Paldiski is a small port town on the Estonian coast about 50 km west of Tallinn, with a history shaped more by military necessity than civilian life. Peter the Great founded it in the 18th century as a Baltic naval base, and the Russians never quite let it go — during the Soviet era it was a classified nuclear submarine training centre, closed to outsiders, and Soviet forces only left in 1994, the last Russian troops to leave Estonia.
The legacy of that long military occupation is visible everywhere. Two decommissioned nuclear reactors still sit in a cordoned compound outside town; the streets are still lined with concrete Soviet-era apartment blocks that once housed naval personnel. The town is slowly finding its peacetime footing, with the ferry terminal connecting it to Sweden providing a reason for travellers to pass through.
Paldiski can be reached by daily ferry from Kapellskär in Sweden (north of Stockholm), making it a useful entry point into Estonia for travellers with their own vehicles. Buses connect the town to Tallinn regularly. If you are arriving on the Stockholm ferry, most travellers push straight on to Tallinn, but Paldiski is worth a short stop to see its unusual atmospheric legacy.
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