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Valev Uibopuu (1913-1997) |
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Estonian journalist, scholar, and novelist, who experimented discreetly with new techniques. Valev Uibopuu was perhaps the best-known exile writer of his country during the decades after World War II, when Estonia was part of the Soviet Union. His first short stories Uibopuu published before the war. In his novels Uibopuu described with deep psychological understanding people, who have become isolated from their surroundings. Often he dealt with some moral problem whose significance – perhaps bitterly tragicomic – emerges as the plot unfolds. "Sinine oli taevas eile ja sinine on taevas tänä. Ning tundub, nagu oleks see siinse küla kohal igavesti nii. Üksikud valged pilved kerkivad keskpäeval mere sinerdava selja tagant, nende varjulaigud kõnnivad ümbruse piiniarinnetel sihitult nagu eksinud talled ja kaovad siis jälle. Ja taas on ainult taevas ja meri ning ümber karm, punerdav maa oma paeelamute ja raagus viigipuudega. See on küla, kus aeg on peatunud ning mis igavesti on olnud sama." ('Igavene küla' = The eternal village, in Igavene küla: novelle by Valev Uibopuu, Lund: Eesti Kirjanike Kooperativ, 1954, p. 5) Valev Uibopuu was born in 1913 in Võrumaa, Vana-Anstla, the son of
Evaldi, a
forest officer, Emilie (née Roht), the sister of the writer Richard
Roht. During the Estonian War of Independence (1917-1920) Uibopuu's
father was arrested and executed by the Red Army in January 1919. The
family moved to Tinno to his grandfather's house. Uibopuu always
considered it his real home. While
a student, Uibopuu was in a bicycle accident and wounded his knee.
Temporarily unable to walk, Uibopuu spent his time reading books and
tried his hand in writing. "I became a writer simply because I was no
good for anything else," he said later. (quoted in Valev Uibopuu 19.10.1913-18.03.1997: bibliograafia,
koostaja: Maie Elstein, Võru: Võrumaa Keskraamatukogu 2013;
https://www.digar.ee/arhiiv/et/raamatud/21997. Accessed 1 July 2025) Uibopuu's early stories from
1930 include 'Arni' and 'Suremine'. 'Rahakott' was published in the
magazine Eesti Noorus. Following recovery, he worked in a public library for a period. After graduating from the coeducational school of Otepää,
he was employed as a journalist in Valga and in Tallinn, including for the magazines Perekonnaleht
and Eesti Sõna. As a writer Uibopuu started in the 1930s by publishing short stories
in the literary magazine Looming. His first book, Väravate all, came out in 1936.
Four year later followed Viljatu puu, also a collection of short stories. His early fiction,
often telling about the harsh realities of life,
was written in dispassionate style. In 1943, before the advancing Red Army took over Estonia, Uibopuu moved to Finland, where he worked at libraries.
After the Continuation War (1941-44) Finland returned prisoners of war to the Soviet Union Soviet, but
also Estonian and Ingrian refugees. In Estonia, tens of thousands of people were arrested and deported to
Siberia. It has been estimated, that during WWII approxmitely 70,000 Estonians fled their homeland to escape the Red Army, mainly to Sweden and Germany. A number of established or aspiring writers, such as Ilmar Talve, Kalju Lepik, Marie Under, Henrik Visnapuu, Artur Adson, Karl Ristikivi, and Bernard Kangro, chose emigration over Communist reality and Socialist realism. The Soviet occupation lasted until 1991 when Estonia restored its independence. To avoid being sent back to his occupied home country, Uibopuu
escaped in a motor boat in 1944 from Finland to Sweden. While in a
refugee camp in Sigtuna, he wrote the short story 'The Best Loaf,'
which was published in The PEN in Exile: An Anthology of Writers in Exile (1945). Uibopuu worked
first as a journalist at the magazine Välis-Eesti and
later with Bernard Kangro for the publishing company Eesti Kirjanike
Kooperativ (Estonian Writers' Cooperative), the most influential
Estonian publisher in exile. Several of his books appeared also in
Swedish. Along with Arved Viirlaid (born 1922), who settled in Canada,
Uibopuu was one of the most translated Estonian exile novelists of his
generation. Before the international breakthrough of such writers as Jaan Kross, Mati Unt, and poet Jaan Kaplinski,
it was often said that the quality and quantity of literary production in exile surpassed that in Estonia.
The situation was even
compared to that of the great Polish emigration of the 19th century.
('Estonian Literature in Exile,' review by Aleksis
Rannit, Lituanus: Lithuanian Quarterly Journal of Arts and Sciences,
Volume 16, No. 2, Summer 1970) Stockholm became one of the major centers of Estonian exiles – close to
fifty Estonian authors lived and worked in Sweden for many years.
In
a letter from 1946 to his wife, the writer and
journalist Tuuli Reijonen (1904-1997), who stayed in Finland, Uibopuu
said that he is a person
who will never feel at home in a strange country. He suffered from
bouts of depression, felt homesickness, and was worried about the
russification of Estonia. During his exile, Uibopuu corresponded
widely. "The correspondence enabled him to reflect on his belonging to
a place and, through it, on his sense of self." (Pakolaisen koti: Kodin ristiriitainen rakentuminen Valev Uibopuun kirjeenvaihdossa 1943-1997 by Anna Hukka, dissertation, Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto, 2025, p. iv) From
1956 he corresponded with his sister Maimu, who lived in Estonia. He
also received letters from his cousin Vagi Pärsimägi from Siberia. Uibopuu continued
writing short stories and novels, of which several
was published by Orto, a publishing company founded by Andres Laur.
Uibopuu's novel production includes Võõras kodu (1945), Keegi ei kuule meid (1948), and Neli tuld
(1951), about the voyages and shipwreck of a vessel manned by Estonian
refugees. This episodic work crystallized the mood of and the different
attitudes of expatriated Estonians. In 1960 Uibopuu became a member of the Swedish Writers' Union. In Janu (1957, Thirst) Uibopuu followed in detail the life of a young girl from spring to autumns – she never fulfills her dreams of life after recovering from tuberculosis. At the center of the novel is her relationship with her doctor. Markuse muutumised (1961) examined the loss of idealism and the reality of welfare society. "What is wrong with that sentence, that the one who doesn't have a fountain pen is not a cultural person?" The protagonist is a naive young man, who gets involved in increasingly awkward situations. Lademed (1970), was a story about a lonely woman and her difficulties of communing with other. In the scrutiny of the identity problems Uibopuu interweaved observations of the expatriate life. In 1954, Uibopuu went back to Finland, where entered the University of Helsinki. After studying
theoretical philosophy and psychology, he returned to Sweden. In 1958 Uibopuu received his
M.A. from the University of Lund and in 1970 he published his doctoral thesis on Finno-Ugric
philology. Uibopuu was appointed in 1971 professor of the University of Lund, retiring
in 1980. Meie ja meie hõimud
(1984), introduction to the history and present of the Uralic peoples
and languages, collected his lectures. "Die starke politische Prägung
des Werkes mag dem exilestnischen Laien gefallen, bestimmt aber nicht
den sowjetischen Zollbeamten. Bei weniger Sowjetfeindlichkeit (z. B.
ohne die Karten, auf denen Gefangenenlager verzeichnet sind) wäre das
Buch dank seiner Hauptthematik – die finnisch-ugrischen
Sprachverwandten der Esten – auch ein passendes Geschenk für
sowjetestnische Bekannte, Freunde und Kollegen." ('Valev Uibopuu Meie ja meie hõimud' by Eino Koponen, Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, No. 47, 1985, p. 300) Uibopuu's awards include Award of Dr. Arthur Puksov Foundation (Canada) in 1985
and Immigrant institute's prize 1993/94. He was a member of the Swedish PEN club and
Immigrant Institution and a correspondence member of Finno-Ugrian Society
and Finnish Literature Society. Valev Uibopuu died on March 18, 1997, in Lund. His ashes were
buried at Lüllemäe cemetery in Karula, next to his father's ashes. He never moved back to his old
home country, though he traveled there after the independence. "What
have they done to you, my dear fatherland?" he said in a letter. One of
his dreams came true in the summer of 1992, when walked up Toome Hill
in Tartu. In the 1990s, Neli tuld,
Keegi ei kuule meid, Janu, and Markuse muuttumised,
were republished in Estonia, where his novels had not been available
for decades. From 1944, Uibopuu was married to Tuuli Reijonen, who
translated three of his books into Finnish. They lived separate lives,
meeting only 2-3 times a year in Finland or in Sweden. After
divorce in 1964, Uibopuu married the Estonian nurse Malle Loesooga. Uibopuu
corresponded with Reijonen until 1993. The mood of Uibopuu's short stories and novels is meditative. His characters reveal layer by layer more and more about themselves, but there is always something hidden and unexplained. In the first pages of Janu the lonely narrator tells that the time of her recovery was the most beautiful time in her life. "What does it mean to be lonely and forgotten? I was lonely already in my childhood." The first snow comes, and she sees her future as white and pure. But she never leaves her home, comparing her life to that of a plant chained on the soil. For further reading: Pakolaisen koti: Kodin ristiriitainen rakentuminen Valev Uibopuun kirjeenvaihdossa 1943-1997 by Anna Hukka (dissertation, 2025); 'Relations of Estonian Exile Book to the Native Country and the World' by Anne Valmas, Knygotyra 44 (2024); Valev Uibopuu 19.10.1913 - 18.03.1997: Bibliograafia by Maie Elstein (2013); 'The Estonian Writers' Cooperative and the last generation of exile authors: the background story of how the 1960s collection Tont teab ("Who Knows") was published' by Marin Laak, Tuna, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2010); Valev Uibopuu: elu ja loomingu lugu by Ülo Tonts (2004); Keskusteluja Valev Uibopuun kanssa / Vestlusi Valev Uibopuuga by Pertti Virtaranta (1991); Estonian Literature: Historical Survey with Biobibliographical Appendix by Ender Nirk (1987); Estonian Literature: An Outline by Arvo Mägi (1968); Estonian Literature in Exile: An Essay by Ants Oras, with a bio-bibliographic appendix by Bernard Kangro (1967) Selected bibliography:
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