Estonia’s most influential poet to be reburied
Marie Under, one of Estonia's most famous poets, will be reburied in her homeland.
The Estonian Writers Union is looking for new resting place for Under and her family, currently buried in Sweden. The reburial service is planned for this autumn.
Under, who was born in 1883 in Hiiumaa, blossomed into the literary scene in 1917 and liberated Estonian souls from the long and hard depression of the First World War with her poems. From then on, Under became one of the most popular figure in the Estonian literary world. She was also one of the founders of Estonian Writers Union and The Estonian Pen Club.
During the first Soviet occupation of 1940-1941, Under started to write very brave and patriotic poetry, compassionate towards the people who suffered deportations and war. This is the time when the whole nation fell in love with her and she became Estonia’s conscience, who had courage and ability to express the nation’s deepest feelings and sorrows.
In 1944, before the second Soviet occupation of Estonia, Under and her family fled to Sweden in a little ship and without ever seeing her homeland again, lived in Stockholm until her death in 1980.
Under was also nominated for the Nobel prize in literature thirty times after the Second World War, but never won it. Many speculate that this was because Estonia was occupied by the Soviets and she was a political refugee in Sweden.
Editor: S. Tambur