Estonian Life Stories

Leida Madison

History has scattered the Estonian people all over the world, like dandelion seed that the wind has carried long distances. Wherever they have landed, they have put down strong roots. this shows how hard-working the Estonian people are. My ancestors, pure-blooded Estonians for many generations back, originated in the township of Kuusalu in northern Estonia, but in 1884 they found themselves a new place to grow roots, in abkhazia, on the shores of the Black sea.1 in those days, the land was covered by virgin forest—oak, chestnut , beech, and sinari trees,2 and there was not a living soul except for wild animals. it was into this kind of forest, where one could always hear the howling of wolves and jackals, the roaring of bears, and the grunting of wild boar, that the Estonians settled, my grandparents among them. this is where they founded the lovely salme village. it was rough starting out, since they had to work very hard to find themselves shelter and livelihood in the woods. But before long the forest drew back and villages sprang up. Most of the houses had two to four rooms, and were built of oak logs, plastered inside and out, then whitewashed . the Estonian houses were lovely, a pleasant sight to all those who passed by. soon abundant grain fields were growing, and wonderful grape and black plum orchards. the soil in abkhazia is rich in clay, but very fertile. fruit orchards were the main source of income. the most 1 russian Estonians, see Glossary. 2 sinari trees: a local term for a type of plane tree. Leida Madison born 1925 182 Estonian LifE storiEs common grains were corn and wheat. new crops were also tried out for variety. in the 1930s there was cotton. as children we had to clean it of seeds with a tiny handheld machine; after that we helped card it, and Mother spun cotton yarn from it with her spinning wheel. then another new plant appeared: the geranium, a fragrant bushy plant about 40–50 cm high with pink and red blossoms. the state imposed a quota on the farmers as to how much they had to grow of it. When it was ripe we turned it over to the state, and they paid the farmers good money for it. the plants were sent to a perfume factory. We also raised silkworms for awhile. at first, when we knew very little about silkworms, we signed for ten grams of silk-moth eggs from the state. such a huge number of five to six centimeter long worms came out of these tiny eggs that they drove the whole family out of the house, which consisted of two rooms and a kitchen. We had to sleep in father’s large, new haybarn. it was a good thing it was summer and the weather was warm. the next year we were wiser, and only signed for five grams of eggs. We fed the silkworms mulberry leaves. Getting the mulberry branches was children’s work. it was interesting to observe the life cycle and activities of the silkworms. We especially liked to watch how they would weave beautiful white, yellow, and pink cocoons around themselves after they were fully fed—these were the silkworm cases, from which silk thread was made in the factories. Both of my parents were born in salme village: my father, aleksander Kivi, in 1893, and my mother, amalie Kivi (born tiismus), in 1894. i saw the light of day on 19 september 1925 in salme village near the banks of the Psou river, which to this day is the border between abkhazia and russia. from early childhood, when i rode our white horse noksi to the river to let him drink, wash and swim, i loved that fast-flowing mountain stream, and my sisters, brother, and i would go swimming there constantly. the house where i was born was located at the end of salme village on the side of neebu Mountain. the new settlers gave the mountain the name neebu, from the russian Nebo, meaning sky. this mountain with seven peaks connected the villages of salme and sulev. i had three sisters and one brother. My sister Lilli was born in 1919, my brother Lembit in 1921, my sister Helmi in 1924, and my sister salme in 1935. today there are only three of us still alive, only the sisters: Helmi still lives in abkhazia in salme village in very...