Turu plats (Turg)
Market. See main article Turu tänav. Oddly, not a square (in Nõmme) but a street nest to its market. Known as plain-old Turg in the 30s, then Turuplats until 1966.
Vilmsi J.
(Jüri Vilms, 1889-1918?)
Along with former President Konstantin Päts (1874-1956, no street named after him, although see Kentmanni) and Konstantin Konik (1873-1936), one of the three members of the ‘Rescue Committee’ which proclaimed Estonian independence on 24 February 1918, assumed executed in Helsinki by German Expeditionary Forces in April the same year. Renamed (1940-1991) as Tombi J. during the first Soviet Occupation. And known from 1885 on as Riesenkampffi plus permutations after alderman Diedrich Ferdinand Riesenkamff who took the Villa Fonne (later a chemist’s) on Narva mnt 50 (corner of Vilmsi) as summer residence in 1845.
Tobiase R.
(Rudolf Tobias, 1873-1918)
First professional Estonian composer, whose Julius Caesar was also the country’s first symphonic work. Face on the front of the 50-krooni banknote with the Estonian Opera House on the back (for information on Estonian currency, see Krooni). Previously Slobodka (1908), Slabodka (1910), Slobotka (1921) and Slobodi (-1923) with the latter’s starting date unspecified, after the 19th-C expansion of Peter I’s Russian quarter, or ‘Слобода’ (sloboda), around today’s Roheline aas and Poska for servants and other employees at Kadriorg Palace (see Vana Slobodaa).
Kreutzwaldi F.R.
(Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, 1803-1882)
Original Estonian name, apparently Vindri Roin Ristmets. Later pseudonyms: K. Friedhold, Lauluisa (song father), Viru Laulik (see Lauliku). The son of a cobbler serf, and one of the first Estonian intellectuals, doctor (author of the once very important manual Kodutohter [Home Doctor] in 1878), writer (his drippingly sentimental 1842 translation of a rewrite of a rewrite of the medieval legend of Genevieve of Brabant, Wagga Jenowewa ajalik elloaeg [The life of poor Genevieve], was perhaps the best-selling Estonian book of the 19th century) but best remembered as national poet and compiler of the Kalevipoeg, Estonia’s epic poem about the Son of Kalev, giant hero of the past, and vehicle for National Awakening after “the seven hundred years of serfdom”. Street once known as Romanov Prospect. The offices of Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR, Estonian public broadcasting) are at No.14. Longest Tallinn streetname. See Kalevipoja.