Tallinna-temaatika stalinismiaja Eesti NSV kirjanduses
Tallinn in the Literature of the Stalinist Estonian SSR

Summary/Abstract: This study is part of a wider research project dealing with the depiction of the city of Tallinn in post-World War II Soviet Estonian literature. The author makes an attempt to draw conclusions from the relatively scarce prose and poetry written on the subject, spanning a period of roughly 10 years, from 1944 to 1954,also known in Estonian cultural history as the period of Stalinism. While demand for urban fiction was clearly expressed by the authorities, in reality rural themes prevailed. Lack of urban literature in the 1940s and early 1950s can be explained by the unwillingness of Estonian intellectuals to adjust to the new ideology and socio-realism. Attempts to write about Soviet Tallinn were often deemed low quality by the critics. One of the writers who did meet the requirements was Aadu Hint, who famously revised his chef d'oeuvre "Tuuline Rand" by adding some chapters depicting city life. The textology of Hint's work has been thoroughly analysed before, but not the ideological reasoning behind the changes. In this article the topic is briefly touched upon. The urban themes occurring in Stalinist literature can be associated, partly, with the postwar reconstruction of Tallinn - a process not dissimilar to many other European cities which had suffered heavy damage as a result of the war. Both poetry and prose were used to voice the enthusiasm and hopes for a better future and a new era of prosperity. The reality was in sharp contrast, however, with the way the topic was handled in fiction. For instance, the role of German war prisoners in the reconstruction work was often overlooked. In conclusion, the article suggests that we can only talk about fragments of Estonian urban fiction in the 1940s and early 1950s, as most of the writers of that time had a rural background. Themes regarding the past were more popular than contemporary topics. Similarly to Stalinist architecture, the ideas of which were adopted in the cityscape of Tallinn only to a certain extent, the domestication of the (pseudo-)literary style of socio-realism was anything but a painless procedure.

• Details
• Contents