Posted July 04, 2017 05:01:55

When your country has gone from being a backward Soviet state to one of the world's most wired countries, it's hard not to be a little smug.

Would you rely on ordinary citizens to grab a gun or whip up a roadside bomb in the event of war? That's exactly what is happening in Estonia, as the tiny Baltic nation eyes the threat from Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Taavi Kotka, one of the architects of Estonia's transition, delights in telling of a family holiday to the United States where they were caught up in immigration lines at JFK airport.

"And my children were like asking me, 'Father, what is this?' 'It's a queue.' 'What is a queue?' Because they have never seen a queue!'" he said.

In Estonia, it's inconceivable that you would line up to fill in a form, apply for a document or even vote. Everything, from getting medical records to paying taxes, is done online.

Each citizen has a unique digital identity and chip card to access almost any government service by computer.

What's more, government departments can share personal information including medical records.

"If hospitals can exchange data, if a doctor has all your medical history available, it ends up with more efficient, better health care," Mr Kotka said.

It may sound Orwellian but Mr Kotka, a software developer and former chief government information officer, said it is the exact opposite.

Photo: Taavi Kotka is one of the leading architects of Estonia's digital economy. (ABC: Foreign Correspondent)

"In Estonia, every person can control who or why has seen his or her data. And if there's no proper answer, if you don't know the doctor who accessed your data, they are instantly fired," he said.

"You become your own Big Brother."

The Baltic state was left with few resources when it won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

"We don't have resources in the ground, we didn't have a lot of land to grow food for Europe," software consultant Kaupo Karuse said.

"We had to do something with our brains."

Estonia had made basic computers for the Soviet Union, so it had a pool of expertise to work on.

But its embrace of cyberspace crashed to a halt 10 years ago when Estonia was hit with three weeks of cyber attacks from IP addresses across Europe.

At the time, it was embroiled in a conflict with Russia for removing a Soviet war memorial in the capital, Tallinn.

Photo: Estonia had made basic computers for the Soviet Union, so it had a pool of expertise to work on. (ABC News)

And few believed Moscow's official line that the Kremlin was not involved.

"I was Estonia's ambassador to Russia then," former foreign minister Marina Kaljurand told Foreign Correspondent.

"Some Russian officials were stupid enough to say themselves that they were behind those attacks."

Russia may have thought it was teaching its tiny neighbour a lesson, but three years earlier Estonia had joined NATO.

The Western defence alliance came to Estonia's aid, building a cyber defence centre in Tallinn to counter attacks.

Estonia's government backed its data up on servers in friendly countries and doubled down on digital development.

'I don't want Soviet times back'

The results have been extraordinary. With a population of just 1.3 million, Estonia lays claim to some of the world's biggest digital breakthroughs, like the video-calling service Skype and the money exchange system TransferWise.

Technopolis, a technology park on a once-ruined Soviet industrial estate next to Tallinn airport, likes to see itself as Europe's new Silicon Valley.

There is even a showroom for the Government's digital policy called E-stonia.

Mr Karuse showed me round the grounds in his trademark digital uniform of bright jeans and funky T-shirt.

"It's connected. There are hundreds of services the Government is offering companies, we can use them for free and develop our own thing, which is really smart and secure and reliable," he said.

Photo: Eight times a year, Kaupo Karuse swaps his laptop for a machine gun and his bed for a forest bivouac to train in Estonia's reserve army. (Supplied)

But Estonia is still grappling with what it sees as a threat from its giant neighbour.

Russia's invasion of the former Soviet province of Crimea three years ago shook the country to the core.

Eight times a year, Mr Karuse swaps his laptop for a machine gun and his bed for a forest bivouac to train in Estonia's reserve army.

"Most of the world doesn't understand the cost of freedom," he said.

"I'm 38 years old, I remember the Soviet times. And I don't want them back."

But he always tries to look on the bright side.

"In the forest, I don't think about clients," he said.

Photo: Estonian troops participate in NATO war games. (Supplied)

Watch We're Going on a Bear Hunt on Foreign Correspondent at 9:20pm on ABC.

Topics: government-and-politics, science-and-technology, computers-and-technology, human-interest, estonia