Gunnar Hauk Gjengset (born May 10, 1946) is a Norwegian philologist and author. Gjengset was arrested in 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 January 1970 for demonstrating against the

Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982 as well as the fourth chairman of the Presidium ...

regime. Gjengset had traveled to

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in order to distribute leaflets supporting the release of author

Yuri Galanskov Yuri Timofeyevich Galanskov (; 19 June 1939 – 4 November 1972) was a Russian poet, historian, human rights activist and dissident. For his political activities, such as founding and editing samizdat almanac '' Phoenix'', he was incarcerated i ...

and war hero

Pyotr Grigorenko Petro Grigorenko or Petro Hryhorovych Hryhorenko (, – 21 February 1987) was a high-ranking Soviet Army commander of Ukrainians, Ukrainian descent, who in his fifties became a dissident and a writer, one of the founders of the human rights mo ...

, both known dissidents. In the trial that followed, Gjengset was sentenced to one year of imprisonment, but was freed after one month of internment due to international pressure. He later wrote the book, ''Under jernteppet'' (Behind The Iron Curtain) about the experience. Gjengset has a Ph.D. in comparative literature from

Umeå University Umeå University (; Ume Sami language, Ume Sami: ) is a public university, public research university located in Umeå, in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present bord ...

in Sweden, with a dissertation on the Sami author, Matti Aikio (''Matti Aikio - verk og virke'', Umeå 2011). Gjengset has written several books, including a biography of

Gustav Vigeland Gustav Vigeland (11 April 1869 – 12 March 1943), born as Adolf Gustav Thorsen, was a Norwegian sculptor. Gustav Vigeland occupies a special position among Norwegian sculptors, both in the power of his creative imagination and in his produc ...

. He is also an

aphorist An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by trad ...

with a daily column, ''Dagens sukk'' (Sigh of the Day) in the national Norwegian newspaper ''

Klassekampen (Lit. translation: ''"The Class Struggle"'') is a Norwegian daily newspaper in print and online. Its tagline is "The daily newspaper of the Left". The paper's net circulation was 33,265 in 2022, and it has around 111,000 daily readers on paper ...

'', under the pseudonym, ''Hauk,'' which is also a middle name. The column had earlier appeared in the

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

, Norway, newspaper ''

Adresseavisen (; commonly known as ''Adressa'') is a regional newspaper published daily, except Sundays, in Trondheim, Norway. The paper has been in circulation since 1767 and is one of the oldest newspapers in Norway after Norske Intelligenz-Seddeler which ...

'' for more than 20 years. In the book, ''Avoid the Void'' (2013), produced by the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

-based publisher, Morgan James Publishers, Gjengset discusses alcoholism. Several of Gjengset's plays have been presented at Det Åpne Teater (The Open Theater) in Oslo. Together with Harald Gaski he has written ''Johan Turi'', a play about the author,

Johan Turi Johan Turi, born Johannes Olsen Thuri also spelt Johan Tuuri or Johan Thuri or Johan Thuuri (12 March 1854 – 30 November 1936) was the first Sami author to publish a secular work in a Sami language. His first book was called ''Muitalus sámi ...

, who wrote the world's first fictional book in a

Sámi Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

language. This play was staged on Det Norske Teater in Oslo, and opened on September 6, 2017. In October 2019, the play will be part of Norway's official presentation as guest of honor at this year's international book fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gjengset, Gunnar 1946 births Living people Norwegian people imprisoned abroad Foreign nationals imprisoned in the Soviet Union Umeå University alumni Norwegian biographers Norwegian memoirists Norwegian columnists