Enn Vetemaa (June 20, 1936March 28, 2017) 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 ...

n writer sometimes referred to as a "forgotten classic",Rutt Hinrikus ''Enn Vetemaa''
Estonian Literature Information Centre as well as "the unofficial master of the Estonian Modernist short novel".Jan Kaus ''Enn Vetemaa. Biography''
Estonian Literature Information Centre

Biography

Vetemaa was born in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

to the family of an architect. He graduated from Tallinn Polytechnic Institute in 1959 with a degree in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

. His choice of the subject was influenced by his grandfather, a pioneer photographer and radio-engineer, who started photography in 19th century and experimented with radio-transmitting two years after Alexander Popov. Without working out the required three years Vetemaa abandoned his engineering career and entered Tallinn Conservatoire that he graduated from in 1965. Despite being a very successful student of music Vetemaa decided that he is not as strong as his classmates: now famous

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in p ...

and

Jaan Rääts Jaan Rääts (15 October 1932 – 25 December 2020) was a Soviet Union, Soviet and Estonian composer who worked extensively on Estonian Cinema of Estonia, film scores of the 1960s and 1970s. He was born in Tartu and became a member of the Estonian ...

. Vetemaa abandoned music and returned to writing poetry. First publications of Vetemaa's poetry were in 1958. He published books of poetry ''Critical Age'' ( ) in 1962 and ''Game of snowballs'' () in 1966. He became a notable figure among the young poets of Estonia, but his ironic and rational intellect forces to switch into prose. In 1964 he finished and in 1966 published his arguably most-famous novel ''Monument''. The novel already does something that is unusual in the context of Estonian literature: the narrator is a negative character. In this way Vetemaa makes his readers enter the mind of a character for whom they feel no empathy. The narrator, a young successful sculptor kandidat of architecture Sven Voore, returns from

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

to Tallinn to work on a memorial to fallen Soviet soldiers. He is supposed to decorate the pedestal for the work of a young talented sculptor Ain Saarema, but the problem is that the monument eventually designed by Ain does not need any pedestals: it shows only arms that the dead soldiers rise from their graves through the ground. The narrator's intrigues eventually lead to the monument eventually finished by a Stalinist Magnus Tee, the narrator getting the job of the pedestal, promotion in the Estonian art unions and the wife of Ain Sarema. The resulting monument is done in the traditions of the socialist realism but has ghostly long arms (inherited from the project of Ain). The novel was originally forbidden to be published but Vetemaa happened to meet the censor. After a few days of heavy drinking with Vetemaa, the censor found courage to allow the novel for publications. The novel was printed at the climax of the

Khrushchev Thaw The Khrushchev Thaw (, or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s when Political repression in the Soviet Union, repression and Censorship in ...

and was well received. Vetemaa won the USSR Writer's Union prize for the best novel. In 1978 the novel was adapted as a play directed by Valery Fokin in

Sovremennik Theater. It is considered to be the best theater work of Konstantin Raikin. After ''Monument'' Vetemaa published other "small novels": ''Tiredness'' (Усталость) (1967), ''Väike reekviem suupillile'' (written in 1967, printed in 1968), ''Munad hiina moodi'' (English: ''Chinese Eggs'') (written – 1967–1969, printed – 1972). All together Vetemaa wrote ten "short novels" Vetemaa continues to work as a playwright. His play ''Õhtusöök viiele'' ('' Dinner for Five''), first performed in 1972, and the comedy ''Püha Susanna ehk Meistrite kool'' (''Saint Susanna or the School of Masters''), first performed in 1974, demonstrate Vetemaa's sharp eye and witty lines; texts without which Estonian theatre history would not be complete. In 1983 Vetemaa prepared his most famous text compilation ''Eesti näkiliste välimäärja'' (''The Reference Book of Estonian Mermaids''), which mixes frivolity with popular science. He also wrote a lot of variations on the themes of Estonian

epic poetry In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard t ...

. Speaking about the controversy caused by relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, Vetemma supported the idea of erecting a monument to

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

on the vacant place. But he would prefer to use that site for a monument to

Lennart Meri Lennart Georg Meri (; 29 March 1929 – 14 March 2006) was an Estonian writer, film director, and statesman. He was the country's foreign minister from 1990 to 1992 and President of Estonia from 1992 to 2001. Early life Meri was born in Tallin ...

, the first Estonian president after the dissolution of the

Soviet Union 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 ...

Will we put on Tõnismägi a monument to Lennart Meri?
DELFI

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vetemaa, Enn 1936 births 2017 deaths Writers from Tallinn Estonian male novelists Estonian screenwriters 20th-century Estonian novelists 21st-century Estonian novelists Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 4th Class