Juhan Leinberg (26 September 1812 – 28 August 1885), also known as

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

Maltsvet, was a founder of a religious sect named after him (the Maltsvetians) in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. Juhan Leinberg was born in Norra Parish in Järvamaa. In his youth he was a farmer, miller, barkeeper and seller in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

. In 1854 he started holding preachings in Northern

and called on people to give up collecting wealth. A short imprisonment in 1858 increased his popularity, the number of his followers reached 200-300 families. In 1860 Leinberg started to promote re-establishing to the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

, going there himself in February 1861. The most fanatic of the Maltsvetians waited in May and June 1861 at Lasnamäe for the coming of the "White Ship" that was to take them to the promised land. The followers of Maltsvet also had an important part in the peasant rebellions in Albu and Ahula in November 1861. By the mid-1860s, Maltsvet's influence had worn off. After his return to Estonia in 1865 he returned to his business career. Leinberg died in

Pruuna Pruuna is a village in Tapa Parish, Lääne-Viru County, in northeastern Estonia. (retrieved 28 July 2021) References Political and military figure Artur Sirk Artur Sirk (25 September 1900 in Pruuna, Lehtse Parish (now Tapa Parish), Kreis ...

parish, Järvamaa. The movement of the Maltsvetians is treated by

Eduard Vilde Eduard Vilde ( – 26 December 1933) was an Estonian writer, a pioneer of critical realism in Estonian literature, and a diplomat. Author of classics such as ''The War in Mahtra'' and ''The Milkman from Mäeküla''. He was one of the most revere ...

(1865-1933) in the novel ''Prophet Maltsvet''. Published in 1908, this was the third book of a trilogy that established Vilde as a writer. Like the others, it mixed fact and fiction, but was based on letters and notes of interviews with

n Estonians. Finnish author

Aino Kallas Aino Krohn Kallas (2 August 1878 – 9 November 1956) was a Finnish-Estonian author. Her novellas are considered to be prominent pieces of Finnish literature.Lasnamäe Lasnamäe is the most populous administrative district of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The district's population is about 119,000, the majority of which is Russian-speaking. Local housing is mostly represented by 5–16 stories high panel blo ...

), which portrays the members of Leinberg's religious sect waiting for a white ship to take them into paradise, as Leinberg had promised according to the story.

References

1812 births 1885 deaths People from Järva Parish People from the Governorate of Estonia Prophets 19th-century Estonian people {{estonia-stub