Paul Kuusberg (30 April 1916 – 21 January 2003) was an

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 ...

n writer. Novellas by him include “''Roostetanud kastekann''” (1971) and “''Võõras või õige mees''” (1978), which won an award in Estonia.

Biography

Kuusberg was born in

Reval 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 ''m ...

(present-day Tallinn), and during the period of Estonia's independence worked as a

construction worker A construction worker is a worker employed in the physical construction of the built environment and its infrastructure. Definition By some definitions, workers may be engaged in manual labour as unskilled or semi-skilled workers; they may be sk ...

. He supported the 1940

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 joined the Communist Party. He participated in the

German-Soviet war The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sout ...

, first in a Soviet

Destruction battalion Destruction battalions,, uk, Винищувальні батальйони, be, Zniszczalnyja batalëny, , et, hävituspataljonid, lt, Naikintojų batalionai, lv, Iznīcinātāju bataljoni, group=nb colloquially istrebitels (истреби� ...

, later in the Red Army's

8th Estonian Rifle Corps The 8th Estonian Rifle Corps (2nd formation) (russian: 8-й Эстонский стрелковый корпус, et, 8. Eesti Laskurkorpus) was a formation in the Red Army, created on 6 November 1942, during World War II. An 8th Rifle Corps ...

. Kuusberg served as a politruk and journalist at the front. After the war, he worked for the newspaper ''

Rahva Hääl ''Rahva Hääl'' (lit. ''The People's Voice'') was the official daily newspaper of the Communist Party of Estonia during Soviet occupation of Estonia. It was founded shortly after the first Soviet takeover in 1940 based on offices and resources ...

'' and was later the editor-in-chief of '' Looming''. Kuusberg graduated from the

Higher Party School Education in the Soviet Union was guaranteed as a constitutional right to all people provided through state schools and universities. The education system that emerged after the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922 became internationally ren ...

in Moscow. From 1976 to 1983 he was the secretary of the board of the Writers Union of the Estonian SSR. Although his first works of fiction (''The Walls'' (1957)) closely follow the guidelines of

socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is c ...

, he soon adopted a more multifaceted, undogmatic approach. He treated careerism in Soviet society (''The Case of Andres Lapateus''), the fate of the Estonian soldiers mobilized to the Red Army (''Enn Kalmu kaks mina'' (1960–61)). Both of the novels were also adapted for film. Paul Kuusberg was a communist, but as a literary functionary, he tried to protect Estonian literature and literati from ideological suppression. Paul Kuusberg died in 2003.

External links

Obituary
1916 births 2003 deaths Writers from Tallinn People from Kreis Harrien Communist Party of Estonia politicians Tenth convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Estonian male novelists 20th-century Estonian novelists Estonian magazine editors Looming (magazine) editors Soviet writers Soviet military personnel of World War II People's Writers of the Estonian SSR Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Order of Lenin {{Estonia-writer-stub