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Kreuksi J.
(Jaan Kreuks, 1891-1923)
Estonian Communist, shot in the back, they say, by the security police (Kaitsepolitsei). Soviet occupation renaming (1940-1989) of Kentmanni.
Laari J.
(Joosep Laar, 1905-1943)
One of the 11 Estonians ever to receive a Gold star medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union, an honor he shared with Gagarini J., Leonid Brezhnev (4-times prize-winner!) and Trotsky’s ice-axe assassin. Soviet occupation renaming (1950-1991) of Villardi.
Triigi N.
(Nikolai Voldemar Triik, 1884-1940)
Talented painter, caricaturist, graphic designer and portraitist with an occasionally morbid bent. His 1929 self-portrait as disgruntled waiter serving up a pink inedible is probably symbolic. Born on Niguliste. Replaced Lauliku during the Soviet occupation of 1940-1941.
Viiralti E.
(Eduard Viiralt [Wiiralt], 1898-1954)
One of Estonia’s more outstanding artists, born in St Petersburg province. A “sympathetic, balanced and humble man” (Toivo Miljan: Historical Dictionary of Estonia), Viiralt spent most of his life in Paris (and, buried in Père-Lachaise cemetery, death too), traveling widely, leaving a significant collection of drawings and prints. It has been suggested that absinthe was not a million miles away from his copperplate of Põrgu, Hell. Has a tree in Viljandi named after him for a 1943 drawing he did, Viljandi maastik (Viljandi landscape), a copy of which recently sold at auction for just over €11,000. Street previously known as Janseni, Jannseni, etc, (1924-59), see Jannseni J.V.
