Laht, Uno

Born Apr. 30, 1924, in Valga. Soviet Estonian poet. Member of the CPSU since 1953.

Laht participated in the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). In 1953 he published the cycle of patriotic verses With Thee, Motherland! His collections of satirical verses Baby Teeth (1954) and Filled Baby Teeth (1956) gained popularity. In the collection From the Greatcoat Pocket to the Chic Briefcase (1958), Laht spoke out against bourgeois-nationalistic prejudices. The main theme of the collection The Bird’s Nest in a Steel Helmet (1961) was the struggle for peace. The collections Greedy Hands (1962) and The Angel Goes to the Pharmacy … in Respectable Company (1967) ridiculed manifestations of petit bourgeois ideology. Laht published a collection of literary parodies in 1969.