Jüri Kukk
Jüri Kukk | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 1, 1940 USSR |
| Nationality | Estonian |
| Occupation | Chemist |
Jüri Kukk (May 1, 1940 – March 27, 1981) was an Estonian professor of chemistry, anti-Soviet dissident and political prisoner,[1][2] who died in the former Soviet labor camp at Vologda.[Note 1]
Kukk, who initially studied and later taught at the
emigrate to the West. After being fired by the University of Tartu, he was arrested by the Soviet authorities in February 1980, along with fellow human rights activist Mart-Olav Niklus, and charged with distribution of "anti-Soviet propaganda". Niklus and Kukk both actively campaigned for Estonia being given the chance to go her way again as an independent nation, free of Soviet domination. Kukk resigned from the Communist Party in 1978 and was subsequently fired from the position of associate professor of chemistry at Tartu University. He was also refused permission to emigrate.[1]
Jüri Kukk was sentenced in January 1980 on charges of "anti-Soviet agitation"anti-Soviet propaganda."[4] He started a hunger strike to protest the arrest of fellow dissident Mart-Olav Niklus.[3] Kukk was transported to Vologda on March 24, 1981, where he was tortured and died three days later.[5] Kukk was survived by his widow Silvi and two children: a twelve-year-old son and an eight-year-old daughter.[3]
Notes
- ^ The New York Times incorrectly gave the place of death as Murmansk, repeated in some other sources. Catalog of photos Archived 2015-04-04 at the Wayback Machine, among which some of the grave of Jüri Kukk, one of them titled as "Jüri Kukk's grave site in Vologda Identified by a post bearing his prison number 23781. 30 March 1981"
References
- ^ a b Rein Taagepera, "Estonia: Return to Independence", pp. 113–115.
- ISBN 0-8191-3801-0, 254 pp.
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Around the World; Estonian Dissident, 40, Said to Die in Soviet Camp".
- Newspapers.com.
