Lydia Emilie Florentine Jannsen ( – ), known by her
pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
Koidula, was an
Estonian poet. Her
sobriquet
A sobriquet ( ) is a descriptive nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym in that it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name without the need for explanation; it may beco ...
means '(Lydia of) The Dawn' in
Estonian
Estonian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe
* Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent
* Estonian language
* Estonian cuisine
* Estonian culture
See also ...
. It was given to her by the writer
Carl Robert Jakobson
Carl Robert Jakobson ( – ) was an Estonian writer, politician and teacher active in the Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire. He was one of the most important persons of the Estonian national awakening in the second half of the 19th centur ...
. She is also frequently referred to as ''Koidulaulik'' – 'Singer of the Dawn'.
In Estonia, like elsewhere in Europe, writing was not considered a suitable career for a respectable young lady in the mid-19th century. Koidula's poetry and her newspaper work for her populist father,
Johann Voldemar Jannsen
Johann Voldemar Jannsen ( – ) was an Estonian journalist. He was one of the earliest figures of the Estonian national awakening, which he promoted through his newspaper, the ''Eesti Postimees'', and two Estonian Song Festivals. He wrote the nat ...
(1819–1890) remained anonymous. In spite of this, she was a major literary figure, the founder of
Estonian theatre, and closely allied to
Carl Robert Jakobson
Carl Robert Jakobson ( – ) was an Estonian writer, politician and teacher active in the Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire. He was one of the most important persons of the Estonian national awakening in the second half of the 19th centur ...
(1841–1882), the influential radical and
Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald
Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald ( – ) was an Estonians, Estonian writer and the author of the national epic ''Kalevipoeg''.
Life
Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald's parents were born at the Jõepere, Jömper estate, Governorate of Estonia, Russia ...
(1803–1882), writer of the Estonian national epic, ''
Kalevipoeg
''Kalevipoeg'' (, ''Kalev's Son'') is a 19th-century epic poem by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald which has since been considered the Estonian national epic.
Origins
In pre-Christian ancient Estonia there existed an oral tradition, known as ...
'' (''The Son of Kalev''). Over time, she has achieved the status of the
national poet
A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbol, to be distinguished ...
of Estonia.
Biography

Lydia Jannsen was born in
Vändra
Vändra () is a borough () in Põhja-Pärnumaa Parish in Pärnu County, Estonia. It has a population of 2,191 (in 2016) and an area of 3.28 km² (1.27 sq mi).
Sights
On Old Church Hill there is an underground cemetery called Kabelias, wh ...
(Fennern), Estonia. The family moved to the nearby county town of
Pärnu
Pärnu () is the fourth-largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second-largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of ...
(Pernau) in 1850 where, in 1857, her father
Johann Voldemar Jannsen
Johann Voldemar Jannsen ( – ) was an Estonian journalist. He was one of the earliest figures of the Estonian national awakening, which he promoted through his newspaper, the ''Eesti Postimees'', and two Estonian Song Festivals. He wrote the nat ...
started the first local
Estonian language
Estonian ( ) is a Finnic language and the official language of Estonia. It is written in the Latin script and is the first language of the majority of the country's population; it is also an official language of the European Union. Estonian is sp ...
newspaper and where Lydia attended the German-language grammar school. The Jannsens moved to the university town of
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 ...
(Dorpat) in 1864. Any kind of expression of
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...
, including publication in
indigenous language
An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by its indigenous peoples. Indigenous languages are not necessarily national languages but they can be; for example, Aymara is both an indigen ...
s, was a sensitive subject in the Russian Empire, however the rule of Czar
Alexander II (1855–1881) was relatively liberal and Jannsen managed to persuade the imperial censorship to allow him to publish the first Estonian-language newspaper with nationwide distribution in 1864.
Both the Pärnu local and the national newspaper were called ''
Postimees
is an Estonian daily newspaper established on 5 June 1857, by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. In 1891, it became the first daily newspaper in Estonia. Its current editor-in-chief is Priit Hõbemägi. The paper has approximately 250 employees.
''P ...
'' (''The Courier''). Lydia wrote for her father on both papers besides publishing her own work. In 1873, she married Eduard Michelson, an army physician, and moved to
Kronstadt
Kronstadt (, ) is a Russian administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg, near the head ...
(Russian naval base on an island near
St. Petersburg
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, ...
). In 1876–78 the Michelsons visited
Breslau,
Strasbourg
Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
and
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. ...
. Koidula lived in Kronstadt for 13 years and albeit during that time she would spend the summers in Estonia, she reportedly never stopped feeling inconsolably homesick. Lydia Koidula was the mother of three children. She died from breast cancer on 11 August 1886. Her last poem was ''Enne surma — Eestimaale!'' (''Before death, to Estonia!'').
Works
Koidula's most important work, ''Emajõe ööbik'', (''The Nightingale of the
Emajõgi
The Emajõgi (; meaning 'mother river') is a river in Estonia which flows from Võrtsjärv, Lake Võrtsjärv through Tartu County into Lake Peipus, crossing the city of Tartu for . It has a length of .
The Emajõgi is sometimes called the Suur E ...
River''), was published in 1867.
Three years earlier, in 1864, Adam Peterson, a farmer, and
Johann Köler
Johann Köler (8 March 1826 – 22 April 1899) was a leader of the Estonian national awakening and a painter. He is considered as the first professional painter of the emerging nation. He distinguished himself primarily by his portraiture and to ...
, a fashionable Estonian portraitist living in Saint Petersburg, had petitioned the emperor for better treatment from the German landowners who ruled the Baltic provinces, equality, and for the language of secondary and higher education to be Estonian instead of German. Immediately afterwards they were taken to the police where they were interrogated about a petition that 'included false information and was directed against the state'. Adam Peterson was sentenced to imprisonment for a year. Two years later, in 1866, the censorship reforms of 1855 that had given Koidula's father a window to start ''
Postimees
is an Estonian daily newspaper established on 5 June 1857, by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. In 1891, it became the first daily newspaper in Estonia. Its current editor-in-chief is Priit Hõbemägi. The paper has approximately 250 employees.
''P ...
'' were reversed. Pre-publication censorship was re-imposed and literary freedom was curtailed. This was the political and literary climate when Koidula started to publish. Nevertheless, it was also the time of the national awakening when the Estonian people, freed from serfdom in 1816, were beginning to feel a sense of pride in nationhood and to aspire to self-determination. Koidula was the most articulate voice of these aspirations.
German influence in Koidula's work was unavoidable. The
Baltic Germans
Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their resettlement in 1945 after the end of World War II, Baltic Germans have drastically decli ...
had retained hegemony in the region since the 13th century, throughout German, Polish, Swedish and Russian rule and thus German was the language of tuition and of the intelligentsia in 19th century Estonia. Like her father (and all other Estonian writers at the time) Koidula translated much sentimental German prose, poetry and drama and there is a particular influence of the
Biedermeier
The Biedermeier period was an era in Central European art and culture between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle classes grew in number and artists began producing works appealing to their sensibilities. The period began with the end of th ...
movement. Biedermeier, a style which dominated 'bourgeois' art in continental Europe from 1815 to 1848, developed in the wake of the suppression of revolutionary ideas following the defeat of Napoleon. It was plain, unpretentious and characterised by pastoral romanticism; its themes were the home, the family, religion and scenes of rural life. The themes of Koidula's early ''Vainulilled'' (''Meadow Flowers''; 1866) were certainly proto-Biedermeier, but her delicate, melodic treatment of them was in no way rustic or unsophisticated, as demonstrated in the unrestrained patriotic outpourings of ''Emajõe Ööbik''. Koidula reacted to the historical subjugation of the Estonian people as to a personal affront; she spoke of slavery and the yoke of subordination as if from personal experience. By the time of the
National Awakening in the 1860s, Estonia had been ruled by foreign powers – Danish, German, Swedish, Polish and Russian – for over 600 years. In this context, she was conscious of her own role in the destiny of the nation. She once wrote to a Finnish correspondent: "It is a sin, a great sin, to be little in great times when a person can actually make history".
The Estonian literary tradition started by Kreutzwald continued with Koidula but whereas ''The Bard of
Viru'' tried to imitate the ''regivärss'' folk traditions of ancient Estonian, Koidula wrote (mostly) in modern,
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...
an end-rhyming metres that had, by the mid 19th century, become the dominant form. This made Koidula's poetry much more accessible to the popular reader. But the major importance of Koidula lay not so much in her preferred form of verse but in her potent use of the Estonian language. Estonian was, still, in the 1860s, in a German dominated Baltic province of
Imperial Russia
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imperial, Nebraska
* Imperial, Pennsylvania
* ...
, the language of the oppressed indigenous peasantry. It was still the subject of orthographical bickering, still used in the main for predominantly patronising educationalist or religious texts, practical advice to farmers or cheap and cheerful popular story telling. Koidula successfully used the vernacular language to express emotions that ranged from an affectionate poem about the family cat, in ''Meie kass'' (''Our Cat'') and delicate love poetry, ''Head ööd'' (''Good Night'') to a powerful ''cri de coeur'' and rallying call to an oppressed nation, ''Mu isamaa nad olid matnud'' (''My Country, They Have Buried You''). With Lydia Koidula, the colonial view that the Estonian language was an underdeveloped instrument for communication was, for the first time, demonstrably contradicted.
Drama
Koidula is also considered the "founder of Estonian theatre" through her drama activities at the
Vanemuine Society (Estonian: ''Vanemuise Selts''), a society started by the Jannsens 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 1865 to promote Estonian culture. Lydia was the first to write original plays in Estonian and to address the practicalities of stage direction and production. Despite some Estonian interludes at the German theatre 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 ...
, in the early 19th century, there had been no appreciation of theatre as a medium and few writers considered drama of any consequence, though Kreutzwald had translated two verse tragedies. In the late 1860s, both Estonians and Finns started to develop performances in their native tongues and Koidula, following suit, wrote and directed the comedy, ''Saaremaa Onupoeg'' (''The Cousin from
Saaremaa
Saaremaa (; ) is the largest and most populous island in Estonia. Measuring , its population is 31,435 (as of January 2020). The main island of the West Estonian archipelago (Moonsund archipelago), it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hi ...
'') in 1870 for the Vanemuine Society. It was based on
Theodor Körner's (1791–1813) farce ''Der Vetter aus Bremen'', (''The Cousin from Bremen'') adapted to an Estonian situation. The characterisation was rudimentary and the plot was simple but it was popular and Koidula went on to write and direct ''Maret ja Miina,'' (aka ''Kosjakased''; ''The Betrothal Birches'', 1870) and her own creation, the first ever completely Estonian play, ''Säärane mulk'' (''What a Bumpkin!''). Koidula's attitude to the theatre was influenced by the philosopher, dramatist, and critic
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (; ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a German philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the dev ...
(1729–1781), the author of ''Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts'' (''The Education of the Human Race''; 1780). Her plays were didactic and a vehicle for popular education. Koidula's theatrical resources were few and raw – untrained, amateur actors and women played by men – but the qualities that impressed her contemporaries were a gallery of believable characters and cognizance of contemporary situations.
At the first
Estonian Song Festival
The Estonian Song Festival (, or simply ) held since 1869, is one of the largest choral events in the world, a Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It i ...
, in 1869, an important rallying event of the Estonian clans, two poems were set to music with lyrics by Lydia Koidula: ''Sind Surmani'' (''Till Death'') and ''
Mu isamaa on minu arm
"Mu isamaa on minu arm" ("My Fatherland is My Love") is an Estonian poem by Lydia Koidula. The poem was first set to music for the first Estonian Song Festival in 1869 by Aleksander Kunileid.
"Mu isamaa on minu arm" became a popular patriotic ...
'' (''My Country is My Love''), which became the unofficial anthem during the
Soviet occupation
During World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed several countries effectively handed over by Nazi Germany in the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. These included the eastern regions of Poland (incorporated into three differe ...
when her father's ''
Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm
"" is the national anthem of Estonia, originally adopted in 1920 (readopted 1990).
The lyrics were written by Johann Voldemar Jannsen and are contrafactum, set to a melody composed in 1848 by Fredrik Pacius, which is also that of the Finland, Fi ...
'' (''My Country is My Pride and Joy''), the anthem of the Estonian Republic between 1921 and 1940, was forbidden. Koidula's song always finished every festival, with or without permission. The tradition persists to this day.
Memorial Museum of Lydia Koidula

A branch of the
Pärnu
Pärnu () is the fourth-largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second-largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of ...
Museum, the museum gives an overview of the life and work of poet Lydia Koidula and her father Johann Voldemar Jannsen (author of the lyrics of Estonian anthem), important figures in Estonian national awakening period in the 19th century.

The Koidula museum is located in the
Pärnu Ülejõe schoolhouse. The building was constructed in 1850 and has a unique interior. It was the home of Johann Voldemar Jannsen and the editorial office of the ''
Perno Postimees'' newspaper until 1863, now it is under protection as a historical monument. Jannsen's elder daughter, poet Lydia Koidula grew up in the house. It is the main task of the museum to keep alive the memory of Koidula and Jannsen and to introduce their life and work in the context of the period of national awakening in Estonia through the permanent exposition.
There is a monument of Lydia Koidula in the citycenter of
Pärnu
Pärnu () is the fourth-largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second-largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of ...
next to the historical building o
Victoria Hotelon the corner of Kuninga and Lõuna street. The monument dates to 1929 and was the last work by Estonian sculptor
Amandus Adamson
Amandus Heinrich Adamson (12 November 1855 near Paldiski, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire — 26 June 1929 in Paldiski, Estonia) was an Estonian sculptor and painter.
Life
Adamson was born in 1855 into an Estonian-speaking seafaring famil ...
. Finally, she was on the pre-euro
100 krooni banknote.
References
Bibliography
* Ots.L. The History of Estonian Literature. University of Tartu.
* Olesk.S & Pillak.P . Lydia Koidula .24.12.1843-11-08.1886. Tallinn. Umara Kirjastus, P.14
* Nirk.E. Estonian Literature. Tallinn Perioodika. 1987. pp73–77, 79–81, 366
* Raun.T.U. Estonia and the Estonians. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford. 2001. pp 77–79, 188
* Kruus.O & Puhvel.H. Eesti kirjanike leksikon. Eesti raamat.Tallinn. 2000. pp 210– 211
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koidula, Lydia
1843 births
1886 deaths
People from Vändra
People from Kreis Pernau
Estonian women poets
19th-century Estonian poets
Estonian dramatists and playwrights
Estonian women dramatists and playwrights
19th-century Estonian women writers
19th-century dramatists and playwrights
Burials at Metsakalmistu