| Julius Kuperjanov | |
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Julius Kuperjanov |
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| Born | October 11, 1894 |
| Died | February 2, 1919 (aged 24) February 2, 1919, Tartu, Estonia |
| Allegiance | Estonia |
| Service/branch | Estonia |
| Years of service | 1914–1917 Imperial Russian Army 1918-1919 Estonian Army |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Unit | Kuperjanov's Partisan Battalion |
| Battles/wars | World War I Estonian War of Independence * Battle of Paju |
| Awards | Order of St. Anna II, III, IV degree Cross of St. George IV degree Order of Vladimir IV degree Order of Stanislav II, III degree Cross of Liberty (Estonia)(posthumously) |
Julius Kuperjanov VR II/2 and II/3 (October 11, 1894, Ljohhova near Novorzhev, Pskov Region, Russia - February 2, 1919, Tartu, Estonia) was an Estonian military commander during the Estonian War of Independence and commanding officer of the Kuperjanov Partisan Battalion.
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Kuperjanov was a schoolteacher in the village of Kambja. At the start of World War I, he was mobilised into the Imperial Russian Army and commissioned after receiving basic officer training. He was wounded in both legs.
In 1917 he joined the Estonian forces during the start of the War of Independence. In December 1918, he received permission to form a ranger battalion. Students were among the first to join the Tartu County Partisan Battalion.
On 14 January 1919, Julius Kuperjanov was among the liberators of Tartu. He died some weeks later of wounds received leading an attack during the decisive Battle of Paju.
To honour Kuperjanov, the unit he had raised was renamed Kuperjanov Partisan Battalion.[1] It was disbanded in 1940 after the Soviet occupation and re-established as the Kuperjanov Independent Infantry Battalion after Estonia regained its independence from the Soviet Union.[2]
Julius Kuperjanov was posthumously awarded the Cross of Liberty (VR II/2 and II/3). His tomb at Raadi cemetery, Tartu, was one of the few Estonian monuments to survive the Soviet occupation. The monument was restored in 2008. During the Soviet occupation of Estonia from 1940 to 1991 (in fact, Russian troops were not withdrawn from Estonia until 1994), Kuperjanov's tomb at Raadi cemetery became a site of great symbolic significance. Dissidents and patriotically minded students would periodically gather there on various anniversaries to light candles and place flowers in Kuperjanov's memory. During the occupation period, the Soviet KGB kept a watch on Kuperjanov's tomb, and repeatedly arrested persons who gathered there to not only honor the memory of one of Estonia's best-known heroes, but also to show that beneath the ashes of occupation, the coals of the dream of freedom were still actively glowing.
In 2009, a commemorative stamp was issued on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Kuperjanov's death by Eesti Post.