Rudolf Aller

Poems

Rudolf Aller (6 September / 24 August 1913 – 11 November 2002) was a prose writer, theatre critic and journalist.

Aller was born in an Estonian settlement in St. Petersburg Governorate in Russia; the family came to Estonia in the early 1920s. He completed Valga Boys’ Gymnasium in 1932; then worked at the same school as secretary and head of the adult education centre. In 1940, he began studying Slavic philology at Tartu State University. The NKVD arrested Aller in 1941; he was in prison until 1946, from 1949 to 1954 he was banished to Siberia. In the meantime, 1946-1948, Aller was a translator for the research literature publishing house Teaduslik Kirjandus. Later, he worked as a department head and held other positions at the editorial office of the newspaper Pärnu Kommunist. In 1967, he completed distance learning refresher courses for journalists at Tartu State University. From the early 1970s, Aller was a freelance journalist. He was a member of the Estonian Association of Journalists, the Estonian Theatre Union and the Estonian Writers’ Union. He died in Pärnu, was buried in Pärnu Forest Cemetery.

Aller’s creative path began with the adventure novel Ööd Poola metsades (‘Nights in the Polish Forests’), which won the 3rd prize in the 1939 competition of the newspaper Päevaleht and was published there from February to March 1940 under the name of R. Allenius. The story Kui me veel noored olime (‘When we Were Still Young’) depicting the life and work at a metal factory won the first prize in the 1964 short story competition and was published in the journal Looming in 1965. The best of Aller’s topical satires published in the humour and satire magazine Pikker have been gathered into the collection Inimene, kes kaotas iseenda (‘The Man Who Lost Himself’, 1971). Aller wrote a lot of radio plays for which he also received awards from the Estonian Radio, e.g. See juhtus nii (‘This is How It Happened’) and Suletud ring (‘Closed Circle’).

In his theatre-themed writings and reviews, Aller mainly focused on theatre life in Pärnu. He translated A. Roskin’s biography of Maxim Gorky (1948); some of his translations also appeared in the press. Aller’s prison camp memories were published as a sequel in the newspaper Edasi in 1988.

A. K. (Translated by I. A.)

Books in Estonian

Miscellaneous
Inimene, kes kaotas iseenda: huumori- ja satiirivalimik. Tallinn: EKP KK, 1971, 96 lk
Pärnu. Tallinn: Perioodika, 1977, 56 lk. [Järgmised trükid: 1978, 1980.]