During the last decade, Estonian art history has depicted Henn Roode (1924-1979) most often as a martyr of the Soviet system, who had to spend his most important formative years in Siberia, at the Karaganda prison camp. Accusations of anti-Soviet activity were fabricated as the basis for his arrest, while actually, by making the most talented students toe the line, an attempt was being made to abolish the position of Tartu, which was keeping the Pallas mentality alive, as an art center. In time, the authorities succeeding in the latter, but Roode remained true to his creed of modern art. Returning from the camp and finishing his interrupted art studies, although in Tallinn at the Estonian State Art Institute, he became one of the most convinced modernists and radical art innovators in post-World War II Estonia.

Photo: Stanislav Stepaško