{"id":112,"date":"2024-04-03T23:39:22","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/grabbi\/"},"modified":"2024-04-04T00:11:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T21:11:00","slug":"grabbi","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/g\/grabbi\/","title":{"rendered":"Hellar Grabbi"},"content":{"rendered":"

About Hellar Grabbi<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\"Hellar<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Hellar Grabbi (22. IX 1929 \u2013 28. VII 2018) was an Estonian publicist, critic, editor, and publisher in exile. His father was Colonel Herbert Grabbi, Commander of the Estonian Military School and aide-de-camp<\/em> of the Estonian president, arrested by the NKVD in 1941 and executed in Taymyr Peninsula in northern Siberia. Hellar Grabbi studied at the National English College in Tallinn, the primary school of the Teachers\u2019 Seminary, and at Tallinn Secondary School of Science. After he escaped to Germany with his mother and brother in September 1944, he studied at the Geislingen Estonian Gymnasium. From 1949\u20131950, he continued his studies in English and American literature and philosophy at William Jewell College in Missouri, U.S.A. From 1955\u20131957, he studied library science at the University of Columbia in New York and completed his master\u2019s degree. He worked in the United States from 1949\u20131958 in various areas, mainly as a construction worker. He then worked in the Washington Library of Congress from 1959\u20131967. He lived in Alexandria, Virginia.<\/span><\/p>\n

From 1955\u20131964, Grabbi was an editor of Vaba Eesti<\/em> (\u2018Free Estonia\u2019), a journal for the younger and more liberal Estonian refugee generation. In 1958, he began representing the cultural and literary journal Mana<\/em> in the United States, later becoming its editor-in-chief and publisher in 1965. Passed illegally by hand throughout occupied Estonia, Mana<\/em>, a periodical almanac, greatly influenced the shaping of the Western mentality there, and in turn, Estonian refugees abroad could read work by authors at home, which, because of Soviet censorship, would not otherwise be published. Grabbi edited multiple poetry collections and other books by both domestic and exiled Estonian authors. He was the secretary of the Global Estonian Literary Society from 1950\u20131958, a member of the Estonian PEN Club, chairman of the Alumni Association of the Estonian Student Union in the US, a member of the student fraternity Rotalia, and a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS).<\/span><\/p>\n

Grabbi visited Soviet Estonia several times between 1968 and 1978 and published his impressions in Mana<\/em>. After his visa was rejected, it was another ten years before he could visit his homeland again. Grabbi started publishing articles on politics and culture in 1955, including reviews in the journal Books Abroad \/ World Literature Today<\/em>. He also contributed to many domestic Estonian publications, especially after Estonia regained its independence. He became an active correspondent for Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe in 1974.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a socially-minded nationalist, Grabbi actively participated in the restoration of the Republic of Estonia. He was an advisor of the election coalition Estonian Citizen in 1992 and the head of the North American group of advisors in exile to the President of the Republic of Estonia (1991-1992). He was awarded the Order of the White Star, III Class (2000) and Order of the National Coat of Arms of Estonia, III Class (2006) for his political contributions. In 2012, he received the annual Estonian National Culture Award for his long-time cultural activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

As an advocate for a united Estonia, Grabbi was involved with published works by both domestic and refugee writers. His essays and reviews were collected into the books Vabal h\u00e4\u00e4lel<\/em> (\u2018In a Free Voice\u2019, 1997) and Tulgu uus taevas<\/em> (\u2018Come New Heaven\u2019, 1999). He and his brother, Rein Grabbi, also published their father\u2019s book Maailmas\u00f5da<\/em> (\u2018World War\u2019, 1996). He translated the study \u2018The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System\u2019 (published in Estonian in 1958) by the Yugoslavian Communist dissident Milovan Djilas. Additionally, he compiled the article collection Vaba Eesti t\u00e4histel<\/em> (\u2018Signs of Free Estonia\u2019, 2000) and the essay collection Eestlaste maa<\/em> (\u2018Land of Estonians\u2019, 2004). Grabbi authored four memoirs: Vabariigi laps<\/em> (\u2018Child of a Free Republic\u2019, 2008, winner of the Literature Endowment Annual Award), Seitse retke isamaale<\/em> (\u2018Seven Trips to the Fatherland\u2019, 2010), Seisata, aeg<\/em> (\u2018Stand, Time\u2019, 2012), and Neli presidenti<\/em> (\u2018Four Presidents\u2019, 2014). The latter features memoirs about Konstantin P\u00e4ts, Lennart Meri, Arnold R\u00fc\u00fctel, and Toomas Hendrik Ilves. His correspondence with Andres Ehin in the 1960s was published in the article collection T\u00e4iskui: Andres Ehin<\/em> (2012) and a similar correspondence with Jaan Kaplinski was compiled into the book S\u00f5prade kirjad on su poole teel<\/em> (\u2018Letters from Friends Are on Their Way\u2019, 2013).<\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n

A. M. (Translated by M. M.)<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Books in Estonian<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Non-fiction<\/em><\/strong>
Vabal h\u00e4\u00e4lel: M\u00f5tteid kahesajast eesti raamatust<\/strong>. Tallinn: Virgela, 1997, 302 lk.
Tulgu uus taevas: M\u00f5tteid viiek\u00fcmnest kirjanikust<\/strong>. Tallinn: Virgela, 1999, 277 lk.
Eestlaste maa<\/strong>. Tartu: Ilmamaa, 2004, 501 lk. [Eesti m\u00f5ttelugu, 56.]
Vabariigi laps: m\u00e4lestuslikud esseed<\/strong>. Tartu: Ilmamaa, 2008, 379 lk. [2. tr\u00fckk: 2009.]
Seitse retke isamaale: M\u00e4lestuslikud esseed<\/strong>. Tartu: Ilmamaa, 2010, 453 lk.
Seisata, aeg!: M\u00e4lestuslikud esseed<\/strong>. Tartu: Ilmamaa, 2012, 405 lk.
S\u00f5prade kirjad on su poole teel: Jaan Kaplinski ja Hellar Grabbi kirjavahetus 1965\u20131991<\/strong>. Tartu: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi Teaduskirjastus, 2013, 331 lk. [Litteraria, nr 26.]
Neli presidenti: M\u00e4lestuslikud esseed<\/strong>. Tartu: Ilmamaa, 2014, 480 lk.\u00a0 \u00a0
\u00a0
Bibliography<\/em><\/strong>
Hellar Grabbi: Bibliograafia<\/strong>. Koostaja Anne Valmas. Tallinn: Teaduste Akadeemia Kirjastus: 2013, 129 lk.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About Hellar Grabbi Hellar Grabbi (22. IX 1929 \u2013 28. VII 2018) was an Estonian publicist, critic, editor, and publisher in exile. His father was Colonel Herbert Grabbi, Commander of the Estonian Military School and aide-de-camp of the Estonian president, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"parent":589,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-112","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4970,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/112\/revisions\/4970"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}