The directory «Plots»

Koidula Lydia
(1843—1886)

Born on 24 December 1843, Lydia Koidula was the foremost poetess of the period of the national movement of the 19th century when the Estonians established themselves as a nation. Her sensitive poetry is fired with love of her native country. One of her patriotic poems, My Native Land, My Dearest Love, set to music by Gustav Ernesaks, became the unofficial national anthem of Estonia in the years of Soviet occupation when the country’s true anthem was banned. Married to a naval officer, Koidula died in Kronstadt, away from her beloved country, but her remains were returned to Estonia after WW II and have been buried in the poets’ corner at Tallinn’s Forest Cemetery.

Estonia, 1993, Lydia Koidula

Estonia, 2002, Lydia Koidula and Carl Robert Jakobson

USSR, 1968.12.24, Pyarnu. 125th Birth anniv of Lydia Koidula

USSR, 1968, Lydia Koidula

USSR, 1977.10.17, Koidula monument in Pyarnu