The source introduced and contextualised in this article is a rare example of an exchange of letters between young Estonian intellectuals at the beginning of the 20th century, to date one of the few where both sides of the correspondence have survived. At the turn of the last century, the status of the Estonian language in public space, as well as in private correspondence, was at best precarious and new. Educated young people conversed and corresponded in the language of their [secondary] education, German, which came naturally to them. Lui Olesk and Minni Kurs-Olesk became acquainted and fell in love between 1899 and 1901, as shown by the first of their respective series of letters to one another. Lui received his university education at the University of Tartu, graduating in law in 1895. He began his private practice as a junior partner in a Tartu law firm but devoted a significant part of his time to radical socialist activities, including contri­buting to and editing the journal Vaba Sõna (The Free Word). Minni Kurs, born into a poor family in Tartu, obtained her gymnasium diploma and her license to work as a schoolteacher from a local German teachers’ seminary, and continued to forge her path to financial and personal independence through short teaching stints in Kišino, Russia, and in a pastor’s family near Turku, Finland. In the autumn of 1902, she went to London on a scholarship from the Bergmann Foundation, where for two years she audited courses in political science and became very active in socialist and suffragette circles. Lui and Minni’s summer romance developed into a genuine and intense intellectual partnership, and in the spring of 1903, they decided to continue their correspondence in Estonian. After Minni’s return to Estonia, the pair entered into a civil marriage in Tartu on 1 February 1905, the year of revolution. At the time, a non-church wedding was severely frowned upon.

The couple, who by then had two small daughters, was separated once again during the repressions following the 1905 Russian Revolution. Lui was arrested in 1906 and sentenced to resettlement in Vologda for a two-year period, 1908–1910. Once again, correspondence became the main way to keep in touch. Minni visited Lui twice during that period, and gave birth to their third and fourth children. Both Lui Olesk and Minni Kurs-Olesk were socially and politically active in many ways and on many levels as social democrats in the Republic of Estonia. Indeed, Minni Kurs-Olesk might be considered the pioneer of social work in Estonia, using her experience abroad, particularly in England, as creative and multi-faceted models. This article provides an analysis of four selected letters and an overview of the correspondence as a source for further research on socialist and feminist thought in the early decades of the 20th century.