Translated by Alliki Arro
I would like to take some time to describe my return to Estonia and my education there, because it meant a major change in my life.
Life here was no longer a struggle to stay alive, but something altogether different. I had to step out of the old parameters of my life, and acommodate myself to the new. I had very little formal education, but I had been schooled in life - I was good at stealing, and a few other things, that I no longer needed here. I became aware that I had been born into a certain family, and had an obligation to hold up the family name. Certain things were not done. All at once I became an adult.
After completing Grade Five in Tallinn, I continued my education at the Aruküla School in Harjumaa province. I remember that as a wonderful time in my life. I lived with Elviine, who was the daughter of my great-aunt Mari. The house where she lived with her family was small, but charming. It had a steep thatched roof and a white chimney. It was called Tubalepa. I slept in the same bed with Elviine’s step-daughter Evi. Eerik, who owned the neighbouring farm had a big family with lots of children. The school was located at some distance from us and for the most part we walked to school together.
Eerik had a battery-powered radio with earphones. On Saturday nights we would gather around it and take turns listening to old-fashioned dance music. Tubalepa had a beautiful dog with black wavy fur - Pontu. He knew the way to school and came there from time to time. Pontu knew how to open a door, and it was not unusual for him to appear in the classroom in the middle of a lesson. What happened then, depended on the teacher.
During the next school-year, I moved to a new place, but was able to stay in the same school. March 25, 1949, the day of the second mass deportation of the Estonian people, co incided with the spring break of that year. There were fewer students in the school, and there was more and more talk of the partisans or, “forest-brothers”.
My high school years in Tallinn were an odyssey of sorts. At times I lived on Aruküla territory, at other times I lived in various places in town. At the beginning of 1950, Eva was arrested and sent back to Russia. Other young people, who had been allowed to return from Russia, and who were my friends here, disappeared as well. I knew that they were looking for me, too. That’s what Aunt Lo told me, because they had tried to catch me at her house on several nights. I had to stay away from school and previous addresses for a while. In fact, I went “underground” for some time - I lived in a basement on Tatar Street. And they did not catch me, although they pursued me for several years. I regret the time lost to this odyssey; and the gaps it left in my education.
In the fall of 1954, a year and a half after Stalin died, I was able to enrol at the Tallinn Pedagogic Institute. After four years I graduated as a teacher of physics and astronomy. At our graduation, professor Albert Borkvell congratulated me as well. He said, “Congratulations and best of luck in the future from a friend of your father’s”. I had not been in any of Professor Borkvell’s classes during my studies at the Institute, and I had never spoken to him before.
(To be continued)
Letter to my Father (13)
Järjejutt
TRENDING
