Vabadussõjas langenud üliõpilaste mälestusmärk Tartu Ülikooli aulas
Creators: name: Ird, Ken
name: Väinsar, Maria
Publisher: name: Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi
Year: 2020

description: The art collection of the University of Tartu includes a bronze sculpture group of young men with a wounded fighter (KMM S 375) by Jaan Koort (1883–1935). The work is situated in a wall niche in the assembly hall of the University of Tartu main building with the accompanying cast bronze text: „For the students who fell in the War of Independence 1918–1920“ and an impression of the Estonian Cross of Liberty. The story of the memorial has disappeared from common memory, probably because the statue was completed only shortly before the annexation of Estonia and the troubling times that followed. The aim of this article is to reconstruct the story of the memorial, specify when was it removed from its original place and describe its complete reconstruction. First monuments in honour of those who fell in the War of Independence were erected in the early 1920s. These monuments and memorials were primarily dedicated to the fallen Estonian soldiers. Schools placed dedication plaques to those they lost mostly to their assembly halls. The University of Tartu’s assembly hall in the main building was also selected for this purpose, since it had been decorated with artwork to represent the presence of state authority already since the early 19th century. Plans to erect a memorial for The War of Independence were made in the University of Tartu before the 10th anniversary of the Estonian- language university in 1928. It was decided to commission the piece from the renowned Estonian sculptor Jaan Koort, but it became apparent quite soon that the memorial was not going to be finished on time. For unknown reasons, the memorial still had not been completed in 1932 when a newspaper article about Koort’s plans to erect a memorial with a sculpture group and 5 m wall relief was published. In the summer of 1934 Koort accepted a post in the Soviet Union where he suddenly died a year later. Plans for the memorial were forgotten for some years. It was planned to finish the memorial again in 1939, and the University’s Administrative Board granted an additional 1,500 Estonian kroons from the 1939/1940 budget for the purpose. Sculptor Ferdi Sannamees was commissioned to finish the memorial based on the example of the plaster sculpture group and original drawings left behind by Koort. The memorial was opened on 1 December 1939 with great festivity (photo 1) but in a much more modest form than originally planned. Already in the autumn of 1940 the lettering and the Cross of Independence were removed from the memorial after the annexation of Estonia by the Soviet forces. The sculpture group was restored to its original location at the beginning of the Nazi-German occupation in 1941 (photo 2) but was apparently removed again in the autumn of 1944 after Soviet power was reinstated in Estonia. The statue was hidden in an unknown place. From the second half of the 1940s until the reinstatement of the sculpture group in 1989 Soviet symbolic art was displayed in its place (photo 3). In 1955, the Vice-rector of Economy of Tartu State University gave nine artworks to Tartu State Art Museum to be stored temporarily and one of them was the group of young men with a wounded fighter. The sculpture group remained in the museum until 1974 when it was returned to the university and was accepted to the collection of the Museum of Classical Archaeology of Tartu State University. The sculpture group was waiting for better times that arrived at the end of the decade. In 1988 journalist Tarmo Vahter called for the sculpture to be reinstated to its original place. The sculpture group was placed back in the niche of the assembly hall in 1994 on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Estonian-language university. Unbeknownst to the authors, the lettering and the Cross of Liberty were not reconstructed. The memorial was fully reconstructed 25 years later for the centenary of the Estonian-language university. The work was led by Ken Ird (historical research) and Maria Väinsar (technical implementation) from the University of Tartu Museum. The bronze casting and installation was managed by Bruno Kadak from Tormis Disain (photo 4 and 5). The memorial was originally thought to perpetuate the memory of young men who gave their lives for the independence of Estonia but it also implicitly served as a tool for engendering respect for the national culture of Estonia. This claim is supported by the fact that the story of the memorial has always been closely linked with the anniversaries of the Estonian-language university and that the Soviet authorities consistently tried to ideologically redesign the memory space at the site of the memorial. In addition to that, the memorial is an emotionally efficient artwork and a perpetual acknowledgement of the creative genius of sculptors Jaan Koort and Ferdi Sannamees (photo 6).
description: Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi, Vol. 48 (2020): 100 aastaga pärisorjusest emakeelse ülikoolini