Unexpectedly, I agree with Jaak Valge, who wrote in Delfi that labeling Alma Ostra‑Oinas as anti‑Estonian is unjust. I have not bothered to track down exactly who called Oinas a communist, but of course that is at the very least a gross exaggeration. Oinas's relationship with Jaan Anvelt and her activities in the early years of the republic are well laid out by Valge in his article. I am writing mainly to complement Valge and other defenders of Oinas.

Her later contributions have been overlooked.

Let us perhaps begin with Alma Oinas's husband, Aleksander Oinas. He was, of course, a Social Democrat and in his youth also a Marxist, but he was also Estonia's Minister of the Interior during the War of Independence, served as a minister in both August Rei's and Konstantin Päts's governments. He was arrested by the Russians in June 1941 and, of course, sentenced to death. It is unclear whether he was tortured to death before being shot or simply executed; in any case, he perished in the Gulag, probably in Solikamsk on March 3, 1942.

Alma Oinas herself is a name familiar to me since childhood, because she was one of the few politicians of the older generation who, during the German occupation, organized and supported the Estonian National Committee.

In Jaan Kross's "Dear Fellow Travelers", my father writes¹, for example, about the spring of 1942:

"Aleksander Oinas's wife Alma Ostra avoided arrest when her husband was detained and remained in Estonia during the German occupation. On closer inspection she was quite an interesting — somewhat coarse‑featured, somewhat but not excessively masculine — woman, mother of three or four daughters, a leading figure in many social welfare and child protection institutions, and the author of at least one quite remarkable novel. In her youth, she is said to have been Gorky's secretary and the fictitious wife of Jaan Anvelt. Together with her later husband she had been exiled to Tobolsk and had attended, after escaping from there, the split congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in London. And she told me, without taking time for a longer introduction: 'We need money. To finance the resistance movement.'

It seems to me she was the first I heard use the word [vastupanuliikumine] that later became the Estonian equivalent of résistance.

'Our first task is to establish correspondence with Finland or Sweden. There are some Finnish naval observation points along the northern coast. But we cannot exploit them indefinitely. So sooner or later we must rely on our own people. That means fishermen and coastal folk — in short, the old smuggling hands. But they demand cash for every scrap they carry across.'"

Alma Oinas sent my father to search in his shed for money hidden there by Aleksander Oinas; although it was not found, correspondence via the smugglers was nevertheless set in motion by the National Committee — Ernst Kull, Enn Sarv, Talgre and Hellat, Heinrich Mark, and others.

Incidentally, in the underground network of the National Committee, the sending of men to Finland and all kinds of secret crossings was handled very actively by Oinas's daughter Tiiu Oinas — later Mikiver. Tii, or Tiiu, would certainly deserve at least two equestrian monuments. She is the prototype for Riina in "Mesmer's Circle"², for those who have read or will read it.

Alma Oinas was arrested by the Germans in April 1944 during the large-scale operation against Estonian nationalists, at the same time as several leaders of the Estonian National Committee — Jaan Kross, Enn Sarv, Harald Tammur, and others.

Tiiu Mikiver avoided capture, largely thanks to men in the National Committee working in German intelligence — especially former military intelligence chief Colonel Saarsen and Olev Reintalu, the first leader of the 1941 Tartu uprising (who himself spent a short time in an SD prison). Tiiu then struck a deal with the Germans: she would go to Riga to study at an intelligence school if her mother were released.

I have written about her in more detail in "Dear Mongrels"³. A brief biography is as follows:

Tiiu Oinas‑Mikiver (1917–1980). Born in Tallinn, daughter of multi‑time minister Aleksander Oinas and parliament member Alma Ostra‑Oinas. Nicknamed Tii. Graduated from Tallinn 1st Girls' Gymnasium in 1937. Studied law at the University of Tartu from 1937 to 1942. Translator at Postimees in Tartu, 1942–1944. Married to Ilmar Mikiver. Member of Ernst Kull's organization. In 1944 studied at Abwehr intelligence schools in Riga and Königsberg on behalf of the Estonian National Committee, with the aim of remaining in Estonia as a resistance radio operator if necessary.

In November 1944 she was arrested in Tallinn by SMERSH, released, arrested again in 1945, and on January 12, 1946 the NKVD Special Board sentenced her to 10 years. She was transferred from Pagari Street prison to Patarei on May 30, 1946, and sent to a camp on November 5, 1947. She was imprisoned first in Ukhtizhemlag in Ukhta, and likely from 1948 until 1954 in Inta, followed by internal exile there until 1960.

In 1956, in Inta, she married Finnish war volunteer Arno Hallik. Incidentally, her first husband, Ilmar Mikiver ("Imps"), later married Otto Tief's daughter in the United States and for many years headed the Estonian service of Voice of America. Imps Mikiver left for Finland in 1943 with the help of the same smugglers, using Tii's and the National Committee's channels.

After the camp and exile, the Soviets did not allow Tiiu to live in Estonia, so she lived illegally in Tallinn until her death. According to Jaan Kross, Tii was "perhaps the most dazzling and fantastic figure among the women of the resistance movement." She was a member of the Estonian Female Students' Society. She died on February 22, 1980 in Tallinn and is buried at Rahumäe cemetery.

Incidentally, in the autumn of 1944, together with Karl Aun — the underground chairman of the Estonian Students' Society and a collaborator of the National Committee — Tiiu also attempted to free imprisoned members of the National Committee from Patarei prison (she succeeded in securing Alma Oinas's release in August 1944). This effort may have led to the release of many detainees on September 19, 1944 without formal documentation.

At Tiiu's home there was a National Committee weapons cache; she herself distributed submachine guns to the men. She also organized radio communication with the West, helped rescue National Committee member and radio operator Ovid Avarsoo to Finland, and so on. My father met Tii in 1947 in the Konstantinograd transit prison, when Tii was on her way to Ukhta and he to Sevzheldorlag; at that time, of course, neither knew where they would end up.

The Russians arrested Alma Oinas in October 1944 — almost immediately. She received five years under Article 58‑3 (a relatively light sentence at the time; for example, Tief received eight — harsher sentences of 25+5 became widespread only around 1948).

Alma served in the Gulag from 1945 to 1949 in the Ulyanovsk region. In 1949 she joined her deported daughter Aino‑Liis ("Tipa") Hanso (1928–1990) in Krasnoyarsk Krai.

Tipa also deserves separate remembrance. She was a ballerina at the Estonia Theatre. She studied at a ballet studio in Tallinn and danced at the Estonia from 1945 to 1949. She married Finnish war volunteer Uno Hanso in November 1946. She was deported by the Soviets in March 1949 as a "family member of a nationalist" and, by decision of a special board on July 23, 1949, was sent into forced settlement in Shira District, Krasnoyarsk Krai.

The Hansos were sent to the Balakshin gold mine. Tipa worked there taking gold samples and as a cartographer. Her daughter, born there in 1952, is Tiiu‑Mall Tamm, owner of Leigo farm.

At the end of 1955, Alma and Tipa went to Inta, where Tii, released from the Gulag, was in forced settlement. Tipa was freed on February 12, 1960. She married Ülo Tiiman in 1959. They built a house on the site of Alma Ostra's birthplace in Padari village, Vastse‑Kuuste parish.

Returning to Alma: the Soviets sentenced her to forced settlement, and she lived in the bleakness of Inta until the end of her life. She died there on November 2, 1960 — counted by Soviet authorities among their most dangerous enemies, who could not be allowed to return to Estonia.

So yes: Alma Ostra‑Oinas and her daughters deserve both equestrian monuments and our deep and wide‑ranging respect and remembrance.

¹ Jaan Kross "Kallid kaasteelised", memoirs, Tallinn 2003. Renowned Estonian writer Jaan Kross (1920-2007) was the father of Estonian politician and MP Eerik-Niiles Kross.

2 Jaan Kross "Mesmeri ring", Tallinn 1995.

3 Jaan Kross "Kallid krantsid. Kirjad vangilaagritest ja asumiselt Siberis 1946-1954". Compiled and annotated by Eerik‑Niiles Kross. Tallinn 2021.

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