Saaremaa, Estonia

A card from Estonia showing the island of Saaremaa.....mmmmm, an island....

Saaremaa is the largest Estonian Island, located in the Baltic Sea, belonging to the west Estonian archipelago.
Its capital is Kuressaare. It has around 39.000 inhabitants.
An interesting fact i read about it: In 1946 Saaremaa was declared a restricted zone, closed to foreigners and to most mainland Estonians. It remained a restricted area until 1989.
Does this mean that the inhabitants of Saaremaa were actually isolated from the rest of the world?
Restricted....that sounds equally to forbidden.....forbidden intrigues the feeling of mystery and the desire to actually break the rule and do whats forbidden...yeah, something like Adam and Eve concept, or Pandora....just that by breaking into a forbidden land wont actually bring eternal consequences to the rest of the world :)))
Interesting....got me intrigued...