Olga Lauristin

Olga Lauristin was a Soviet Estonian politician and collaborator.

Early life

Olga Künnapuu's father, Anton Künnapuu, is a headteacher. In 1919, her father, who held left wing views, dies after an accident with a truck. He fought with the Russian Soviet during the Estonian War of Independence.

In 1920, Olga Künnapuu becomes a member of the Communist Party of Estonia while at school. From August 1922, she studies philosophy at the university of Tartu and becomes involved with the Estonian Workers' Party. During the spring of 1921, she meets local communists Jaan Kreuks and Vilhelmine Klementi and begins to organise youth cells for the communist party.
She is arrested by the security police in January 21, 1924.
Following the trial of the 149, she is sentenced to forced labor for life in November 1924 because she belonged to the Communist Party. Released in 1939, she marries Johannes Lauristin who was also sentenced at the same time as her.
During the Soviet evacuation of Tallinn in August 1941, she is evacuated to Russia and her husband dies on the ship to Leningrad in August 1941.
From 1944 until 1947, she was minister of social welfare as she returned to Estonia.

Her first husband was the politician Johannes Lauristin and her daughter was the politician and media researcher Marju Lauristin. She later married Hendrik Allik in 1945, and the couple had a son, the theatre critic and director and politician Jaak Allik in 1946. The couple remained married until Allik's death in 1989.