Artur Alliksaar 100

Artur Alliksaar (1923–1966) was an Estonian poet, playwright, and translator.

He studied in the prestigious Hugo Treffner Gymnasium in Tartu. In World War II, he voluntarily joined the Germany forces in their fight against the Red Army. During the Soviet occupation, he lived the life of a forest brother, after which he returned to Tartu and became a railway worker.

In 1949, Soviet authorities arrested him for abuse of office and sentenced him to eight years in a prison camp. In 1954, the charge of ‘treason’ (due to serving in the German army) was added to his list of crimes and the tribunal sentenced him to 25 years of prison. Despite the fact that the amnesty of 1957 brought him freedom, he was displaced in the Vologda region. He secretly returned to Tartu in 1958, where he led a bohemian life and worked in a brewery, as well as in construction and on the railway.

During his lifetime, the work of Alliksaar was primarily known in literary circles and salons and he had an extensive influence on other writers.