Jüri Pertmann

On 26 March 1954, Jüri Pertmann and some friends founded the Kuperjanovlased, an underground resistance movement for schoolchildren and friends, in Tartu, the aim of which was to act in the interests of the restoration of the independent Republic of Estonia. The Kuperjanovs included Eino Neerot, Tõnu Raid and Kaarel Tuvike, among others. Among other things, in February 1955, a few days before the 37th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia, the Kuperjanovs distributed almost 1,000 leaflets in Tartu calling for the fight against the Soviet occupation. The KGB failed to identify members of the Kuperjanovs' organization, and the organization was not caught.[3]

Jüri Pertmann was arrested on 11 November 1957, near the border between Finland and the Soviet Union near Gvardeiskaja railway station, where he had gone to flee to Finland for refuge.

Jüri Pertmann in 1963.

After that he stayed in Vyborg and Leningrad prisons for a short time and in Patarei prison in Tallinn. By a decision of 28 January 1958, the Supreme Court of the Estonian SSR convicted him of attempting to cross the state border illegally and of anti-Soviet propaganda "Year of the Suffering of the Estonian People." Pertmann's activities in the Kuperjanovs remained unknown to the security services. In the spring, In 1958, Pertmann was transferred to Sosnovka Labor Camp No. 7 in Mordovia, where he stayed in various prison camps in Mordovia, participating in the activities of the Estonian Youth Malev and the Estonian Union of New Ethnic Underworld organizations, among others. From then on, Pertmann was under the surveillance of the KGB until 1988, but continued to communicate with Estonian nationalists and dissidents. Jaan Isotamm was a close friend. Participated in the distribution of underground self-published publications. In 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983 and 1988, on the anniversaries of his release from the prison camp, he organized gatherings in the Meeri country house, where there was anti-Soviet and anti-occupation sentiment.[4]

At the end of the 1970s, on the initiative of Lithuanian dissident Viktoras Petkus, an attempt was made to create an organization uniting the Estonian-Latvian-Lithuanian resistance movements. Among others, Jüri Pertmann participated in the discussions on behalf of Estonia. However, the discussions failed and no organization was formed.[5]

During the events of 2006, Pertmann wrote a public letter in support of the Solidarity, a Polish independent trade union.[4]

Between 1979 and 1984, Pertmann compiled and published an underground almanac, "Sotsioloogilised Vihikud" (Sociological Booklets), in which he sought to open up and explain historical ideas in Estonia, the Soviet Union, and elsewhere in the world in political, social, and economic terms. However, the almanac reproduced as photocopies did not spread widely and reached only a few readers at that time. Pertmann, the author of the almanac, was not caught by the KGB.