Pre-war Estonian statesman Otto Pukk reburied in Kuressaare
The remains of pre-war Estonian politician Otto Pukk and his wife have been reburied on his native Saaremaa island, 75 years after his death. The ceremony was organized by his grandchildren.
The remains of pre-war Estonian statesman Otto Pukk have been reburied in Kuressaare on the island of Saaremaa, 126 years after his birth there and 75 years after his death. His wife Agnes was reburied alongside him at Kudjape cemetery.
Pukk (1900–1951) was the last chairman of Estonia's Riigivolikogu, the lower chamber of the country's two-chamber legislature between the two world wars. He fought in the Estonian War of Independence from 1918 to 1920, and later fled to Sweden in 1944 as Soviet occupation loomed. Over his career he worked as a journalist, lawyer and politician, serving in two compositions of the Riigikogu as well as holding the Riigivolikogu chairmanship until the Soviet takeover.
He was also part of the short-lived Otto Tief government, which briefly held power in September 1944 during the gap left by the withdrawing Nazi occupying forces and before the Soviet occupation resumed later that same month.
The reburial in Kuressaare was arranged by family members, including Pukk's grandchildren. His grandson, also named Otto, said the family had long wished to bring his grandparents home. A similar opportunity had existed in the early 1990s, when a number of other statesmen were reburied, but his grandmother — then over 100 years old — was still alive at the time, and his grandfather chose not to proceed without her. The family has now carried out the reburial itself.
Estonian parliament speaker Lauri Hussar spoke at the ceremony.
