Estonian Writers Research Articles

“We” versus “others” in Estonian fiction: the question of national identity in the works of contemporary women writers

ABSTRACT This article uses a postcolonial approach and the concept of Orientalization to uncover hierarchies in Estonian national identity construction. We examine the change in the articulation of the ‘other’ in the context of identity discourses of Estonians and Estonian Russian-speakers using literature by women authors in Estonia. We show how the interest of Estonian writers in the Russian community changed over time and then practically disappeared. We also demonstrate how, reflecting on their new post-imperial status, Estonian Russian-language literature eventually came to see Russians from Russia, rather than Estonians, as the key significant ‘other.’

Vaimse vastupanu püüded okupatsioonivõimudele Hugo Raudsepa 1940. aastate komöödiates

Vaimse vastupanu püüded okupatsioonivõimudele Hugo Raudsepa 1940. aastate komöödiates

Kirjanduslikud digikeskkonnad keeleressursside baasina: mõjukriitika juhtumiuuring päringusüsteemis KORP / Digital literary heritage projects as a source of language resources: a case of Estonian criticism in KORP

Kirjanduslikud digikeskkonnad keeleressursside baasina: mõjukriitika juhtumiuuring päringusüsteemis KORP / Digital literary heritage projects as a source of language resources: a case of Estonian criticism in KORP

Jutustajateksti muutlikkus Fjodor Dostojevski romaani „Vennad Karamazovid“ eestikeelsetes tõlgetes / Changeability of the narrator’s text in the Estonian translations of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov

Jutustajateksti muutlikkus Fjodor Dostojevski romaani „Vennad Karamazovid“ eestikeelsetes tõlgetes / Changeability of the narrator’s text in the Estonian translations of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov

Kirjandus ja digitaalne tehnoloogia / Literature and Digital Technology

Kirjandus ja digitaalne tehnoloogia / Literature and Digital Technology

Insight into Prison Camp Novels by Estonian Writers

The article focuses on the Estonian novels depicting Soviet prison camps in the 1940s and 1950s. For a long time the Soviet prison camp theme was not publicly discussed in Estonia due to political reasons. Texts dealing with prison camps could appear in print only outside the Soviet Union. The most notable of these are the novels by Arved Viirlaid. The Estonian prison camp novels can be seen as “the literature of testimony”, to use the term by Leona Toker. Dramatic historical events are written down to record the events and to show the inhumane nature of the Soviet society. These records of the dramatic past follow certain patterns and create certain self- and heteroimages that are analysed in the article. The goal is to map themes, motifs and characteristics in such novels, concentrating on various taboos and rules in the prison camp environment. A prison camp is a closed territory within a closed territory; prison camps can be seen as small models of the Soviet society. Prison camp novels provide a detailed view of the environment of the prison camp, its inhabitants and activities. The lives of prisoners whirl around labour and food. The crucial thing is to survive, which often leads to moral decline, e.g. stealing or cheating. However, there are certain lines Estonians do not cross, e.g. cannibalism or homosexual relationships with superiors. Estonians are always depicted as political prisoners (not common criminals) and heterosexuals, while Russians are portrayed mainly as criminals and often also as homosexuals.

Kas "balti kirjanik" on olemas? / Does the "Baltic Writer" Exist?

Kas "balti kirjanik" on olemas? / Does the "Baltic Writer" Exist?

Kirjanduslikest kontaktidest läbi raudse eesriide

Kirjanduslikest kontaktidest läbi raudse eesriide

Eesti pagulaskirjanduse keskus ja perifeeria

This article focuses on how and why the centre and periphery of Estonian exile literature were formed. The centre developed in Sweden with the founding of the Estonian Writers’ Union Abroad in 1945 in Stockholm, and the Estonian Writers’ Cooperative in 1951 in Lund. Exile literature with the most enduring artistic merit was published in this Lund-Stockholm axis. The Writers’ Cooperative was a well-managed publishing house that took into account readers’ requests. Almost all significant writers in exile issued their works through the Cooperative. Writers whose works were rejected by the Cooperative formed the pheriphery of exile literature. The boundary between the two was not rigid, with movement from one grouping to the other, although the centre remained united. In 1957, writers of the younger generation on the periphery founded the literary magazine Mana , which devoted a great deal of space to literature published in the homeland, unlike the centre. This relationship with homeland literature differentiated the centre from the periphery. The writers of the centre did not visit the occupied homeland or publicly recognize the works of writers from Soviet Estonia. For them, it was vital to maintain control over the purity and viability of exile literature. Exile publishing flourished in the 1940s and 1950s, as homesickness and limited fluency in local languages increased interest in books written in Estonian. Later, this interest inevitably and steadily decreased. The younger generation of exiles often read in the language of the country where they had settled. It was possible to send only a very few books to the homeland. Leading writers-in-exile Bernard Kangro, Karl Ristikivi, Valev Uibopuu, Kalju Lepik, Ilmar Talve and others did their utmost to publish and distribute their works because they regarded literature as the foundation of national identity. It was necessary to protect this identity, and any competition with homeland literature would have destroyed their unified field of literature and drawn away current and potential readers. Similarly, the peripheral authors needed a rallying point, and adopted the more innovative literature being issued in Soviet Estonia. On their side, homeland Estonians maintained throughout the Soviet occupation a steady interest in Estonian literature from abroad, despite difficulties in obtaining it. The symbolic meeting of exile and homeland literatures took place in Helsinki in May 1989 when the Writers Union of the Estonian SSR initiated a meeting of Estonian writers from the homeland and abroad. Societal changes in the 1990s drove literature as a whole from the centre to the periphery, and consequently a great deal of the literature written both in exile and in Soviet Estonia faded into obscurity.

Book Review: A Story of Bernhard Schmidt

A STORY OF BERNHARD SCHMIDT Sailing Against the Wind: A Novel. Jaan Kross. Translated from Estonian by Eric Dickens (Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL, 2012). Pp. xiv + 347. $24.95 (paperback). ISBN 978-0-8101-2652-7.This novel tells a story of Bernhard Schmidt. the history of astronomy Schmidt (1879-1935) is best known as the inventor of the Schmidt camera that provoked a revolution in stellar optics. An instrument maker, he was bom in Estonia (at that time part of Czarist Russia) but lived most of his life in Germany - in Mittweida and in Hamburg - and died there. During his working life he polished lenses for astronomical telescopes but also fulfilled other roles in the maintenance of mechanical and optical instruments. 1930 he invented the famous Schmidt-camera, but died before he could see the full success of his invention. The world was moving towards war and stellar optics was not the first priority in astronomy.Several key factors shaped the life of Bernhard Schmidt. First, he was from Naissaar, a small island near Tallinn - so he was a foreigner even in the capital. He might well have become a fisherman or a pilot, as had been his father and grandfathers. Second, his destiny was turned when he lost his right hand in a teenage accident with gunpowder. That disability gave him problems socially, but also forced Schmidt to develop his left hand to a sensitivity and exactness that was almost legendary. A third key factor in the life of Bernhard Schmidt was that he was largely self-taught; he received his education from the Mittweida Technical School and was always proud to be more of an artist than scientist. A fourth key factor, especially emphasized in the novel, was his Estonian origin. Despite the fact that the language of his education was German, the minority upper-class language in the Estonian territory until the end of the nineteenth century, we know that Bernhard Schmidt never forgot Estonian, for in the Observatory of Tartu Archives there is a 1926 letter written by him in Estonian.The author of the novel, Jaan Kross (1920-2007), is one of the most important Estonian writers of the second half of the twentieth century. His books about famous, or neglected but important, historical figures helped in their fictional form to keep free his readers' minds in occupied Estonia. the introduction the translator writes: In 1987, when Sailing Against the Wind was first published in what was then the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, it was by no means certain that Estonia would emerge relatively unscathed from the ruins of the Soviet Union; the monolith collapsed only a few years later (p. xi).In this multilayer novel there are of course many hidden messages; parallels between Nazi Germany and the Soviet system could not remain unnoticed by Soviet readers. …

Ecocritical Considerations of Nature in Contemporary British and Estonian Literature

The issue of the environment has been never more topical than at present, with environmental problems being an urgent 21st century concern. This topic, otherwise characteristic to natural sciences, has also found its way into literary studies in the form of ecocriticism, which affords an interesting insight into the representation of place and nature in literary texts. This article proposes to take an ecocritical stance, focusing on the aspect of nature in the work of contemporary British and Estonian writers, Graham Swift and Andrus Kivirahk; of special interest is the representation of nature, nature–culture interactions, and a possibility of a new way for seeing the world, that is, through the eyes of nonhumans. It is the nonhuman beings and green environment that constitute a presence in the novels and suggest questioning of such debate-spurning issues as anthropocentrism, nature’s voice(lessness) and agency. Challenging established ideas of humanism and directing attention to topical environmental issues, the contemporary novels highlight a unique ecocentric direction in literature.

Digimodernistlik eesti kirjanik

The article examines the cultural situation following postmodernism in the first decade of the 21 st century. To characterise this situation, the umbrella term “post-postmodernism” is used, as well as “neomodernism”, “altermodern”, “metamodernism”, “hypermodernity”, “performatism”, “critical realism” etc. All these approaches are, in a wider sense, united by their aim of opposing postmodernist cynicism and irony, and bringing back truth, simplicity and clarity. It has also been found that literature has returned or is returning to realism, and various cultural phenomena are emerging, which have been designated by the concept “new sincerity”. In descriptions of the current cultural situation, this trend seeking truth and simplicity is supported by approaches which emphasise the significance of technological developments during the last decade. A prominent figure here is Alan Kirby, who launched the term “digimodernism”, mainly linked with the adaptation and spread of Web 2.0 at the beginning of the 21 st century: the blogosphere, Wikipedia, Twitter and Facebook. The article seeks answers to the question of whether we can talk about digimodernism in Estonian literature in the 2000s. In the 1990s Estonian writers were quite reluctant to undertake computer-technological experiments, and there are only a few examples of Estonian digital literature, whereas a change occurred in the 2000s. Many Estonian writers have had and still have their own blogs and surprisingly many have joined Facebook. The term “twitterature” is also familiar to Estonian writers. The article tackles the dominant topics in the blogs of Estonian writers and analyses their possible collective creative work on Facebook. A question is raised as to whether it is possible that the fragmentary narrative structure of blogs and Facebook has influenced mainstream literature. The article concludes that one essential change in Estonian literature in the 2000s is writers’ technological leap, active usage of the opportunities offered by Web 2.0 and participation in the web world: blogs, Facebook and Twitter. We can thus claim that a “digimodernist turn” did take place in Estonian culture in the 2000s.

Eesti venekeelse kirjanduse nullindate põlvkond: vastuvõtt ja tõrked omaks tunnistamisel

The article researches the development of Russian-language literature in Estonia through the lens of Estonian literature. The article focuses on what is conditionally referred to as “authors of the younger generation” (born in 1970 and later) since the creative works of representatives of this generation have attracted a lot of attention. That is the “naughts-generation”, as the authors of this generation made their debuts in literature in the 2000s. The article views the Estonian reaction to the books of Igor Kotjuh, P. I. Filimonov and Andrei Ivanov translated into Estonian. The analysis makes use of the reception theory of Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser, scholars from Konstanz University, which makes it possible to propose two operational hypotheses: (1) numerous reviews hint at the fact that Estonian literary journals and critics do not consider works of Estonian Russian-speaking authors to be foreign literature; (2) as works of the Russian-speaking authors of Estonia have not been represented in a single literary anthology which has appeared in the 2000s, it can be concluded that there are certain obstacles regarding the works of Russian-speaking authors in Estonia. The Russian-speaking writers of Estonia have had good co-operation with Estonian colleagues and media, since they speak Estonian and their works have continuously appeared in Estonian translations. At the same time, the Russian-speaking literature of Estonia has not become a fully valued part of Estonian literature. Three major controversies can be found in the reception, where the horizons of Estonian readers and Russian-speaking Estonian authors do not coincide: (1) Literary-theoretical controversy . Estonian literary science has always identified Estonian literature via the Estonian language, yet the Russian-speaking authors who made their debuts in the 2000s are convinced that their works are, among other things, part of Estonian literature. (2) Political . Readers see Russian-speaking Estonian writers as trustees of topical political issues turning to them for appropriate comments. Consequently, readers do not respond to works of Russian-speaking writers in Estonia as pure fiction, which results in devaluation of Russian-speaking writers' artistic significance and their inability to compete on an equal footing with their Estonian colleagues. (3) Social understanding regarding the national cultural background of an author. The Russian-speaking authors of Estonia are multi-cultural creative personalities, yet reviewers do not always pay attention to this fact, as the reigning socio-historical paradigm defines a person according to a single national-cultural identity. The generation of the 2000s of Russian–speaking authors in Estonia exists at the borders of the literary-theoretical and social levels. Estonian literary studies and public opinion have historically adopted the literature of Baltic Germans and Voro-language literature. If present events continue, at some point the same is bound to happen with the Russian-speaking literature of Estonia.

Üksildus küberruumis: autori individuaalsus ja teksti autonoomia. Solitude in Cyberspace: the Individuality of an Author and the Autonomy of a Text

The keywords in analyses of digital literature and cybertexts (literature that has been created by and is read on a computer) mostly derive from the vocabulary of increasing collectivism: shared authorship, readerviewer interaction, their active participation in creating text etc. However, this article focuses on the opposite phenomenon: the essence of individualism in the process of digital text creation, that is, solitude. At the same time, the paradoxes related to collectivism and solitude are also addressed. In this article, solitude is regarded as a technical term, indicating the number of different agents in a creative process. This primarily means: whether the text can be associated with one author and his intention, or whether authorship is distributed between several people who have participated in the creation of the text, as well as if and how much texts presume activity on the part of the reader. We can claim that when writers write their texts they are usually on their own. A text is born in the writer’s head and he or she needs some kind of form to present it. When the form of literature was mostly what was recorded on paper, we could say that the author formalised his text in solitude – writing alone on pieces of paper. Only after the manuscript was handed in were other participants added, such as the editor, designer and printer, who took part in the completion process of the literary work. However, when the end result of production is not a printed book, but a cyber- or hypertext, we can assume that these relationships change significantly in the case of digital literature. In addition to the author of the text, cybertexts and hypertexts need active co-authors: programmers, designers etc. Creating a cybertext is, therefore, basically a collective act (although there are of course exceptions). The author of a cybertext is no longer the only and unique creator. At the same time, the solitude of a creative work in cyberspace disappears. After publishing a book in print, the text is left alone; it begins living its own life. In cyberspace, on the contrary, connections in various forms between the author, the work and the reader are retained. Alan Kirby has launched the concept of digimodernism, which marks the cultural stage connected with the spread of Web 2.0. The “digimodernist turn”, in the form of blogs, Facebook and Twitter, has also brought about a change for authors of digital literature. The technological simplicity of the new software means that authors no longer need any urgent technical assistance. This again raises the problem of the author’s solitude: he formalises his work in his blog on his own, alone. It might thus seem paradoxical that in the printed world both the author and his work are solitary, whereas in the cyberworld the solitude of creative work vanishes, because it requires interaction between authors and readers. At the same time, the author’s solitude in cyberspace is twofold – creating cybertexts mostly requires assistance, whereas digimodernist blog literature can be produced in solitude, independently. Very few cybertexts in Estonia have been produced as teamwork, with technical assistance. In this article, two showcases have been studied: the hypertextual poem “Trepp” (“Staircase”, 1996) by Hasso Krull and the grand team project Sonetimasin (Sonnet Machine, 2000) by Mart Valjataga, which consists of a book, an Internet text generator and an enormous electromechanical sonnet machine, which was displayed in an art gallery. Considering the technological experimentation of Estonian writers, these two examples are exceptional rather than normal. Estonian authors have traditionally been reluctant to try out computer-technological experiments. However, the digimodernist turn has altered this situation. Many Estonian writers are active bloggers and Facebook users. Estonian writers who were earlier afraid of technology have become very keen on it in the digimodernist world. We think that the reason for this significant change is that Estonian writers wish to be independent. We can claim that Estonian writers want to be solitary in cyberspace, to avoid participating in technological teamwork, and the new and easy technological platforms make it possible. Literature in Estonia therefore, in a way, continues the tradition of the modernist author who does not wish to give up the position of being an individual author. Digimodernist technological simplicity has indeed made possible the organic transfer from printed text to digital literature, which does not endanger the authorial position.

Eesti autobiograafilise kirjutuse kujunemisest 18. sajandist Teise maailmasõjani. The Development of Estonian Autobiographical Writing from the 18th Century to the Second World War

In this article I examine the development of Estonian autobiographical writing from its first manifestations to published memoirs, and the development of life writing and its diversification. The beginnings of life writing can be traced back to Estonian folk song and Estonian incidental poetry. The Moravian Brethren movement in Estonia in the 18th century promoted the spread of canonical autobiography. The Moravian Brethren offered alternative opportunities for self-realisation for Estonians who were serfs, and were therefore popular with the people. The practice of the Moravian Brethren made use of retelling and writing about the life of the congregation members, which sometimes became suitable biographies in print, especially stories of awakening. Several manuscript biographies have survived from the Brethren times, such as the biographies of Maletu Jaan and Mihkel Sarapuu. In addition to the history of the Moravian Brethren movement, these biographies give information about the educational situation and living conditions of the people of the time. The Estonian life writing tradition emerged within the reigning Baltic German cultural space thanks to the Estophiles among the Baltic Germans (J. H. Rosenplanter) and the first Estonian men of letters; from the early 19th century we have the diary by Rosenplanter, an estophile pastor from Parnu, and the diary by the Estonian poet, the then-student Kristjan Jaak Peterson, both in the Estonian language. Johann Voldemar Jannsen, the founder of Estonian-language journalism, kept a diary in the German language for a longer period of time; it was usual that the first Estonian intellectuals (Lilli Suburg, and others) in the late 19th century wrote in German. Admittedly, the first Estonian-language life history was written by a forward-looking 19th century peasant named Mart Mitt (1833-1912), who was conscious of himself as a historical subject and gave his memoirs, begun in the 1880s, a memorable title: “Mart Mitt`s life story, told in a manner connected with history”. Other recollections of Estonian peasants appeared at the very end of the 19th century, including Gustav Malts’ stories about Estonian settlers in the Crimea. Autobiographical writing oriented toward documenting somebody’s life was regarded merely as “material” and distinct from literary or fictional writing. With little persuasion, Gustav Malts handed over the first version of his memoirs to a writer; relying heavily on Malts’ manuscript, Eduard Vilde composed his historical novel Prophet Maltsvet in 1905–1908. Among the recollections of the peasants, the so-called Jaan Kuldkepp Chronicle is one of the most original. Jaan Kuldkepp uses folk history and family heritage, attempting in his Chronicle to combine fictional and documentary material. The first Estonian-language memoirs were published in the early 20th century, mainly at the end of 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s; by that time the generation who had received their education in the 19th century reached an age during which memoirs are traditionally written. Two writers who blazed the path were August Kitzberg (An Old Windhover’s Memories of Youth, 1924-25) and Lilli Suburg (The Suburg Family, 1923-24). They do not limit themselves to local historical events or the family history style of ‘what life was like in the old times’, but instead strive to give an overview of the characteristic socio-cultural processes of the period. The number of printed memoirs increased year by year, and by the end of the 1930s it amounted to ten books per year. The authors were mostly journalists and writers. There were few women writers, but their memoirs attracted attention. Lilli Suburg was one of the first autobiography writers, Marta Lepp was a legendary female revolutionary, and Mari Raamot was the founder of the Defence League’s women’s corps’ “Women’s Home Defence”. In the 1930s many of the prominent Estonian writers began to put down their memories: they were Oskar Luts, Karl August Hindrey, and at the end of the 1930s, Friedebert Tuglas. The precondition for the writing of memoirs is the existence of leaders and a developed society. These conditions were fulfilled in the Republic of Estonia, although it should be added that many prominent social figures postponed the writing of their memoirs, which in the end remained unwritten.

Mäletamine ja nostalgia Karl Ristikivi romaanis „Kõik, mis kunagi oli” ning Bernard Kangro Joonatani -romaanides. Remembering and Nostalgia in Karl Ristikivi`s novel „All that Once Was” and Bernard Kangro’s Joonatan-novels

Research on the phenomenon of nostalgia has been notably shaped by the interest taken by sociologists, historians, and ethnologists in the ways of remembering past events and the impact of these ways of reminiscence on different communities of memory. This article considers remembering in a narrower sense, focusing on the modes of expression of individual memory, that is, on nostalgia. More specifically, nostalgia is defined as a conglomeration of feelings, images and interpretations that accompany individual remembering; the contradictions between these elements reflect the tensions inherent in remembering. The purpose of the article is first to emphasize ways in which remembering is represented in the works of two Estonian writers who went into exile during World War II; second, differences among their novels which thematize remembering, and third, how these works communicate today, in the context of recent polemics around memory. Karl Ristikivi’s novel „All that Once Was” (Koik, mis kunagi oli”, 1946), was his first work to be published in exile, and the first volume of a dilogy set in Estonia, which the writer had already planned before fleeing Estonia. The first volume of Bernard Kangro’s Joonatan trilogy was published in 1971, and the last in 1973 – a period of creative crisis for Kangro, in which his prose writing undergoes significant change. In the works of both Ristkivi and Kangro, remembering and nostalgia are inextricably bound together. In Ristikivi’s novel, the connections emerge through the parallel representation of remembering, events in historical time, and the writing of history; in Kangro’s novels, in the force field of remembering and events in historical time. Ristikivi’s novel is set a few months before the conclusion of the Molotov- Ribbentrop pact in August, 1939. The novel’s focus, however, is not on the historical events themselves, but rather on how characters experience and interpret their own personal past and present. The novel shows how personal remembering differs from the logic of cultural memory, and seems to confirm that remembering maintains a certain autonomy from historical time. Such an understanding of memory can be taken as an effort to critique attempts to politicize memory. Ristikivi stresses qualities of individual remembering such as self-enclosure and refusal to submit to efforts at collectivization and assimilation. This kind of memory is only for the characters themselves to know; never once do they express their memories in language. As concerns nostalgia, Ristikivi’s novel emphasizes its connection with forgetting: in their retrospection and recollection, characters remember only extraordinary events in their lives, but not the texture of their everyday lives. Like Ristikivi, Kangro also speaks of the connections between nostalgia and remembering. In his Joonatan-novels, however, nostalgia has a more ambivalent meaning. The protagonist of the Joonatan novels, who has just returned to the homeland from exile, feels the tension between his wish to reconcile himself with the past and the nostalgic memories that flood him in the homeland. On the one hand, indulging in nostalgia tears him away from the wish to remember painful past events, and with this from present reality; on the other hand, his nostalgia helps him overcome a traumatic past. In both Ristikivi’s and Kangro’s novels nostalgic memories are connected with personally meaningful places, to which they return again and again.

Bernhard Linde. Noor-Eesti vooriülem. Bernhard Linde. Leader of the Young Estonian Pack

Bernhard Linde (1886–1954) was a recognized and prolific Estonian theatre critic of the first quarter of the 20th century, who mediated and propagated western as well as eastern European theatrical innovations. In addition, he was active as a literary and art critic, publisher, and proponent of libraries, to a modest extent he was a prose writer and poet. Unquestionably, however, Bernhard Linde’s most prominent role was as one of the founding members of the literary movement Young Estonia. He was the group’s first general manager; later on, he was the secretary of the Estonian Writers’ Association Young Estonia, and the chairman of the board of the Young Estonia Publishing House. Linde’s formal education culminated in graduation from Tartu University as a Slavic philologist; he was the only member of the Young Estonia group to demonstrate serious and sustained interest toward Slavic cultures and peoples. Linde was a contradictory figure, evoking a range of responses from his contemporaries: on the one hand, there was the unbelievably broad range of his participation in cultural life, his organizing skills and business instincts in directing publishing houses; on the other hand, a superficiality in his writings, his often rash and subjective style as a critic, and his financial intrigues. If one adds in Linde’s stubbornness, egocentrism, and intense spirit of protest, which often led to lawsuits, the outcome is the portrait of an extremely complicated, fascinating, and passionate man—both in his creative work and his personal life Linde guaranteed a place for himself in literary history through a small catch of texts: a few foundational essays (for example, on August Kitzberg), a translation of Balzac’s Le père Goriot, the essay collection Omad ja võõrad (Own and Foreign) and a travel book focusing on the literature and theatre of eastern Europe (Loova Kesk-Euroopa Poole (Toward A Creative Central Europe)). The prominent public figure and historian Eduard Laaman has pointed out that the historical picture of Young Estonia would be incomplete without Bernhard Linde. It was Laaman who, in view of Linde’s business instincts, dubbed him Young Estonia’s ”leader of the pack”, a label that stuck. While fulfilling the responsibilities of the group’s general secretary and business manager (the Estonian word asjaajaja has a broad connotational field) Linde carried most of the burden of Young Estonia’s correspondence. Though he often protested against the designation, the term general manager seems most precisely to characterize Linde’s activities in the context of Young Estonia, since the group’s financial matters and problems connected with its publishing activities were largely his to handle. Compared with his organizational work, his own literary contributions from the Young Estonia era were modest. Young Estonia’s fifth and last album was published in 1915. The last text specifically about Young Estonia authored by a member of the movement was Bernhard Linde’s ”Noor-Eesti” kümme aastat (Young Estonia: Ten Years), also mostly written that same year, though not published until 1919 (publication date on the title page was 1918, reprinted 2005). This text is a systematic historical overview of the movement which continues to offer valuable perspectives for today’s reader.

Noor-Eesti rollist eesti kirjandus- ja kultuuriloos. The Role of Young Estonia in Estonian Literary and Cultural History

Noor-Eesti rollist eesti kirjandus- ja kultuuriloos. The Role of Young Estonia in Estonian Literary and Cultural History

Estonian Short Stories

Gathers stories illustrating the history of Estonian writers' interaction with their government.

The Love That Was: Stories of Estonian Writers

The Love That Was: Stories of Estonian Writers