Kuusberg, Paul

Kuusberg, Paul 

Born Apr. 30, 1916, in Tallinn. Soviet Estonian writer. People’s Writer of the Estonian SSR (1972). Member of the CPSU since 1940. Former construction worker.

Kuusberg worked on the newspaper Rahva Hääl and the magazine Looming (Creativity). His first novel, Walls (1956), dealt with the life of workers and the gathering revolutionary momentum of 1940. The novel The Second “I” of Enn Kalm (1960) demonstrated the spiritual maturation of Estonians in the crucible of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45; once at the front, they lost all trace of their vestigial petit bourgeois and nationalistic feelings. An Incident With Andres Lapeteus (1963) focused on the destiny of a man who has torn himself away from the group, from his wartime friends. In the Heat of Summer (1966) depicted the first few months of the war. Kuusberg’s articles of literary criticism are collected in I Put in My Opinion (1959).

Kuusberg won the State Prize of the Estonian SSR in 1965 and the J. Smuul Prize in 1972. He was awarded three orders and several medals.

WORKS

Ajast, maailmakodanikust ja muust. Tallinn, 1967.
Vabaduse puiestee. Tallinn, 1971.
In Russian translation:
Plamia pod peplom. Tallinn, 1962.

REFERENCE

Ocherk istorii estonskoi sovetskoi literatury. Moscow, 1971.