Kingissepa V.

(Viktor Kingissepp, 1888-1922)

Sinister-looking leader of the Estonian Communist Party, arrested by the KAPO (Kaitsepolitsei, ‘Secret’ or Security Police) on May 1^st and executed for treason three days later. Revenge was got during the 1941 War Tribunal of the NKVD Baltic District Forces with the execution of Aleksander Läve, Paul Malsvel(l), Julius Palm, and Johan Nõmmik-Linkhorst responsible, directly or indirectly, for his arrest. Soviet occupation renaming (1974-1990) of Jõe, Liivalaia and Pronksi. The town of Kuressaare on Saaremaa was similarly renamed Kingissepa (1952-1988) while Yamburg (Я́мбург), aka Jama (Я́ма), in Leningrad Oblast about 25 km east of the border at Narva was renamed Kingisepp (Ки́нгисепп, or Кингисе́пп) in 1922. The Kingisepp district also has the dubious distinction of being home to the forthcoming extinction of Votic, a language very close to Estonian, with perhaps only a dozen or so speakers left alive, if that.

Brookusplats (0)

Brookus square. Latinized name of Brockhusen, name associated with ownership of various properties in the northern end of Tallinn old-town (Pikk, Lai, Laboratooriumi...). Various candidates: Kivi suggests an 18^th-C alderman Volmar Brockhusen which matches the earliest recorded use of the name for nearby Olevimägi – der Brocks-Berg and its old-style Estonian spelling of prooks mäggi – in 1732, but while Tallinn archives have a testament of another Volmar Brockhusen dating back to 1548, the KNAB has no relevant records for the 200 years following the previous local naming of nearby Sulevimägi, de Iseren Dore, i.e. 1529-1732. Either way, the name has a long and somewhat mongrel pedigree. First, given the spelling variations in the records (e.g. Bruckhusen, Brůckhusen & Bruckkusen) and the actual place name, it could apply to a variety of local landowners. In Nottbeck, for example, a transcription of early records rife with erratic spelling, the names Johannes Brüker and Johannis Bruckhusen are both mentioned for 1383, and the same Brüker (?) was written Broker, Bruker and Brůker between 1376-86. The earliest record seems to be 1319 for Ludolph Brogere and his son Nicolaus. Without allowing my neck to go full-turtle, it is possible that the name of the locale reflects a family rather than a specific person, but without clearer records, hard to say.

Assauwe torn (Ats?):

Also spelled Asso (see next entry), and believed to be an old, typically Estonian name. Tower thought named after city herdsman identified as existing 1369-1399 (see Zobel, refs), but Nottbeck identifies 3 permutations of Assauwe in 1420, the first as Assouwen heerden, then in the index as either Assouwe, herde (Hirt) or, with the tantalising ‘?’, herde (Herde?), Assouwe, raising various points: Nottbeck is clearly unsure whether his ‘surname’(?) was Hirt or Herde, so perhaps he wasn’t even a herdsman in the first place. What pointers are there? 1) He is understood to have lived about 50 m from Karja värav which did lead straight to a town pasture outside the city walls in the 2^nd half of the 14^th C; and 2) he is referred to in a transaction involving Hans Pipenbryncke deme knokenhouwer for a property that Assauwe used to own near smedeporte (smithsgate), or Harju värav, also a short distance away. Since knokenhouwer is MLG for butcher (lit. bone-hewer), it tallies with a relation between familiars. But nothing conclusive about that. Another issue is the designation of herde/heerde. It commonly meant cow-, sheep-, goatherd, etc., but so did a huge number of alternative spellings: hērde, herde, heerde, heirde, heyrde, hirde, hijrede, hijerde, hērdære and herder along with hȫdære, hȫder, hȫdere, hoeder, hoyder, hȫdesman, hǖdære and, ouf, hǖder, but no hodor. Dare I suggest that, for a pretty basic job, no-one really cared how it was spelled? Which leads on to the next question. Why no surname? Most Germanic names in the records are FirstName LastName. Assauwe was not. Does that mean surnames were simply rare or non-existent among native Estonians of the time? Did it imply inferior status? If so, where did he earn the money to buy relatively premium real estate? (during peak business periods, Russian traders would sleep in tents outside the walls) Could cattle-herding be a big money-spinner in those days? Or had he or his family simply lived there a long time? Or was the herde more of a herde manager, a city official delegating the chore to available laborers? There are two other possibilities: herde also meant flax fiber, akin to hēde (heide, heyde and heye) or tow, long used in caulking and rope-making, inevitable in any port town. Could this have been his trade? Or, last one, unlikely perhaps, but could herde be the then Estonian for pastor? Summing up: Assauwe may well have been the local herdsman, local in the sense of local to the city and its property-owning burghers, and property, as we see in Karja, could well mean cattle, so even if our Assauwe was but a lowly herder, he was also, in a sense, a banker and if enough people trusted him with a part of their fortune, Old Joe Assauwe having not just one but two locations – tower (brand) and yard, ‘fenced in area’ or lockup (Asso õu), in which he safeguards his clients’ capital (cf. Lat capitālis, ‘head of cattle’) – does not seem strange at all. Moving on, the name was temporarily switched to Bevermans Thurm (early 17^th C), Buchaus Turm, after other locals of the time, then back. See also Bremeni torn.