Artur Toom (born Artur Eduard Johannes Thom; 5 January 1884 – 29 March 1942) was an Estonian ornithologist and conservationist who worked on the island of

Vilsandi The island of Vilsandi, Saaremaa Parish, Saare County, Estonia is located in the Baltic Sea. It covers an area of some 9 square km and is the westernmost populated island in Estonia. The surrounding waters are shallow and rocky and many ships trav ...

which later became

Vilsandi National Park __NOTOC__ Vilsandi National Park ( et, Vilsandi rahvuspark) is a marine protected area in Saare County, Estonia. It includes part of the island of Vilsandi, a number of smaller islands, adjacent parts of western Saaremaa and the Harilaid peninsu ...

. He was arrested following the

Soviet occupation of Estonia The Estonian SSR,, russian: Эстонская ССР officially the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic,, russian: Эстонская Советская Социалистическая Республика was an ethnically based adminis ...

and died in

Usollag Usollag, full name: Usolye Corrective Labor Camp (russian: Усольлаг, Усольский исправительно-трудовой лагерь (Усольский ИТЛ) ) was a Gulag forced labor camp established on February 5, 1938 an ...

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

labor camp. Toom was born in the village of Sagariste in Pihtla municipality,

Saare County Saare County ( et, Saare maakond or ''Saaremaa''; la, Oesel; german: Ösel; sv, Ösel) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It consists of Saaremaa, the largest island of Estonia, and several smaller islands near it, most notably Muhu, Ruhnu, Abru ...

, and became a lighthouse keeper on Vilsandi in 1906 where he started active bird conservation. He leased out the Vaika islands and encouraged bird nesting. In 1917, the Germans occupied

Saaremaa Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring . The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island and west of Muhu island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago. The capital of the island i ...

and many nests were destroyed and the birds and eggs eaten. Following the

Estonian War of Independence The Estonian War of Independence ( et, Vabadussõda, literally "Freedom War"), also known as the Estonian Liberation War, was a defensive campaign of the Estonian Army and its allies, most notably the United Kingdom, against the Bolshevik westwa ...

, in 1921 he studied fisheries, meteorology, ornithology and taxidermy at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

. He established a research station at

Kuusnõmme Kuusnõmme is a village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County in western Estonia. Before the administrative reform in 2017, the village was in Lääne-Saare Parish Lääne-Saare Parish ( et, Lääne-Saare vald) was a rural municipality of Estonia, ...

in 1922 and a museum in 1926. In 1930 he established a conservation society to protect the island of Saaremaa. Only 6 pairs of

common eider The common eider (pronounced ) (''Somateria mollissima''), also called St. Cuthbert's duck or Cuddy's duck, is a large ( in body length) sea-duck that is distributed over the northern coasts of Europe, North America and eastern Siberia. It bree ...

nested on the Vaika islands in 1906, and after protection, it went up to hundreds in 1938, and now in thousands. He published a book on the birds of Vilsandi in 1932, assisted by his wife Alma Rosalie Toom (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Õispuu). Following Soviet invasion, he was arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

on 11 June 1941 in

Kuressaare Kuressaare () is a town on Saaremaa island in Estonia. It is the administrative centre of Saaremaa Parish and the capital of Saare County. Kuressaare is the westernmost town in Estonia. The recorded population on 1 January 2018 was 13,276. Th ...

, and sent to Usollag camp in

Solikamsky District Solikamsky District (russian: Солика́мский райо́н) is an administrative district (raion), one of the thirty-three in Perm Krai, Russia.Law #416-67 Within the framework of municipal divisions, it is incorporated as Solikamsky Mun ...

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

. He was sentenced to death for espionage and anti-Soviet activity on 16 May 1942 but following an appeal, he was not executed but died in captivity on the 29th of March, aged 58. His wife Alma was also sentenced to exile and died in Nagorsk in 1945.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toom, Artur 1884 births 1942 deaths Estonian ornithologists Estonian conservationists University of Tartu alumni Recipients of the Protection of Natural Amenities Medal, Rank II People from Saaremaa Parish Prisoners sentenced to death by the Soviet Union Estonian people who died in Soviet detention People who died in the Gulag