ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHS
The present small selection of photographs has been confined to prison and camp photos. That is, photographs depicting the arrested in years of forced deportation after camp have not been used. The photographs made before detention are above.
KGB files are bound to contain prison photographs of tens of thousands of Estonians, but not by far of all the arrested, not to speak of photos depicting the bodies of those who died of torture and hunger or were killed during an escape attempt. As far as is known, there is in Estonia not a single photograph of the everyday life in prison camps in the 1940s and photos of the labour zones are rare. Karl Neitsov’s photo of timber transporting in a prison camp in 1953 is the earliest known camp photograph with the exclusion of photos of prisoners. Everything that went on in camps was kept under wraps so that taking photos became possible only after Stalin’s death when new winds began to blow in camps.
Former political prisoners, their children and grandchildren are bound to preserve many unique photographs documenting the past. It is to be hoped that some of them will come into the hands of compilers of next volumes of repressed person’s records.
Prison and camp photographs, like documents, are still waiting for a separate publication.
Prison photo of the Estonian statesman, ex-president of the Bank of Estonia Jüri Jaakson is preserved in his file against the background of the decision of a special council – to be executed by shooting
Branch of the Estonian State Archives
Prison photo of Aili Jürgenson, one of the destroyers of a wooden Soviet monument erected in Tallinn. She was a 15-year-old student at the time
1946, ERAF – 1946, Branch of the Estonian State Archives