Lilli Luuk turns war history into embodied experience

In a review published by ERR, Anu Soojärv examines Lilli Luuk’s short story collection A Short History of War, which explores how war and occupation continue to live on in the body, senses and behaviour of later generations.

Questions about why Estonia must continue writing and speaking about war and occupation have become increasingly common. Soojärv argues that the issue is not whether the difficult past should be discussed, but how. Enough time has passed since the restoration of independence to examine the Soviet period not only through its events, but also through their consequences and afterlife.

New generations have grown up, new theoretical tools have emerged and there may now be an opportunity to ask different questions from those posed immediately after independence was restored. Russia’s attack on Ukraine has also created a new situation, showing that Estonia has not made peace with the Soviet occupation and its legacy. At the same time, it has created an opportunity to approach these subjects more calmly and deeply.

A recent dispute over the memorial to Alma Ostra-Oinas revealed how blurred the distinction has become in Estonia’s cultural memory between early communist ideas and the Soviet reality that later emerged. The public argument also brought historical layers into view, including the communist ideas of the 1920s, women’s rights and the background to Soviet policy. Soojärv suggests that this may be a good time to continue such discussions and address subjects that were kept under wraps for decades.

Luuk has found an effective way to approach these themes. Despite its textbook-like title, A Short History of War contains something quite different. The gap between the title and the contents is ironic and pointed. The title appears to promise a condensed, organised and objective history, another book about war, deportation and occupation that might prompt the question of how long this subject can be discussed.

Luuk turns that perspective around. She writes about war in a way that history textbooks and academic studies cannot, bringing the experience into the bodies and senses of both her characters and her readers.

History as a subjective experience does not end when the reader finishes the book. Luuk does not retell what happened, search through the past or try to force what she finds into the present. Nor does she attempt to explain or judge the past. Instead, she offers a way to think about history and experience it through the senses, without intervening, commenting or directing the reader’s attention.

The author shows what does not end with war or occupation: what is preserved across generations in bodies and minds. The past is never simply the past, because it continues to live on in sensations, choices, and patterns of behaviour and thought.

The environment as an active co-character

A Short History of War consists of 11 short stories dealing with the experience of war. They address forest brothers and Finnish boys, deportation, death and violence, as well as their aftermath, the emptiness left in people’s souls and on farms. Nevertheless, the stories can be read without their weight pressing the reader into the ground.

A Short History of War by Lilli Luuk. Edited by Katrin Kern. Designed by Maris Kaskmann. Loomingu Raamatukogu, 2026, issues 19 and 20, 110 pages. The review was published in Sirp.