30 January 1988 he organized a press conference in Moscow for Western media where he announced plans for the formation of the party, with the aim to restore the fully independent Republic of Estonia as a nation state on the restitution principle.
Väärtnõu and several fellow Buddhists were expelled from the Soviet Union shortly after the press conference.
ENIP was officially founded in August 1988 in the village of Pilistvere in central Estonia.
[2] ENIP represented the radical wing of the Estonian independence movement and used "hardline" anti-communist rhetoric, in contrast with the Popular Front that cooperated with pro-reform communists.