Home
Gagarini J.
(Juri Gagarin, 1934-1968)
First man in space (1961-04-12). A contributing factor to his cosmonauticality was a spaceship-friendly height of 5 ft 2, or 1.57 meters. Said to have withstood about 8-10 g on re-entry. Soviet occupation renaming (1961-1989) of Toompuiestee.
Kalinini M.
(Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, 1875-1946)
Bolshevik revolutionary and head of state of the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1946, one-time lathe-operator at the Volta electrotechnical factory, and full-time yes-man to Stalin. Married to Estonian Jekaterina Lorberg (Katarina Loоrberg?), later discovered to be a “counterrevolutionary Trotskyite” (she did ‘confess’ in 1938, and was released from camp by special decree in 1945). The former Kalinin District of Tallinn covered roughly those of Põhja-Tallinn and Haabersti. The questionably-legitimate Russian exclave of Kaliningrad/Königsberg is also named after him, for now… Soviet occupation renaming (1950-1990) of Kopli.
Käsperti J.
(Johannes Käspert, 1886-1937)
Asjaajaja (nice word – try saying this late one Friday night: majarajaja asjaajaja ja jalavajaja jama ajavad, meaning, if you’re really desperate to know how contrived these things can be: “the housebuilder’s records clerk and a legless man are bluffing”, but see also Kadaka), or Secretary of the short-lived (about six months) Soviet of the Commune of the Working People of Estonia, presumably executed during Stalin’s Great Purge of 1937-38. Soviet occupation renaming of Hiiu-Suurtüki in Nõmme, 1959-1960, then in 1960-1987/90 of Suurtüki / Kotzebue.
Kingissepa V.
(Viktor Kingissepp, 1888-1922)
Sinister-looking leader of the Estonian Communist Party, arrested by the KAPO (Kaitsepolitsei, ‘Secret’ or Security Police) on May 1st and executed for treason three days later. Revenge was got during the 1941 War Tribunal of the NKVD Baltic District Forces with the execution of Aleksander Läve, Paul Malsvel(l), Julius Palm, and Johan Nõmmik-Linkhorst responsible, directly or indirectly, for his arrest. Soviet occupation renaming (1974-1990) of Jõe, Liivalaia and Pronksi. The town of Kuressaare on Saaremaa was similarly renamed Kingissepa (1952-1988) while Yamburg (Я́мбург), aka Jama (Я́ма), in Leningrad Oblast about 25 km east of the border at Narva was renamed Kingisepp (Ки́нгисепп, or Кингисе́пп) in 1922. The Kingisepp district also has the dubious distinction of being home to the forthcoming extinction of Votic, a language very close to Estonian, with perhaps only a dozen or so speakers left alive, if that.
