[1] The party was originally established as the Russian National Union (Estonian: Vene Rahvuslik Liit; Russian: Русский национальный союз), a right-of-centre party, in 1920.
[2] It received 1% of the national vote in the parliamentary elections that year,[3] winning a single seat in the Riigikogu.
[4] After Estonia regained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union the Russian Party of Estonia was established in 1994 as the legal successor to the Russian National Union.
The party ran alone in the 1999 elections, receiving 2% of the vote but failing to win a seat.
[7][8] The 2003 elections saw the party's vote share fall to just 0.2% as it remained without representation in the Riigikogu.