Jaan Kross

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Jaan Kross (19 February 1920 – December 27, 2007) was an Estonian writer.

During the early 1990s, he was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Early life

Jaan Kross, the son of a skilled metalworker, attended Jakob Westholm Gymnasium and graduated from the University of Tartu (1938–1945). He served as a lecturer there until 1946 and then as Professor of Artes Liberales in 1998.

The Soviet Union invaded and occupied the three Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1940, when Kross was 20 years old; the majority of their governments were executed and imprisoned. Nazi Germany invaded and took over the country in 1941.

Kross was detained by the Germans for six months during 1940–1944, being accused of what was referred to as "nationalism," i.e., advocating Estonian independence. On 5 January 1946, when Estonia was reconquered by the Soviet Union, he was detained by the Soviet occupation authorities who held him a short while in the cellar of the local NKVD headquarters, then escorted him to a Gulag camp in Vorkuta, Russia, before deporting him to a Gulag camp in Vorkuta, Russia, in October 1947. He spent eight years in this area of North Russia, six working in the mines at Inta's labour camp and then doing more manual jobs, but not in a labour camp. On his return to Estonia in 1954, he became a respected writer, not least because his law studies during Estonian independence were no longer relevant anymore, but Soviet law had no value whatsoever.

Kross first published poetry, alluding to a variety of contemporary phenomena under the guise of writing about historical figures. However, he soon moved to writing prose, a genre that was about to become his main one.

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Career as a writer

Kross was by far the most translated and internationally well-known Estonian writer. During the early 1990s, he had been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He received the People's Writer of the Estonian SSR (1985) and the State Prize of the Estonian SSR (1977). He also held numerous honorary doctors and international awards, including the highest Estonian order and one of the highest German orders. In 1999, he was given the Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature.

Kross won the Amnesty International Golden Flame Award in 1990. He received the 1995 International Nonino Prize in Italy. Apparently, he was nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize in Literature in the early 1990s.

Kross' name and fame as a leading Estonian author have translated into many languages, but mostly into Finnish, Swedish, Russian, German, and Latvian. This is due to geographical proximity but also a common history (for example, Estonia was a Swedish colony in the 17th century, and German was the official language of Estonia's upper échelons for hundreds of years). There are five books of Kross' novels that have been published in English translations in the United States and the United Kingdom by the year 2015, as shown by the table below. During Soviet rule, however, a number of shorter books, novellas, and short-stories were published (i.e. In the Soviet Union, 1944–1991) was translated in English and published in English.

The bulk of translations came from the Estonian original. However, translations were sometimes done during Soviet times by first being translated into Russian and then from Russian to English, not infrequently by native-speakers of Russian or Estonian. Kross' works are now translated into English, whether directly from the Estonian or via the Finnish translation. On the ELIC website, there is a comprehensive list of translations of Jaan Kross' works into languages other than English.

Kross remembered German words from a young age when relatives of the family referred to it as their mother tongue, and Kross' mother had a good handle on it. In the Gulag, his Russian learnedt mainly while serving as a slave labourer. But he also knew that Christian Steen translated one crime book (pseudonym of exile Estonian novelist Karl Ristikivi) from that Swedish book. He also translated works from French, Bertolt Brecht and Rolf Hochhuth's Bernese, Wendarov and David Samoilov from Russian, and Alice in Wonderland, Macbeth, and Othello from English.

Kross' books and short stories are almost universally historical, in fact, he is often credited with a major revival of the historical novel. The bulk of his works take place in Estonia, and they are generally concerned with Estonians' and Baltic Germans' friendships with Russians. Kross' account of the historical war of the Estonians against the Baltic Germans against the Baltic Germans is a metaphor for the current resistance to the Soviet occupation. However, Kross' clout internationally (and nationally) shows that his books do not address such issues; rather, they concern with questions of mixed identities, loyalty, and belonging; and not only that.

The Czar's Madman has been dubbed Kross' best book in general, and it is also the most translated one. Professor Martens' Departure, which is also translated, is very popular in academia (academics, experience, and national loyalty) as a result of its subject matter (academics, knowledge, and national loyalty) and a pivotal "professorial book" in academe. The late novel Excavations, set in the mid-1950s, deals with the thaw period immediately after Stalin's death, as well as the Danish conquest of Estonia in the Middle Ages, and today is considered by several commentators as his finest; it is also available in German.

Kross' books can be divided into two types: true historical ones and more modern narratives with an element of autobiography. The Following are a few notable excerpts from the Czar's Madman set in the 19th century, From Three Plagues tetralogy, set in the 16th century, A Rakvere Novel / Romance set in the 18th century, and Elusiveness / Evasion, which was set about 1918. Kross' book about the ultimate fates of his classmates, i.e. The Wikman Boys (Wikman's Circle / Ring, a Swedish-based novel about Kross' alter ego Peeter Mirk and his attempts with archaeology, conformism, rebellion, compromise, and skulduggery after he has returned from Siberian labor camps and interne exile out there, a character from the Siberian labour camps and internal exile out there. Also the book that has appeared in English translation as Treading Air, and the bulk of his short-stories are related to this subgenre.

The use of the internal (or inner) monologue in Kross' novels is often when the protagonist is trying to figure out how to solve a thorny issue. Any protagonist or narrator, from Timotheus von Bock in The Czar's Madman to Kross' two alter egos in the semi-autobiographical novels, participates in this. In the novel Sailing Against the Wind (2012), Bernhard Schmidt, the luckless telescope entrepreneur, appeared in English.

Another common feature of Kross books is a comparison, occasionally overt but usually concealt, between various historical epochs and the present day, which for a large portion of Kross' writing life was based on Soviet history, including censorship, a lack of consumer products, the ever-watchful eye of the KGB, and informers. Kross was always a natural performer, but it was also within the bounds of what the Soviet authorities could not comprehend. Kross loved playing with the identities of others with the same, or almost identical name. In Professor Martens' Departure, two separate Martens-figures are discussed, legal professionals who lived many decades apart, and Sailing Against the Wind, where the protagonist Bernhard Schmidt meets a few others named Schmidt in a dream sequence.

Kross gave a series of lectures at Tartu University discussing certain aspects of his books, not least the roman à clef story, given that a number of his characters are based on true life figures, both in the true historical novels and the semi-autobiographical ones. These lectures are included in a book titled Omaeluloolist (Autobiographism and Subtext) which appeared in 2003.

Jaan Kross spent some of his days writing his memoirs (entitled Kallid kaasteelised, i.e.). Dear Co-Travellers – this translation of the name avoids the unfortunate connotation of the word "travelers." These two volumes came out with a total of 1,200 pages, with some of his personal photos. Kross' life began quietly enough, but after innocuous things like the summer house and his schooldays, he goes on to Estonia's first Soviet occupation, his unsuccessful attempt to not be drafted for the Waffen-SS during the Nazi German occupation, as well as a long section detailing his life in prison and the labour camps. The last portion chronicles his return from the camps and his attempts at authorship. The second volume follows him from when he first moved into the flat in central Tallinn, where he lived for the remainder of his life, as well as his increasing success as a writer. Following restoration of liberty and his travels with his wife, there is now a section outlining his one-year term as Member of Parliament.

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