november16

A torn grey envelope addressed to ‘Liisi’. Pasted to it is a 1961 four-kopeck stamp bearing the Soviet emblem. Sent by the State Prosecutor’s Office of the Estonian SSR. Prosecutor of the City of Tartu. Criminal case No. 08734. I know that it contains two typed pages: Order for criminal case closure. Tartu, 27 December 1962. I have the pages memorized. On 16 November 1962, at approximately 10 a.m., residents of 16 Silla Street, Tartu, found hanging from an apple tree outside that property… Late the previous evening he exited his apartment after having left in the care of his daughter, Tiina Petrovna Unger, the enclosed sum of 6 roubles and 3 kopecks, along with a lottery ticket…

Etching of a chestnut leaf