Rein Kruus ja vene kirjandus Eestis
Rein Kruus and Russian Literature in Estonia

Summary/Abstract: The article is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Rein Kruus (1957–1992), graduate of the University of Tartu, scholar of Estonian-Russian literary and cultural relations, specialist of Igor Severyanin. Although his period of active writing lasted less than a dozen years, his list of publications includes 269 items in English, German, Latvian, Estonian, and Russian. The main attention of R. Kruus as a Slavist was turned to Russian literature created in Estonia. In his opinion those texts were part of neither Estonian nor foreign literature, being rather a bridge between Estonian and Russian literatures. Many of the local authors writing in Russian were, after all, Estonian citizens with a mixed Russian-Estonian background. Several of them were also translators of Estonian literature into Russian. R. Kruus was most attracted to the texts, poetry in particular, written in the 1920s and 1930s, which had received relatively less of researcher attention. His most valuable contribution to Russistics consists of 25 writings discussing Igor Severyanin, the best known Russian poet of pre-war Estonia. Thus, R. Kruus merits being recognized not as just a specialist of Russian literature in Estonia but rather as an outstanding Estonian Slavist.

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