9 J Hurda Street. (Photo: Wikipedia user ‘Sillerkiil’)

Uku Masing. (Public domain)

Edgar Kant (EAA.2111.1.7726.6)

Hurda 9

• The residence of professor Edgar Kant and the polymath Uku Masing.

9 J Hurda Street and Uku Masing and Edgar Kant

The most famous former resident of the house at 9 J Hurda Street was the philosopher, poet, and polymath Uku Masing (1909‒1985). The apartment of Masing became an important place for many intellectuals in Tartu, especially in the Soviet era. The Soviet authorities did not care for Masing who had been earning his living as a religious scholar and an expert of distant languages and cultures in the Republic of Estonia, therefore it was impossible for him to find a dignified job as a lecturer and he had to make do with meagre means. 

In the ‘walled-up’ conditions of the era, though, the home of the legendary Masing became a door to a wider intellectual world where it was allowed to think and talk about issues which could not be brought up freely in the Soviet society. The poet Jaan Kaplinski has described his visits to the home of Uku Masing: ‘I think that all my impressions of Masing and my interactions with him were kind of dual by nature, there was always something warm and homey, but also something completely different, strange, and alienating. And perhaps this first impression was a bit the same. My awe for this person naturally played a role as well. I realised that he knew everything, from the perspective of a young student, and I did not know anything. It was the meeting of a mouse and a mountain.’

Uku Masing lived at 9 Hurda Street during the eras of the Republic of Estonia, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet occupation. History will also remember that Uku and his wife Eha hid Isidor Levin (1919‒2018), a young Jew from Daugavpils and a student of Uku Masing, in their home for the entire duration of the Nazi occupation. For this good deed, the Masings are two of the total of three Estonians who have been acknowledged by the State of Israel as the Righteous Among the Nations. 

What makes their success in hiding Isidor Levin even more remarkable is the fact that 9 J Hurda Street was also the home of Edgar Kant (1902‒1978), a geographer and Rector of the University of Tartu during the Nazi occupation (1941-1944), who lived above Uku Masing. Even though the political views of Kant fell on the side of the authoritarian rule, it has been noted that he held freedom of speech and academic freedom in a high regard, protecting the academic spirit and circles inherent to Tartu. The Masings remained in Estonia after the war, but Edgar Kant managed to flee to Sweden where he continued his work as a geographer and professor.

See the show ‘Masing Masingu pool. Uku Masing’ (‘Masing by Masing. Uku Masing’) from the archives of the Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR).

See the episode of the television programme ‘Akadeemikud’ (‘Academicians’) about Edgar Kant.