Kiviõli

Kiviõli is an industrial town in Ida-Viru County in northeastern Estonia, established in 1922 and named for its oil shale industry; the name echoes the Estonian words for stone oil. In 1922 the joint-stock company Eesti Kiviõli set up an oil shale quarry on land belonging to the village of Salaküla, and mining began in 1930. A workers settlement belonging to the village of Varinurme was built in the 1930s and took the company name, and Kiviõli received town status in 1946. Oil shale mining remains the main industry. The town limits include the somewhat separate districts of Küttejõu and Varinurme, and the town is divided into five neighbourhoods: Küttejõu, Lepatee, Sala-Aru, Soopealse and Varinurme. Notable people born or living there include the film director Peeter Simm, the politician and former education minister Kristina Kallas, and the cross-country skier Tatjana Mannima, who competed at three Winter Olympics.