Debora Vaarandi kodumaa
Debora Vaarandi's Homeland

Summary/Abstract: The first works of Debora Vaarandi (1916–2007), a consistently leftist Estonian poetess, were written during World War Two and could be characterized as lyrical poems with a national-romanticist flavour. There followed a Stalinist "big homeland" discourse, balanced by a simultaneous local patriotic poetization of the Estonian islands and coast dwellers. In her mature period (since the end of the 1950s) Debora Vaarandi's Estonian patriotism is manifested implicitly without exception, being centered around the common national values – the "simple things" as resumed by her major stylistic figure. The 1960s add a new keyword "Nordic", which emphasizes detachment from the socialist-chauvinist conceptions of literary policy emanating from Moscow. The 1970s are stamped by the poetess' alarmed reactions to the mental degeneration of the Estonian community during the Brezhnev Period of Stagnation. At the same time there remains a constant concern for the Estonian islands as a delicate habitat seriously endangered. The article contains some hitherto unpublished material recorded form oral interviews with Debora Vaarandi.

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