Iukhan Siutiste

(Juhan Sütiste; until 1936, Johannes Schütz). Born Dec. 16 (28), 1899, in Tähtvere, now in Tartu Raion; died Feb. 10,1945, in Tallinn. Soviet Estonian poet.

Siutiste studied at Tartu University from 1923 to 1931. He had begun publishing in 1921. His verse collections Confusion (1928), From Peipsi to the Sea (1930), Down With Tranquillity! (1932), and Two Camps (1933) realistically portrayed the life and struggle of Estonian laborers and criticized the bourgeois social order. Siutiste attained high mastery of verse in the unfinished cycle of narrative poems consisting of The Sea and the Forest (1937–38), In Fire and Ashes (1938), West and East (1939), The Wheat and the Streams (1940), and Tartu and Tallinn (1941), works expressing the author’s meditations about Estonia. The narrative poem The Earth Turns to the East (1940) dealt with the restoration of Soviet power in Estonia in 1940.

In 1941, Siutiste took part in the defense of Tallinn. He was arrested by the occupying forces and was released from a fascist prison with his health destroyed. The collection Sultry Days (1945) contained reflections about his experiences. Siutiste also wrote the historical play Crusader Dogs (published 1946) and the antifascist plays The Avalanche Moves and The Avalanche Falls (both published 1956).