There were remarkably numerous writers among those who plotted to do away with Estonia’s statehood in 1940. Their role in the events of that time has already been examined quite thoroughly by now. The establishment of the Red regime also brought with it the dissolution of the existing organisation that united writers – the Estonian Writers’ Association. In October of 1940, the Estonian SSR Council of People’s Commissars (CPC) appointed the Estonian Soviet Writer’s Union 7-member Organising Committee (OC) to office in place of the liquidated Estonian Writers’ Association. August Jakobson started leading that organisation, and its members were Paul Keerdo, Mihkel Jürna, Oskar Urgart, August Alle, Erni Hiir and Friedebert Tuglas (the editor of the literary periodical Looming). The Organising Committee’s task was to draw up the statute of the Estonian Soviet Writer’s Union and to organisationally prepare the founding of the Soviet Writers’ Union.

The Soviet-German War that began in the summer of 1941 cut those preparations short and split the writers of that time into two camps: some remained in Estonia, and others were evacuated to the Soviet rear area. The actions of the writers who stayed in Estonia, and those of the writers in the rear area have hitherto not been studied very thoroughly. The aim of this publication is to shed a little more light on the situation of the writers who were evacuated from Estonia to the Soviet rear area, and on their adaptation and organisation in wartime conditions through the prism of the documents of that era. August Jakobson’s letters from 1941–1942 to Nikolai Karotamm, the leader of the Estonian Communist Party at that time, provide a wealth of information on these issues. August Jakobson was one of the first writers who left Estonia. He was evacuated at the start of July, 1941 from Tartu together with his family and ultimately arrived in Chelyabinsk, where he stayed until the autumn of 1943. Jakobson moved with his family to the city of Yegoryevsk near Moscow in the autumn of 1943. We can certainly consider August Jakobson to be the prime rear area writer, so to speak, both officially as the head of the OC that was established in 1940, and also substantially – bearing in mind his productive oeuvre.

A. Jakobson’s letters to N. Karotamm provide important additional information on the evacuation of writers to the Soviet rear area, their material conditions and their everyday situation, their creative aspirations, their preparatory work for the founding congress of the Estonian Soviet Writers’ Union, and many other questions. Additionally, these letters contain key information on Jakobson’s own wartime creative aspirations and plans. Hence in short, these letters are source material that enables researchers to consider the actions of writers who were evacuated to the Soviet rear area as viewed from numerous novel aspects.