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
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