Friedrich Issak (20 November 1915,

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

– 11 May 1991) 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 sportsman and

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

. As a

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

er, he won gold and bronze medals at the International University Games and was national champion of

and later 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 ...

. In addition, he played

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

, winning national championship medals in both. He later became

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of the culture magazine ''

Kultuur ja Elu ''Kultuur ja Elu'' (meaning "Culture and Life" in English) is an Estonian magazine dedicated to culture. History and profile ''Kultuur ja Elu'' has been issued since 1958. In the 21st century, the journal developed into an almost exclusively m ...

''.

Sports career

At the

1937 International University Games The 1937 International University Games were organised by the Confederation Internationale des Etudiants (CIE) and held in Paris, France. Held from 21–29 August, 22 nations competed in fourteen sports. Boxing, cycling (sport), cycling, field hoc ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Issak won gold in the javelin with a throw of 70.25 m, a meeting record that was only broken twenty years later. His best throw that year, 70.56 m, placed him sixth on the annual world list. Issak placed fifth at the 1938 European Championships, also in Paris, and recorded his personal best (72.07 m) in

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...

in July 1939. At that year's International University Games in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

he won the bronze medal with 66.79 m. He was Estonian champion in the javelin in 1940, 1946 and 1947 and Soviet champion in 1943, 1944 and 1947. Additionally, he was Estonian basketball champion three times from 1938 to 1940 with Tartu EASK. He also won national championship medals in volleyball.

Outside sports

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Issak served in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and the

destruction battalions Extermination battalions or destruction battalions, colloquially istrebitels (истребители, "exterminators", "destroyers") abbreviated: istrebki (Russian), strybki (Ukrainian), stribai (Lithuanian), were paramilitary units under the ...

. In 1944 he became editor of the sports magazine ''Kehakultuur'', a post he held until 1951. From 1958 to 1978 he worked for the culture magazine ''Kultuur ja Elu'', eventually becoming its editor-in-chief. His

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

''Nood rohtunud rajad'' was published in 1988.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Issak, Friedrich 1915 births 1991 deaths People from Saint Petersburg People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd Estonian male javelin throwers Estonian men's basketball players Estonian men's volleyball players 20th-century Estonian journalists University of Tartu basketball team players University of Tartu alumni 8th Estonian Rifle Corps personnel