Bibliophile Peeter Tulviste - Publications glorifying socialism

Peeter Tulviste’s bookshelves reveal curious publications glorifying socialism and expressing patriotic fervour. These books, mostly published in the 1940s–50s, come across as parodies today. They include numerous children’s books, as well as posters with slogans.

Three publications promoting life on collective farms are included. The most striking is the letter from the First Congress of Collective Farmers of the Estonian SSR to Comrade J. V. Stalin, “Honest and diligent work on the collective farm – that is the key.” Literature aimed at young people is represented at the exhibition with a 1941 issue of the magazine Noor Leninlane and the anthology Nii sammu edasi, leninlik noorus... (1948). Patriotic publications from the Second World War are represented by a poetry collection by Paul Rummo (1946) and a book by Paul Uusman, published in Moscow in 1943. It seems that publications of this type served as a distorted mirror of Tulviste’s interest in humour and joke books. With their parodic undertones and absurdity, or, at times, disturbing or ludicrous content, these books reflect the ideology of shaping the “new Soviet person”. The Soviet-era literature on creating the “new human” also held academic interest for Tulviste – he gave lectures on this topic both in Estonia and abroad.

The post-war period was a difficult time for creative people. Friido Toomus, who had authored two in-depth volumes on the life and work of Konstantin Päts and published the biographies of Friedrich Nietzsche and Caesar in the series Suurmeeste elulood, also wrote, under the pseudonym Vello Läidustare, a book titled Pioneer Sulev, which cannot be explained otherwise than as a response to a “pressing social demand”. Nevertheless, many of these books are of high print quality; their designers were often notable graphic artists such as Paul Luhtein, Günther Reindorff, Ernst Kollom and Esko Lepp.

Find out more about the exhibition here.