Valter Kaaver

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Valter Kaaver

Valter Kaaver (* 1 April . Jul / 14. April  1904 greg. In Võru ; † 16th August 1946 in Stalino ( Donetsk )) was an Estonian poet and journalist.

Life

Kaaver went to school in Võru, but could not do the Abitur as he was expelled from school in 1923 for political reasons (see below). He then attended lectures at the University of Tartu as a guest student while he tried to earn a living with translations. In 1927 he went to Tallinn , where he edited communist underground magazines. After its immediate closure, he was primarily active in politics, for example in the Estonian Workers' Party, which was the legal arm of the banned Communist Party.

In 1930 he settled in the Soviet Union , where he was expelled from the communist party and imprisoned in 1931. After his release in 1934, he was arrested again in the course of the Stalinist repression in 1937 and transferred to a prison camp, where he died in 1946. Valter Kaaver was rehabilitated in 1959.

Literary work

As a schoolboy, Kaaver published poems that advocated a revolution in an expressionist style. In 1923 he supported his teacher Aleksander Antson in the publication of a left-wing school magazine Viisnurk ('Soviet Star'), which, however, met with such violent criticism that Kaaver had to leave school. But he also worked with Antson afterwards and was in charge of the almanac Aktsioon ('Aktion'), of which three editions appeared between 1926 and 1929. This publication represented "the most combative and protesting trend in Estonian literature in the second half of the 1920s."

However, Kaaver's later poems have remained in manuscript or have been lost. Within the history of Estonian poetry, he has been compared to Erni Hiir and Juhan Sütiste .

Kaaver was very well read and tried to introduce foreign literature to Estonia. In connection with this and with his political activity, he is said to have been in correspondence with Henri Barbusse .

bibliography

  • Detsembri hommik. Luuletusi 1921-1929 ('December morning . Poems 1921-1929'). Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1979. 50 pp.

Literature on the author

  • Lehte Tavel: "Aktsioon" ja üks rühmitumiskatse, in: Keel ja Kirjandus 7/1965, pp. 410-421.
  • Oskar Kruus : Valter Kaaveri kirju, in: Keel ja Kirjandus 7/1966, pp. 432–442.
  • E. Ploom: Veel üks V. Kaaveri kiri, in: Keel ja Kirjandus 12/1967, pp. 738-739.
  • Aadu Säärits: Valter Kaaver luuletajana, in: Keel ja Kirjandus 7/1980, pp. 435–436.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eesti kirjanike leksikon. Koostanud Oskar Kruus yes Heino Puhvel. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 2000, pp. 160-161.
  2. ↑ Eesti kirjanduse ajalugu IV: 2. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1984, p. 185.
  3. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt: History of Estonian Literature. From the beginning to the present. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter 2006, pp. 407, 445-446.
  4. ↑ Lehte Tavel: "Aktsioon" ja üks rühmitumiskatse, in: Keel ja Kirjandus 7/1965, p. 421.
  5. ↑ Eesti kirjanduse ajalugu IV: 2. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1984, p. 186.
  6. ↑ At least this is what Aadu Säärits claims: Valter Kaaver luuletajana, in: Keel ja Kirjandus 7/1980, p. 435; Nigol Andresen doubts this in a later issue of the magazine, p. 626, which in turn is corrected by the editorial team, p. 704.
personal data
SURNAME Kaaver, Valter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kaveer, Kaver
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian poet and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Võru
DATE OF DEATH August 16, 1946
Place of death Stalino, Donetsk