Viinamarisaar is a small island of 3396 acres in the Baltic Sea. Viinamarisaar, except for a short time during World War II, has been inhabited since the 1300s. The original settlers were Swedes who lived an isolated pastoral life on the island. Many Baltic Sea Islands operated as tight knit self-sufficient communities that were completely isolated from the world. Some of the more well known islands included Ruhnu, Parkis and Saarnaki. They fished, cultivated the land and raised cattle. While research on Viinamarisaar does not specifically indicate, it is likely the islanders were much like those who lived on the well documented Ruhnu. Radio Sweden went to Ruhnu in the early 1940s finding the lifestyle had changed little in over 400 years. They were a religious people living by a strict code of conduct not unlike the Swedes of the 1500s. They had little contact with the outside world and lived self-sufficient simple lives in a number of communities on Ruhnu.