Jüri Kukk (May 1, 1940 – March 27, 1981) was an

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

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

, anti-Soviet

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

and political prisoner, who died in the former

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see British and American spelling differences, spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are unfree labour, forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have ...

Vologda Vologda (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the river Vologda (river), Vologda within the watershed of the Northern Dvina. Population: The city serves as ...

. Kukk, who initially studied and later taught at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

from 1958 to 1979, was the author of a number of scientific papers. Although he was a member of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

, it was apparently Kukk's period of scientific work in France in 1975–1976 that opened his eyes to the severity of the problems in his occupied homeland of Estonia and in the former Soviet Union more broadly. Kukk protested the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR in 1979, and applied for permission to

emigrate Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

to the West. After being fired by the University of Tartu, he was arrested by the Soviet authorities in February 1980, along with fellow human rights activist Mart-Olav Niklus, and charged with distribution of "anti-Soviet propaganda". Niklus and Kukk both actively campaigned for Estonia being given the chance to go her way again as an independent nation, free of Soviet domination. Kukk resigned from the Communist Party in 1978 and was subsequently fired from the position of associate professor of chemistry at Tartu University. He was also refused permission to emigrate.

Rein Taagepera Rein Taagepera (born 28 February 1933) is an Estonian political scientist and former politician. Education Born in Tartu, Estonia, Taagepera fled from Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1944. Taagepera graduated from high school in Marrakech, Morocco ...

, "Estonia: Return to Independence"
pp. 113–115
Jüri Kukk was sentenced in January 1980 on charges of "anti-Soviet agitation" or arrested in February 1980 for contact with foreign correspondents and "distribution of

anti-Soviet Anti-Sovietism or anti-Soviet sentiment are activities that were actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union. Three common uses of the term include the following: * Anti-Sovietism in inter ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

." He started a hunger strike to protest the arrest of fellow dissident Mart-Olav Niklus. Kukk was transported to Vologda on March 24, 1981, where he was tortured and died three days later.

Personal life

Kukk had a wife, Silvi, with whom he had two children.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kukk, Juri 20th-century Estonian educators Estonian chemists Soviet dissidents People who died on hunger strike Resigned Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Estonian people who died in Soviet detention 1940 births 1981 deaths Academic staff of the University of Tartu People from Pärnu Restoration of the independence of the Baltic states