Born: Tallinn, Estonia, 19 February 1920. Education: Attended Westholm high school, Tallinn, 1928-38; Tartu University, 1938-44. Family: Married 1) Helga Roos, 1954 (marriage ended, 1958); 2) Ellen Niit (nee Hiob), 1958; two daughters. Career: Translator, 1943; arrested by German forces, 1944; lecturer at Tartu University, 1944-46; political prisoner, 1946-54; freelance writer and translator, since 1954; chair, Young Authors’ Society, 1957-60; secretary, Estonian Writers’ Union, 1976-81; member, Estonian Parliament (riigikogu), 1992-93. Awards: Eeva Joenpelto award, 1988; Amnesty International award, 1991; Herder prize, 1997. Honorary doctorate, Tartu University, 1989, and Helsinki University, 1990.
Publications
Collections
Voog ja kolmpii: Luuletusi 1938-1968. 1971.
Kogutud teosed [Works]. 1997.
Poetry
Soerikastaja. 1958.
Tuule-Juku: (Ule 16 a. vanustele keelatud). 1963.
Kivist viiulid. 1964.
Lauljad laevavooridel. 1966. Hetk. 1968.
Vihm teeb toredaid asju. 1969.
Pohjatud silmapilgud. 1990.
Prose
Kolme katku vahel: Balthasar Russowi romaan. 1970-1977, 1980.
Neli monoloogi PUha JUri asjus. 1970.
Michelsoni immatrikuleerimine: Tosin Uksikkonet trummi, vantoreli ja torupilliga tumma floodi saatel. 1971.
Klio silma all. 1972.
Mardileib. 1973.
Kolmandad maed. 1975.
Taevakivi. 1975; as The Rock from the Sky, 1983.
Keisri Hull. 1978; as The Czar’s Madman: A Novel, translated by Anselm Hollo, 1993.
Kajalood. 1980.
Ulesoidukohad. 1981.
Rakvere romaan. 1982.
Professor Martensi arasoit. 1984; as Professor Martens’ Departure, translated by Anselm Hollo, 1994.
Vastutuulelaev: Bernhard Schmidti romaan. 1987.
Silmade avamise paev. 1988; as The Conspiracy and Other Stories, translated by Eric Dickens, 1995.
Wikmani poisid. 1988. Valjakaevamised. 1990.
Tabamatus: JUri Vilmsi romaan. 1993.
JarelehUUd. 1994.
Mesmeri ring: Romaniseeritud memuaarid nagu koik memuaarid japeaaegu iga romaan. 1995.
Paigallend: Ullo Paeranna romaan. 1998.
Tahtamaa. 2001.
Other
Muld ja marmor: Moodasoitnu meenutusi, with Ellen Niit. 1968.
Vahelugemised 1-6. 1968-95.
Critical Studies:
Der VerrUckte des Zaren. Jaan Kross in Loccum, edited by Olaf Schwencke, 1990; ”The Antic Disposition of a Finno-Ugric Novelist” by Mardi Valgemae, in Journal of Baltic Studies, vol. 24, no. 4, 1993; Special Issue: Jaan Kross, edited by Thomas Salumets, Journal of Baltic Studies, vol. 31, no. 3, 2000; ”Jaan Kross: Negotiating Nation” by Thomas Salumets, in Interlitteraria, no. 5, 2000; Die historischen Romane von Jaan Kross. Am Beispiel einer Untersuchung der deutschen und englischen Ubersetzungen von Professor Martensi arasoit by Kerttu Wagner, 2001.
Shortly after Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union, Jaan Kross was deported to Siberia, sharing the fate of tens of thousands of fellow Estonians and countless other victims of the widespread terror under Stalin’s dictatorship. Following his release from a labor camp in 1954, Kross returned to Estonia’s largest city, Tallinn. There he was able to work as a translator and writer. In the late 1950s and 1960s, during the period of relative liberalization in the Soviet Union, he published several collections of poems. Perhaps the most influential among them is Soerikastaja [The Coal Enricher]. None of his other publications, however, are as remarkable as his historical-autobiographical prose fiction. Among his twenty-one novels and collections of short stories are the trilogy Kolme katku vahel [Between Three Plagues], Professor Martensi arasoit (Professor Martens’ Departure), Silmade avamise paev (The Conspiracy and Other Short Stories), and Paigallend [Flying in Place]. His most successful novel internationally is Keisri hull (The Czar’s Madman). It tells the story of a Baltic-German nobleman, Timotheus von Bock, who is asked by his friend, Czar Alexander I, to always speak the truth. He does. As a consequence of his outspokenness, he has to serve nine years in solitary confinement in one of the worst dungeons of the empire. Staying under close surveillance, he is allowed to return to his Estonian wife as long as he is deemed insane by the authorities. The Czar’s Madman has been translated into English and more than twenty other languages.
With his prose fiction, Kross maps Estonia’s past from the 16th century to the time shortly after Estonia regained its independence in 1991, the subject of his latest novel Tahtamaa. Although there often is a strong autobiographical element that characterizes his texts, they are not autobiographical novels. Instead, Kross writes about the often universal struggles of remarkable, but not so well known, characters in Estonian history. He tells stories about the entanglement of artists, scientists, physicians, aristocrats, academics, and others in a country ruled for centuries by Germans, Swedes, and Russians and, after a brief period of independence from 1918 to 1940, occupied by the Soviet Union. Kross asks questions about dissidence, conformism, truth, madness, betrayal, compromise, escape, and resistance. His latest novel, a bestseller in Estonia, is somewhat of an exception. It is set in contemporary, post-Communist Estonia and explores issues related to the transition to a free market economy, including the privatization boom that characterized much of independent Estonia in the 1990s.
Although Kross casts his novels in a wide and often very sophisticated, richly adorned, distinctly European cultural context, the stories turn on one single geographical pivot: his native Estonia. It is a profound and complex sense of loss, dignity and, at times, also guilt as well as a deep concern for the very survival of his people and their home and language that informs Kross’ work. More than that, his novels and short stories are probably best understood as chapters of Estonian history. As such, in no small measure, they have shaped the idea of an independent Estonia, kept it alive during the better part of its almost fifty years of Communist colonization and cultural genocide, and served as a reminder of Estonia’s identity as a nation.
Not surprisingly, the role of pain and suffering is of particular importance in this quest for nationhood and the struggle for survival as a people. However, as Maire Jaanus has pointed out, pain and suffering are not only a sign of lost freedom or masochistic delight; they are also a sign of survival. Thus, seemingly paradoxically, pain, where it turns into suffering, goes hand in hand with the kind of pleasure we experience when we are able to intervene, make a difference, contribute, be ourselves. This complex and often hidden dimension of the human condition in no small measure co-determines the consciousness of the Estonian people; Kross also explores this dimension in his writing, especially in his 1998 novel with the telling title Paigallend.
In addition to the psychological perspective, another perspective— the historical—also reveals the striking richness and significance of Kross’ work. Whatever factual disputes there might be between historians and Jaan Kross, in his fiction, Estonia’s history comes across as more real than the dominant discourse of professional historians, East and West, permitted for a long time. It is only recently that Estonian historiography, both in Estonia and elsewhere, has caught up with Kross and has become less driven by ideological concerns or the narrow, self-serving perspective that often informs the stories colonizers tell about the colonized. To be sure, at the core of Kross’ narrative style is the voice of a native Estonian informant. After all, telling stories from the inside about struggles against dominant outsiders is among the distinguishing characteristics of Jaan Kross’ autobiographical-historical fiction. But Kross’ novels are not about ethnic singularity. Instead, they provide ”thick,” dynamic, and complex descriptions that bear witness to a cross-cultural Estonian identity shaped by a long history of colonization.
