Oil shale is considered the most important natural resource of Estonia and its role in energy production and chemical industry has been pointed out in numerous papers. But there are no special publications about the history of the Estonian oil shale industry in English. This article tries, to fulfil the gap relying on numerous archival documents and literature sources which have remained out of the attention of scientists up till now. It follows from the article that without the studies carried out by Russian researchers in 1916-1920 the Estonian oil shale industry may not have been born. Using the results of Russian investigators, the Estonians hoped to set up their own oil shale industry applying Scottish experience. This hope failed, however, and thus the Estonians had to elaborate their own methods for the development of oil shale chemistry.