Vabadusvõitleja ja KGB uurija kohtumine 25 aastat hiljem 25 aastat hiljem Ekspress

• Vello Väärtnou is mentioned here at some point related to the times of ERSP.

Original in Estonian

English translation

[edit]

Vabadusvõitleja ja KGB uurija kohtumine 25 aastat hiljem

Ekspress viis kokku vanad vaenlased, vabadusvõitleja Eve Pärnaste ja KGB uurija Aare Kruuseri. Kas lepivad ära?

“Ma ei tunneks teda ära. Tal oli ehtne kagebesniku nägu, mis sulandub seinaga ühte ja ei jää meelde…”

Eve Pärnaste krutib punast patsiotsa ümber nimetissõrme. “…ja terashalli pilku polnud tal absoluutselt!”

Me istume Tallinna ülikooli uues hoones auditooriumi M316 ukse taga trepil ja ootame, millal endine ENSV julgeolekutöötaja Aare Kruuser, praegune TÜ õigusakadeemia õppejõud, oma loengu lõpetab.

“Aga ühe pildi peale ma Kruuseriga ei lähe! Ei!”

6. veebruar 1988 oli samuti laupäev. Eve Pärnaste ärkas üürikorteris Koidu tänaval kell 9.45, sest keegi koputas.

“Kes seal on?”

“Omad Tartust, oleks vaja rääkida!”

Nii mäletab Pärnaste.

Hääl oli võõras. Võti pisteti lukuauku, aga see ei keeranud, sest Pärnaste teadis hästi Kalle Blomkvisti õpetust, et võti peab olema seespool põiki ette keeratud.

Siis kostis läbi õhukese seina, kuidas majanaaber Krista trepikojas hüüdis, et mingid tüübid said pettusega välisuksest sisse. Koputasid akna taga, et tahavad tädi Elleni juurde!

Pärnastele oli asi selge: KGB!

Rullis voodiriided kušeti peal kokku, viskas narmasvaiba üle, pani kiiresti riidesse, võttis telefoni ja helistas miilitsasse (02). Number oli kinni.

Lõgistati linki. Miilitsa number andis jätkuvalt kinnist tooni.

“Omad”, kes enne tegid magusat häält nagu hunt, kes mängib kitseema, teatasid nüüd ukse tagant, et neil on läbiotsimisorder ja et nad on julgeoleku uurimisosakonnast.

Pärnaste mõtles, ikkagi üürikorter, hakka veel ukse remontimiseks raha kulutama, ja tegi ukse lahti.

Sisse astus kolm erariides meest – vanemleitnant Aare Kruuser, major Ilves ja Ain Lepikult, kellel auaste puudus. Esitati order läbiotsimiseks ja tehti ettepanek, et Pärnaste annaks ära riiklikku ja ühiskondlikku korda halvustavad, teadvalt valesid andmeid ja väljamõeldisi sisaldavad kirjutised, nende paljundamisvahendid jm antud kirjutisega seotud materjalid.

Pärnastele meeldis näputöö. Tal oli kapitäis enda kootud kampsuneid (sest kudumid ei kortsu) ja seelikuid, kostüüme ja mantleid, mis ta oli ise teinud. Viimase kostüümi õmbles enne Hirvepargi miitingut 1987. Pärast seda läks nii kiireks, et polnud enam aega nööpigi ette ajada.

Ta oli väheseid Molotovi-Ribbentropi Pakti Avalikustamise Eesti Grupi liikmeid, kellel oli kodus telefon. Tema juures käidi tihti, tema juures vahetati infot.

Tööraamatu järgi oli ta tollal kirjanik Andres Ehini erasekretär, lõi Ehinile masinal tekste ümber, 40 rubla kuus.

Seega oli Pärnaste ajagraafik vaba ja kogu MRP AEG paberimajandus tema õlul. Ja kui Viktor Niitsoo jaanuari lõpus kordusõppustele saadeti, jäi ka MRP AEG Infobülletään Pärnaste teha.

Detsembriõhtul 1987 oli Pärnaste juurest astunud läbi Vello Väärtnõu ja teinud ettepaneku luua vastukaaluks kommunistlikule parteile esimene alternatiivne partei Nõukogude Liidus. (Siis polnud veel selge, et nimeks saab Eesti Rahvusliku Sõltumatuse Partei.)

Pärnaste oli kolmas inimene, kellele Väärtnõu sellest rääkis, ja Pärnaste oli nõus.

ERSP oli 1988 alguses kuum teema, 30. jaanuaril olid Väärtnõu, Ärvi Orula ja Eke-Pärt Nõmm ühes Moskva erakorteris pressikonverentsi andnud. ERSPst kirjutasid Chicago Tribune, Washington Post ja New York Times ning ERSP loomise ettepanek loeti ette Ameerika Hääles ja Vaba Euroopa eestikeelsetes saadetes.

Pärnaste 12ruutmeetrises toas (siia tuleb juurde mõelda 6ruutmeetrine köök) istus nurgas kaks ehmunud naismanukat, kes ei tahtnud kuidagi mantleid seljast ära võtta. Vaatamata sellele Pärnaste, kogemustega läbiotsitav, soovitas, et võtke ära, siin läheb veel kaua, ja korter oli soe.

Pärnaste oli juba ammu arvanud, et ta korterit kuulatakse pealt. Ta oli dramaatilise ja selge häälega kuulutanud, et “kui KGB tuleb korterit läbi otsima ja kui nad julgevad puudutada mu altarit, pühapilte ja seinapeeglit, siis vastutagu tagajärgede eest ise!”.

Pärnaste oli budist.

Nüüd plaksutas ta mõttes käsi – ja jälgis võidurõõmsalt, kuidas läbiotsijal oli higitilk nina otsas, kui uuris pühapilte, aga ei söandanud vaadata, mis seal taga on, ja küsis luba, kas võib vaadata.

Pärnaste: “Ja kaustikut, kuhu ma olin kümme aastat oma unenägusid üles kirjutanud, ei julgenud nad üldse avada. Selle kaanel seisis: “Võõras, kui loed, siis kahetsed!” Nad otsisid raamaturiiulitelt ja sahtlitest, isegi riidekappi ei vaadatud, mustapesukastist rääkimata.

Tegelikult polnudki midagi varjata, ERSP asjad olid ju niikuinii avalikud.”

Valgete tossudega ja täpiliste tossudega, kummisaabastega, mille küljes on hõbedased ketid, lühikeste pükstega, pikkade pükstega ja bleiseritega, mis on kehasse, ja soniga, tätoveering kaelal, pudeneb auditooriumist M316 välja Eesti Vabariigi õiguskaitsetöötajate homne päev.

Ja siis seisab uksel Aare Kruuser.

Ülilühikeseks pöetud siilipea, umbes sama pikk habemetüügas. Helebeežist nahast kingad, hallides toonides pintsak ja tohutu suur portfell (kuhu peab mahtuma kaks arvutit). Loeng on läbi.

Ta silm ka ei pilgu, kui näeb enda ees Pärnastet, keda ta 25 aastat tagasi läbi otsis, ja leiab lahkelt meile ülikooli kohvikus seinaäärse laua.

KRUUSER: (ta hääl on loengupidamisest kähe) “Kui sa küsid, mismoodi see hommik algas, siis mul on meeles, et see polnud tavaline tööpäev. Kas see ei olnud laupäevane päev?”

Oli.

KRUUSER: “Meid kutsuti varakult Pagari tänavale. Anti aadress, öeldi, kelle juurde tuleb minna. Ma ei pidanud vajalikuks vastu vaielda.”

KRUUSER: “Ja kui sa nüüd küsid, kuidas läbiotsimistel sisenetakse, see on omaette taktika ja seda õpetatakse ka praegu. Oli kuidas oli, aga me vähemalt ei lõhkunud ust ära.”

PÄRNASTE (toolilt peaaegu üles karates): “Aga kui ma poleks lahti teinud?”

KRUUSER: “Läbiotsimisel tuleb uks kiiresti lahti saada, et ei oleks võimalik materjale hävitada.”

PÄRNASTE: “Ma olin siis ikka loll, et ma ukse lahti tegin, uks oleks maha lõhutud, oleks palju nalja saanud!”

KRUUSER: “Seda kõike õpetatakse. Ma olen uksest sisse pääsemist ja ukseluku lahti tegemist hiljem ka miilitsakooli kursantidele õpetanud, ja kapo ja politseiameti töötajatele. Kaasa arvatud nendele eriüksustele, kes läksid läbi otsima Lõssenkot (interrinde juht – EE).

Urmas Sõõrumaa on öelnud, et ärimeheks sünnitakse. Ma arvan, et uurijaga on samuti. Ja et mind selle töö peale valiti – ilmselt mul siis on isikuomadusi, et ma suudan ennast maksma panna. Julgeolekukomitee polikliinikus tehti mulle meditsiiniline ülevaatus, mis oli midagi muud kui haamrikesega vastu põlve löömine, et kas jalg tõuseb.”

6. veebruaril 1988 oli läbiotsimine Pärnaste juures kestnud peaaegu neli tundi (kell sai 12.40), kui ukse taga kolistati ja sisse astusid ERSP asutamise algatajad Vello Väärtnõu ja Eke-Pärt Nõmm ja veerand tundi hiljem Ärvi Orula.

Väärtnõu korterit oli samal hommikul 9.00–11.30 läbi otsinud polkovnik Kruusman, Väärtnõu ise polnud kodus, läbiotsijatega tegeles tema naine.

Kruuser tahtis, et tülikad külalised lahkuks, aga Väärtnõu ütles, et kuskile ta ei lähe, Evel on hea kohv ja ta tahab kohvi saada.

PÄRNASTE: “Nad mõnitasid neid kagebiite ikka mõnuga! Nad pole suu peale kukkunud vennad.

Läbi otsiti ka külalised.

“Eks te otsige!” Orula keeras tagumiku ette.

Üks võttis tagataskust – valuuta!

“Kust saite?”

“Lasnamäel tuules lendasid!”

Kruuser palus tülitajatel lahkuda.”

KRUUSER: “Aga kui te nüüd küsite, miks seda läbiotsimist vaja oli… Tegemist on ajaga, mil Eestimaal levis üleskutse, kus muuhulgas kutsuti üles hävitama kommunismi toetajaid, kuni pioneerideni välja. Oli vist midagi taolist.”

PÄRNASTE: “Pole kuul-nud-ki!”

KRUUSER: “No ma ütlen, mul pole neid asju praegu käepärast, aga oli üks Sivert Žoldini kriminaalasi...”

PÄRNASTE: (tüdinult) “Seal ei olnud ju mingit hävitamist!”

KRUUSER: “Ärme vaidle! Ma ütlen, et olid materjalid, mis kutsusid vägivaldsele vastuhakule. Ja selle üleskutsega oli võimalik siduda inimesi, kes tegelesid muude asjadega, ERSPga ja millega iganes.”

PÄRNASTE: (hakkab vaikselt vihaseks minema) “See on täielik bullshit!”

KRUUSER: “Kas on?”

PÄRNASTE: “Sest Sivert Žoldin levitas lendlehte, mis oli EV 70. aastapäevaks tehtud ja mille teksti suures osas koostasin mina (Vello Väärtnõu koostas põhilise). Ja seal ei olnud midagi, mis puudutaks vägivalda. Lendleht võis olla ettekääne meie läbiotsimiseks, aga selles ei olnud üleskutset vägivallale!”

Pärnaste tutvustab Kruuserile, mis oli kirjas lendlehel, mis Žoldinilt ära võeti. Kõige äkilisem koht lendlehel kõlas nii: Eestlased! Ärgake ometi vähemalt üheks päevaks, Iseseisvuspäevaks! Tundkem kord, et kõik isamaa eest võidelnud kangelased on meie kõrval, pidagem pidu selle päeva tähistamiseks, mis murdis meid ajalukku omariikluse ja iseseisvuse näol!

KRUUSER: “Žoldinil oli muidki materjale. Fašistliku organisatsiooni eraldusmärgidki olid valmis tehtud.”

KRUUSER: “Ma ise pole neid näinud!”

KRUUSER: “Ma arutasin asja oma sõbra, vanemuurija Rein Tutkiga, kes nüüd on manalamees. Rein läks märkide võetust teostama, aga märke ta ära ei toonud. Ütles, et neid olnudki. Aga minule ütles, et hävitas need ära. Kuidas – ära küsi!”

KRUUSER: “Uurimise edenedes sai meile selgeks, et see organisatsiooniasi oli Sivertile julgeoleku poolt lavastatud. Eesti arengu huvides poleks aga olnud vaja näidata, et meil on siin fašistlikke ilminguid.”

KRUUSER: “Julgeolekuorganid ongi selleks, et vajadusel ka teatud asju läbi viia. Julgeolek ei olnud sugugi monoliitne organisatsioon. See on keeruline temaatika, seda ei pruugi kohe mõista!”

Tartu Ülikoolis oli Aare Kruuser eeskujulik juuratudeng, sai Lenini-nimelist stipendiumi (40 rubla asemel 100 rubla kuus), suitsu ei teinud, esimesel kahel kursusel jõi pidudel paljast vett, üheainsa korra (nagu mäletavad kursusekaaslased) nuusutas kunagi ka piisakest konjakit ja silitas pärast kõhtu: ah kui häää!

Ühel hetkel avastas ta, et on suvemaleva staabiülem, komsomolikomitee liige, ja siis juba komsomolisekretäri asetäitja (üks neljast).

Ajakirjandusrebased tegid 1982. aasta sügisel etenduse “Säina Evald”, mis polnud suurem asi etendus, aga ühel osatäitjal oli soni peas (vihje Leninile) ja sellest piisas, et Aare Kruuser passis ajakirjandusosakonna koridoris ja loengu vaheajal tuli ja teatas, et sel ja sel ajal ootab Tartu KGB 5. osakonna juhataja Peeter Sepper asjaosalisi ülikooli komsomolikomitees. Praegu ütleb mees, et midagi sellist pole kunagi juhtunud.

Kruuseri kursusekaaslaste hulgas oli teisigi, kes heal meelel julgeolekusse oleks läinud. Üks, nähes, et suunamine on ukse ees, aga Tallinna KGBs on kohad täidetud, kolistas viimases hädas Pärnu KGB ukse taga: olen viks ja nuhiks rõõmuga. Kohta ei saanud.

KRUUSER: “Kui ma julgeolekusse poleks läinud, oleks minust saanud ülikooli komsomolisekretär. Aga julgeolek sobis mulle paremini – mul olid selleks omad põhjused. Mu vanaisa Peeter töötas Eesti Vabariigi ajal kaitsepolitseis. Neljakümnendal võeti ta kinni. Vanaema saadeti kolme tütrega Siberisse. Vanem tütar oli 11aastane ja noorem mõnekuune. Nii et kui sa küsid, kas ma tean, mis juhtus 1940. aastal, siis jah, ma tean. Aga ma poleks seda saanud teada, kui ma poleks töötanud KGBs.

Teine asi – mulle selgitati, et julgeolekus saab parima uurimisalase kooli, mis Eestis võimalik, ja ma tahtsin ennast arendada.

Kolmandaks – mulle öeldi, et seal on vaja Tartu ülikooli taustaga uurijaid, kes pädevaid otsuseid teevad.”

Neli päeva enne läbiotsimist Pärnaste juures, Tartu rahu aastapäeval 2.2.1988 oli Kruuser ühes Lõuna-Eesti linnas “ära küsi, kus täpselt!”.

KRUUSER: “Anti käsklus: autodele, start! Lähete, võtate kinni organiseerijad! Ma küsisin: mehed, mis te teete? Mille eest? Ma ütlesin, et pole nõus, ei näe siin kuriteo koosseisu – lihtsalt peale lennata ja kinni võtta ja pasunasse anda! Ütlesin, et kui te mind ei kuula, siis helistage ENSV peaprokurörile. Pärast seda kutsuti masinad tagasi.”

Pärast 2. veebruari sündmusi 1988 otsustati (“ära küsi, kus!”), et Aare Kruuser sobib rahvusliku liikumise teema peale, vanad mehed olid teinud liiga palju vigu.

Temast sai julgeolekukomitee metoodikaosakonna juhataja, kelle ülesanne selgitada julgeolekukomitees, mis on uutmine. Mingil hetkel avastas Kruuser, et talt on ära võetud arhiivide külastamise õigus.

KRUUSER: “Tartu ülikooli ehitusjaoskonnas töötas mees, üks nendest, kes sinimustvalge organisatsiooni liikmena 1949 Raadil punaarmeelaste mälestussamba õhku laskis. Teda peksti, ta oli poksija ja hakkas vastu andma. Ta tümitati nii läbi, et oligi eluaeg “paigast ära”.

Ma esitasin andmed peksmise kohta prokuratuuri ja sain õiendada, et mis saasta ma korjan! Ja mulle ei antud enam materjale arhiivist kätte. Tõsi – ainult ühel päeval, aga ma pidin kõrgete ülemustega rääkima, enne kui uuesti arhiiv minu jaoks avanes. Ei olnud lihtne kujundada ümber vana mõttelaadi.”

1990. aastal lahkus Kruuser KGBst ja läks õpetajaks miilitsakooli.

Kui tuli korraldus Pärnaste läbi otsida, mõtles Kruuser, et see on tõsine jama ja ta helbib seda suppi veel tükk aega. Nii palju, kui ta Pärnastet teadis, ei arvanud ta, et see inimene läheb vägivallaaktide peale, aga et Pärnaste paneb asja kella külge ja seda tuleb selgitada veel aastaid.

KRUUSER: “Eve, ma ütlen ka, et ma pole teilt kunagi vabandust palunud, et ma selle läbiotsimisega ebameeldivusi tekitasin, kindlasti tekitasin, aga ma olen endiselt arvamusel, et selleks, et need protsessid kulgeksid rahumeelselt, oli neid läbiotsimisi vaja.

Me näitasime, et teie tegevuses ei ole fašistlikke ega muid vägivallaelemente, mis oleks kriminaalkorras karistatavad.”

PÄRNASTE: “Bullshit!”

KRUUSER: (kasvava pingega) “Eve, kuulake, mida ma räägin. Ma räägin, et oli kahtlus, et kogu see asi oli lavastatud julgeoleku poolt ja oli vaja kontrollida, kas see vastab tõele! See läbiotsimine oli vajalik, et võtta maha võimalus siduda iseseisvusliikumine vägivallaõhutamisega!”

PÄRNASTE: “Inimesele, kes sellist juttu usub, tuleb tablette anda! Ei tasu rääkida nii lolli juttu! Teil olid lihtsalt käed lühikeseks jäänud, te ei saanud meiega enam midagi teha!”

KRUUSER: “Eve, mina ei ütle teile, et teie jutt on loll, kuigi ma väga tõsiselt ei võtnud, mida te tegite, oleks võib-olla võinud mõnda asja teistmoodi teha!”

Kell 19.10 oli läbiotsimine ühel pool. See oli kestnud 9 tundi ja 55 minutit.

PÄRNASTE: (peopesi ülespoole pöörates) “Umu nepostižima (mõistusele kättesaamatu), mida nad seal nii kaua tegid!”

Kruuser pani äraviimiseks kõrvale 800 lehekülge materjale ja koostas oma ümara püstise käekirjaga 12-leheküljelise protokolli, kus oli kõik täpselt kirjas: MRP-AEG materjalid, “Infobülletäänid”, avalikud kirjad, avaldused ja käsikirjalised märkmed. Samuti jäi Pärnaste ilma ERSP asutamise ettepanekust, Vaba Sõltumatu Noortekolonni nr 1 häälekandjast Avalik Arvamus, aadressidest, telefoninumbritest, kirjutusmasinast Continental, mille Pärnaste ostis Pika tänava komisjonist, ja nagu ta ise ütleb, “millega andis korraga taguda 11 eksemplari, mis oli kerge ja mida sai hõlpsasti ühe laua pealt teise peale tõsta, ja millel oli jube ilus disain”.

Pärnaste on ülikooli KOHVIKUS kaks tundi suitsunälga kannatanud. Kui jutuajamine läbi, paneb õues krabinal suitsu ette.

“Tead, ma ütlen.” (Ta tõmbab suitsu sügavale kopsu.) “Seda tegi Kruuser jumala õigesti, et ta mulle kätt ei andnud. Sest vastu ma seda võtnud ei oleks!”

26. september 2013
Madis Jürgen
Eesti Ekspress

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AI translation of the Estonian text.

The Meeting of a Freedom Fighter and a KGB Investigator 25 Years Later

Ekspress brought together old enemies, the freedom fighter Eve Pärnaste and the KGB investigator Aare Kruuser. Will they make peace?

"I wouldn't recognise him. He had a genuine KGB man's face, the kind that melts into the wall and doesn't stay in the memory…"

Eve Pärnaste twists the end of her red plait around her index finger. "…and he had absolutely no steel-grey stare!"

We are sitting on the stairs outside auditorium M316 in the new building of Tallinn University, waiting for the former Estonian SSR security officer Aare Kruuser, now a lecturer at the Law Academy of the University of Tartu, to finish his lecture.

"But I won't be in the same picture with Kruuser! No!"

6 February 1988 was also a Saturday. Eve Pärnaste woke up in her rented flat on Koidu Street at 9.45, because someone was knocking.

"Who's there?"

"Friends from Tartu, we need to talk!"

That is how Pärnaste remembers it.

The voice was unfamiliar. A key was pushed into the lock, but it would not turn, because Pärnaste knew well the lesson of Kalle Blomkvist that the key must be turned crosswise on the inside.

Then through the thin wall she heard the neighbour Krista shouting in the stairwell that some types had got in through the front door by a trick. They had knocked on the window and said they wanted to see Aunt Ellen!

For Pärnaste it was clear: the KGB!

She rolled up the bedclothes on the couch, threw a fringed rug over it, quickly got dressed, took the telephone and called the militia (02). The line was busy.

They rattled the door handle. The militia number still gave a busy tone.

The "friends", who before had put on a sweet voice like the wolf playing the mother goat, now announced from behind the door that they had a search warrant and that they were from the investigation department of State Security.

Pärnaste thought: it's a rented flat after all, why spend money on repairing the door, and she opened it.

In stepped three men in civilian clothes: Senior Lieutenant Aare Kruuser, Major Ilves and Ain Lepikult, who had no rank. A warrant for a search was presented, and it was proposed that Pärnaste should hand over writings defaming the state and social order and containing knowingly false information and fabrications, the means of copying them, and other materials connected with these writings.

Pärnaste liked handicrafts. She had a cupboard full of sweaters she had knitted herself (because knitwear does not crease) and skirts, suits and coats that she had made herself. She had sewn her last suit before the Hirvepark meeting in 1987. After that things got so busy that there was no longer time even to sew on a button.

She was one of the few members of the Estonian Group for the Publication of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact who had a telephone at home. People came to her place often; information was exchanged at her place.

According to her workbook she was at that time the private secretary of the writer Andres Ehin, retyping texts for Ehin on the typewriter, for 40 roubles a month.

So Pärnaste's schedule was free, and all the paperwork of the MRP-AEG rested on her shoulders. And when Viktor Niitsoo was sent off to military refresher training at the end of January, the MRP-AEG Information Bulletin also was left for Pärnaste to make.

On a December evening in 1987 Vello Väärtnõu had dropped in at Pärnaste's and proposed creating the first alternative party in the Soviet Union, as a counterweight to the Communist Party. (At that time it was not yet clear that its name would be the Estonian National Independence Party.)

Pärnaste was the third person Väärtnõu told about it, and Pärnaste agreed.

The ERSP was a hot topic at the beginning of 1988. On 30 January Väärtnõu, Ärvi Orula and Eke-Pärt Nõmm had given a press conference in a private flat in Moscow. The Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post and the New York Times wrote about the ERSP, and the proposal to found the ERSP was read out on the Voice of America and in the Estonian-language broadcasts of Radio Free Europe.

In Pärnaste's 12-square-metre room (add to it in your mind a 6-square-metre kitchen) two frightened female attesting witnesses sat in the corner and would not take their coats off at all. Even so Pärnaste, an experienced searchee, advised them: take them off, this will go on for a long time yet; and the flat was warm.

Pärnaste had long thought that her flat was being bugged. In a dramatic and clear voice she had declared that "if the KGB comes to search the flat and if they dare to touch my altar, my sacred images and my wall mirror, then let them bear the responsibility for the consequences themselves!"

Pärnaste was a Buddhist.

Now she clapped her hands in her mind, and watched triumphantly how the searcher had a drop of sweat on the tip of his nose as he examined the sacred images, but did not dare to look at what was behind them, and asked permission whether he might look.

Pärnaste: "And the notebook in which I had written down my dreams for ten years, they didn't dare open at all. On its cover it said: 'Stranger, if you read, you will regret it!' They searched the bookshelves and the drawers; they didn't even look in the wardrobe, not to speak of the laundry basket.

Actually there was nothing to hide; the ERSP things were public anyway."

In white sneakers and spotted sneakers, in rubber boots with silver chains on them, in shorts, in long trousers and in fitted blazers, and in a flat cap, with a tattoo on the neck, the tomorrow of the law enforcement officers of the Republic of Estonia trickles out of auditorium M316.

And then Aare Kruuser stands in the doorway.

A crew cut cropped extra short, a stubble of beard of about the same length. Shoes of light beige leather, a jacket in shades of grey and an enormous briefcase (which has to hold two computers). The lecture is over.

He does not even blink when he sees before him Pärnaste, whom he searched 25 years ago, and kindly finds us a table by the wall in the university café.

KRUUSER: (his voice hoarse from lecturing) "If you ask how that morning began, I remember that it was not an ordinary working day. Wasn't it a Saturday?"

It was.

KRUUSER: "We were called early to Pagari Street. We were given an address and told whose place we had to go to. I did not consider it necessary to argue."

KRUUSER: "And if you now ask how one enters during searches, that is a tactic of its own, and it is still taught today. Be that as it may, at least we didn't break the door down."

PÄRNASTE (almost jumping up from her chair): "But what if I hadn't opened it?"

KRUUSER: "In a search the door has to be opened quickly, so that it is not possible to destroy materials."

PÄRNASTE: "I was really a fool then to open the door; the door would have been broken down, there would have been a lot of fun!"

KRUUSER: "All this is taught. Later I also taught getting in through a door and opening a door lock to the cadets of the militia school, and to the staff of KAPO and the Police Board. Including the special units who went to search Lõssenko (the leader of the Interfront, EE).

Urmas Sõõrumaa has said that one is born a businessman. I think it is the same with an investigator. And that I was chosen for this job, apparently I must have the personal qualities to be able to assert myself. At the polyclinic of the State Security Committee I was given a medical examination, which was something other than tapping the knee with a little hammer to see whether the leg rises."

On 6 February 1988 the search at Pärnaste's had lasted almost four hours (it was 12.40) when there was a clatter behind the door and in walked the initiators of the founding of the ERSP, Vello Väärtnõu and Eke-Pärt Nõmm, and a quarter of an hour later Ärvi Orula.

That same morning, from 9.00 to 11.30, Väärtnõu's flat had been searched by Colonel Kruusman; Väärtnõu himself was not at home, and his wife dealt with the searchers.

Kruuser wanted the troublesome guests to leave, but Väärtnõu said he was not going anywhere, Eve has good coffee and he wants to have some coffee.

PÄRNASTE: "They really mocked those KGB men with relish! They are lads who are not lost for words.

The guests were searched too.

'Go on, search!' Orula turned his backside towards them.

One of them took out of his back pocket: foreign currency!

'Where did you get it?'

'It was flying in the wind in Lasnamäe!'

Kruuser asked the troublemakers to leave."

KRUUSER: "But if you now ask why this search was needed… It was a time when an appeal was spreading in Estonia which, among other things, called for destroying the supporters of communism, down to the Young Pioneers. There was something like that, I think."

PÄRNASTE: "Never heard of it!"

KRUUSER: "Well, I'm telling you, I don't have these things at hand right now, but there was a criminal case of one Sivert Žoldin..."

PÄRNASTE: (wearily) "But there was no destroying in it!"

KRUUSER: "Let's not argue! I'm saying that there were materials that called for violent resistance. And with this appeal it was possible to connect people who were engaged in other things, the ERSP and whatever else."

PÄRNASTE: (quietly beginning to get angry) "That is complete bullshit!"

KRUUSER: "Is it?"

PÄRNASTE: "Because Sivert Žoldin was distributing a leaflet that had been made for the 70th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia, and whose text was for the most part composed by me (Vello Väärtnõu composed the main part). And there was nothing in it that concerned violence. The leaflet may have been a pretext for searching us, but there was no call to violence in it!"

Pärnaste tells Kruuser what was written in the leaflet that was taken from Žoldin. The most vehement passage of the leaflet went like this: Estonians! Wake up at last, at least for one day, for Independence Day! Let us feel for once that all the heroes who fought for the fatherland are beside us; let us celebrate the day that broke us into history in the form of statehood and independence!

KRUUSER: "Žoldin had other materials too. Even the insignia of a fascist organisation had been made ready."

KRUUSER: "I haven't seen them myself!"

KRUUSER: "I discussed the matter with my friend, the senior investigator Rein Tutk, who has now passed away. Rein went to carry out the seizure of the insignia, but he did not bring the insignia back. He said there had been some. But to me he said that he had destroyed them. How, don't ask!"

KRUUSER: "As the investigation progressed it became clear to us that this organisation business had been staged for Sivert by State Security. But in the interests of Estonia's development it would not have been necessary to show that we had fascist manifestations here."

KRUUSER: "The security organs exist precisely in order to carry out certain things when necessary. State Security was by no means a monolithic organisation. It is a complicated subject; it may not be understood right away!"

At the University of Tartu Aare Kruuser was an exemplary law student. He received the Lenin scholarship (100 roubles a month instead of 40), did not smoke, in his first two years drank plain water at parties, and only one single time (as his fellow students remember) did he once sniff a drop of cognac and afterwards stroke his belly: ah, how goood!

At some point he discovered that he was the chief of staff of the summer work brigade, a member of the Komsomol committee, and then already a deputy Komsomol secretary (one of four).

In the autumn of 1982 the journalism freshmen put on a show, "Säina Evald", which was not much of a show, but one of the performers wore a flat cap (an allusion to Lenin), and that was enough for Aare Kruuser to lie in wait in the corridor of the journalism department and come up in the break between lectures and announce that at such and such a time the head of the 5th department of the Tartu KGB, Peeter Sepper, would be waiting for those involved in the university Komsomol committee. Now the man says that nothing of the sort ever happened.

Among Kruuser's fellow students there were others who would gladly have gone into State Security. One of them, seeing that the job assignment was at the door but that the places in the Tallinn KGB were filled, in his last extremity knocked at the door of the Pärnu KGB: I'm smart and I'll snoop with pleasure. He did not get a place.

KRUUSER: "If I had not gone into State Security, I would have become the university Komsomol secretary. But State Security suited me better; I had my own reasons for it. My grandfather Peeter worked in the Security Police in the time of the Republic of Estonia. In 1940 he was arrested. My grandmother was sent to Siberia with three daughters. The eldest daughter was 11 years old and the youngest a few months. So if you ask whether I know what happened in 1940, then yes, I know. But I would not have found it out if I had not worked in the KGB.

The second thing: it was explained to me that in State Security one gets the best investigative schooling possible in Estonia, and I wanted to develop myself.

Thirdly: I was told that investigators with a University of Tartu background were needed there, who would make competent decisions."

Four days before the search at Pärnaste's, on the anniversary of the Tartu Peace Treaty, 2.2.1988, Kruuser was in a town in South Estonia, "don't ask where exactly!".

KRUUSER: "The order was given: to the cars, go! You go and arrest the organisers! I asked: men, what are you doing? For what? I said that I did not agree, I did not see the elements of a crime here, just to swoop down and arrest and beat people up! I said that if you won't listen to me, then call the Prosecutor General of the Estonian SSR. After that the cars were called back."

After the events of 2 February 1988 it was decided ("don't ask where!") that Aare Kruuser was suitable for the subject of the national movement; the old men had made too many mistakes.

He became head of the methodology department of the State Security Committee, whose task was to explain within the State Security Committee what perestroika is. At some point Kruuser discovered that his right to visit the archives had been taken away.

KRUUSER: "In the construction section of the University of Tartu there worked a man, one of those who, as members of the Blue-Black-White organisation, blew up the monument to Red Army soldiers at Raadi in 1949. He was beaten; he was a boxer and began to hit back. He was beaten so badly that he really was 'not right' for the rest of his life.

I presented the data about the beating to the prosecutor's office and got a dressing-down: what filth am I collecting! And I was no longer given materials from the archive. True, only for one day, but I had to talk with high bosses before the archive opened for me again. It was not easy to reshape the old way of thinking."

In 1990 Kruuser left the KGB and became a teacher at the militia school.

When the order came to search Pärnaste, Kruuser thought that this was a serious mess and that he would be eating this soup for a long time yet. As far as he knew Pärnaste, he did not think that this person would go in for acts of violence, but he thought that Pärnaste would make it public and that it would have to be explained for years to come.

KRUUSER: "Eve, I'll also say that I have never asked your pardon for causing you unpleasantness with this search; I certainly caused it, but I am still of the opinion that, in order for these processes to proceed peacefully, these searches were needed.

We showed that in your activity there were no fascist or other violent elements that would be punishable under criminal law."

PÄRNASTE: "Bullshit!"

KRUUSER: (with growing tension) "Eve, listen to what I'm saying. I'm saying that there was a suspicion that this whole thing had been staged by State Security, and it had to be checked whether that was true! This search was necessary to take away the possibility of linking the independence movement with incitement to violence!"

PÄRNASTE: "A person who believes such talk should be given pills! There's no point talking such foolish talk! Your hands had simply become too short; you could not do anything with us any more!"

KRUUSER: "Eve, I don't tell you that your talk is foolish, although I did not take very seriously what you were doing; perhaps some things could have been done differently!"

At 19.10 the search was over. It had lasted 9 hours and 55 minutes.

PÄRNASTE: (turning her palms upwards) "Umu nepostizhimo (beyond the grasp of reason), what they were doing there for so long!"

Kruuser set aside 800 pages of materials to be taken away and, in his round upright handwriting, drew up a 12-page record in which everything was written down exactly: MRP-AEG materials, "Information Bulletins", open letters, statements and handwritten notes. Pärnaste also lost the proposal to found the ERSP, Avalik Arvamus (Public Opinion), the mouthpiece of the Free Independent Youth Column No. 1, addresses, telephone numbers, and the Continental typewriter that Pärnaste had bought at the second-hand shop on Pikk Street and which, as she herself says, "could bang out 11 copies at once, which was light and could easily be lifted from one table to another, and which had a terribly beautiful design".

Pärnaste has suffered two hours of craving for a smoke in the university CAFÉ. When the conversation is over, outside she lights up with a rustle.

"You know, I'll tell you." (She draws the smoke deep into her lungs.) "Kruuser did absolutely right that he didn't offer me his hand. Because I wouldn't have taken it!"

26 September 2013
Madis Jürgen
Eesti Ekspress

Source

eesti.ca