Tartu koolinoorte vastupanu venestamispoliitikale XX sajandi alguses
Schoolboy acts of resistance to the policy of Russification in Tartu in the early 1900s

Summary/Abstract: The article describes some remarkable events that took place in Tartu in 1902 and 1903, when young students under the leadership of Gustav Suits and Friedebert Tuglas assisted by the local Estonian societies Vanemuine, Taara, and Karskuse sõber /Friend of Abstinence/ organised special literary evenings to celebrate the memory of Lydia Koidula and Mihkel Veske, the great figures of the Estonian people. This was a protest of youth against the policy of Russification, an action marking the beginning of a new phase of Estonian national movement. Using various sources, including some new material discovered in the archives, the article reconstructs the stories of how those evenings were prepared and what repressions followed. It is revealed that the information was leaked by the city school inspector, who was eager to win his spurs and move on careerwise. The authorities, however, were reluctant to make a big deal out of the incident and so the affair ended relatively peacefully. The young rebels were able to graduate with success, while the above incident turned out to be a prologue to their further fight for a free Estonia.

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