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Laari J.
(Joosep Laar, 1905-1943)
One of the 11 Estonians ever to receive a Gold star medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union, an honor he shared with Gagarini J., Leonid Brezhnev (4-times prize-winner!) and Trotsky’s ice-axe assassin. Soviet occupation renaming (1950-1991) of Villardi.
Viiralti E.
(Eduard Viiralt [Wiiralt], 1898-1954)
One of Estonia’s more outstanding artists, born in St Petersburg province. A “sympathetic, balanced and humble man” (Toivo Miljan: Historical Dictionary of Estonia), Viiralt spent most of his life in Paris (and, buried in Père-Lachaise cemetery, death too), traveling widely, leaving a significant collection of drawings and prints. It has been suggested that absinthe was not a million miles away from his copperplate of Põrgu, Hell. Has a tree in Viljandi named after him for a 1943 drawing he did, Viljandi maastik (Viljandi landscape), a copy of which recently sold at auction for just over €11,000. Street previously known as Janseni, Jannseni, etc, (1924-59), see Jannseni J.V.
Wiedemanni F.J.
(Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann, 1805-1887)
Linguist of Swedish-German descent, the first to describe Estonian’s peculiar opposition of three phonological quantities (for more details, ask a native, they probably won’t be able to explain either); compiler of various dictionaries (e.g. Ehstnisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (1869), Estonian-German dictionary) and grammars of northern coastal Estonian, Võru, Livonian, Syjranisch (aka Siranian, Sirenian, Sirjenic, Syrjenic also written Zirianian, a perhaps now extinct Finnish dialect of the Vologda Oblast, Russia)... Street (in Kadriorg) known until 1923 as Lutheri under various guises (Lutri, Lutre, Luteri, Lutherstraße and Лютерская ул.) after Alexander Martin Luther, mayor of Tallinn (1848-1864) and founder of the Lutheri Vabrik on Lutheri (see this for more details) in Veerenni, Johannes Aavik lived for a while at No.6, see Aaviku.
Poska J.
(Jaan Poska, 1866-1920)
Mayor of Tallinn 1913-1917. Main signatory to the Treaty of Tartu on 02/02/1920 between Estonia and the Russian SFSR or Soviet Federative Socialist Republic recognizing Estonia de jure, the latter party relinquishing, Art. 2, “for ever all rights of sovereignty formerly held by Russia over the Esthonian people and territory...” (sic). Street known as Liiva (1885-1921) along with its Ger. and Rus. equivalents Sandstraße (from 1838) and Песочная ул. (from 1907), then Leineri A. (1940-1991) during the Soviet occupation.
