The famous people of Estonia from Estonian

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Carl Robert Jakobson(1841-1882)

• Carl Robert Jakobson was an Estonian writer, politician and teacher. He was one of the most important persons of Estonian national awakening in the second half of the 19th century.

• Between 1860 and 1880, the Russian Empire's Governorate of Estonia was led by a moderate nobility-dominated government. Jakobson became the leader of the radical wing, advocating widespread reforms in Estonia. He was responsible for the economic-political program of the Estonian national movement. Jakobson urged Estonians to demand equal political rights with the region's Germans and an end to privileged position of the Baltic-German nobility.

LYDIA KOIDULA(1843-1886) • Lydia Koidula was born Lydia

Emilia Florentine Jannsen on December 24, 1843, but her sobriquet, Koidula, meaning ‘Dawn Singer’ was given her by the nationalist activist Carl Robert Jakobson when he wanted to include some of her work in his popular Aabits, A-B-C for children. Writing, like elsewhere in Europe, was not considered a suitable career for a respectable young lady in the mid-nineteenth-century and although she was the correspondent of Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803-1882), the writer of the Estonian national epic, Kalevipoeg (The Son of Kalev)..

Rudolf Tobias (1873-1918) • Rudolf Tobias was the first

Estonian professional composer, as well as a professional organist. He studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. His compositions include among others piano works, string quartets and an oratorio, The Tobias String Quartet is named after this composer.

Anton Hansen Tammsaare (1878-1940)

• Anton Hansen Tammsaare was an Estonian writer whose quintology Tõde ja õigus (Truth and Justice; 1926–1933) is considered one of the major works of Estonian literature and "The Estonian Novel".

• Statue of Tammsaare in Tallinn

Monument of A.H. Tammsaare in Tallinn

Jakob Hurt (1839-1907)

• Jakob Hurt was a notable Estonian folklorist, theologian, and linguist. With respect to the latter, he is perhaps best known for his dissertation on "pure" -ne stem nouns ("Die estnischen Nomina auf -ne

purum", 1886)

Paul Keres (1916 – 1975)

• Paul Keres was an Estonian chess grandmaster and one of the strongest chess players of all time. On four consecutive occasions he missed the chance of a World Championship match by being runner-up in the Candidates' Tournament. Many claim him to be the strongest player never to become World Chess Champion. He was dubbed "The Crown Prince of Chess".

Karl Ernst von Baer (1792-1876)

• Karl Ernst von Baer was a Baltic German biologist and a founding father of embryology. He was educated at the Cathedral School in Reval (Tallinn) and the University of Dorpat (Tartu). He continued his education in Berlin, Vienna. In 1812, Baer was a volunteer in the war against Napoleon's invasion, serving as doctor.

• In 1817, he became a professor at Königsberg University (Kaliningrad). In 1829 he taught briefly in St Petersburg, but returned to Königsberg. In 1834 Baer moved back to St Petersburg and joined the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences, first in zoology and then in comparative anatomy and physiology.

Kristjan Raud (1865-1943)

• Kristjan Raud was an Estonian painter and drawer.

• belongs to the older generation of Estonian artistic pathfinders. Together with his twin brother Paul Raud and his contemporary artist, Ants Laikmaa, he managed to break through the obstacles set before the Estonians by the prevailing peasant mentality and the extremely class-conscious society of the time.

• In 1935, many Estonian homes acquired a copy of their national epic Kalevipoeg illustrated by Kristjan Raud. This made his name known to his fellow countrymen. Kalevipoeg with Raud‘ s pictures was re-issued in 1975. To an average Estonian, Kristjan Raud is primarily known as the illustrator of the national epic, and as an advocate of national romantic art ideas in the 1930s