Ain Rannaleet
Ain Rannaleet (real name Rudolf Laurent, 25 May / 12 May 1904 – 11 November 1937 or 13 September 1943) was an Estonian poet who lived in the Soviet Union.
Rannaleet was born in the Estonian village of Simititsa in St Petersburg governorate in Russia (Russian Zimititsy, 60 km east of Narva). He attended school there and in Leningrad and studied at Herzen Pedagogical Institute. He worked as a teacher at several places and contributed to Estonian-language publications. He was one of the founders of the Estonian section of the Leningrad Association of Proletarian Writers in 1926. He was arrested in Leningrad for political reasons in 1937. According to the official Soviet version, Rannaleet died in prison camp in 1943. More recent data, however, state that he was shot dead by the NKVD in Leningrad already in 1937.
His first poems appeared in the Estonian-language press of Soviet Russia. He acquired an essential place among the Estonian poets of Russia. He writes about revolutionary struggle, e.g., the long poem Veli (‘Brother’, 1927) about the events of 1905, but his poetry of nature and home with noticeable romantic undercurrents is more remarkable and sentient, e.g., the collection Õhtused külad (‘Evening Villages’, 1928). His creation has been collected into Luuletused (‘Poems’, 2006).
A. K. (Translated by I. A.)
Books in Estonian
Poetry
Veli: poeem. Leningrad: Külvaja, 1927, 67 lk.
Õhtused külad: 1924–1928 a. looduslüürika. Leningrad: Külvaja, 1928, 48 lk.
Mägede harjale. Koostanud Ants Salum. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1978, 87 lk.
Luuletused. Koostanud Ants Salum. Habaja: Kentaur, 2006, 192 lk.