Read more: The Fifties and Sixties
Culture became a kind of refuge during the Soviet era: protest was hidden between the lines. Hints were dropped in theatre productions, in art and especially in poetry where the ambivalent lines were quoted by everybody. The radical changes in poetry meant moving away from rhyming-rhythmic and narrative poetry towards free verse without any clear ideology — which as such already contained an element of protest. A big role in this was played by the ‘cassette generation’ of the 1960s, when one of the best known poets was Paul Eerik-Rummo (1942).
Paul-Eerik Rummo reading poetry
Author(s): unknown
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Source: Estonian Literary Museum
Copying and further publication of this image is not allowed unless authorised by Estonian Literary Museum
Copying and further publication of this image is not allowed unless authorised by Estonian Literary Museum
Culture became a kind of refuge during the Soviet era: protest was hidden between the lines. Hints were dropped in theatre productions, in art and especially in poetry where the ambivalent lines were quoted by everybody. The radical changes in poetry meant moving away from rhyming-rhythmic and narrative poetry towards free verse without any clear ideology — which as such already contained an element of protest. A big role in this was played by the ‘cassette generation’ of the 1960s, when one of the best known poets was Paul Eerik-Rummo (1942).

