Arvo Valton

Biography

Arvo Vallikivi (December 14, 1935 – July 26, 2024), commonly known under the pen name of Arvo Valton, was an Estonian writer known for a number of books and, among other things, the script for Viimne reliikvia, the highly successful film adaptation of Eduard Bornhöhe's Vürst Gabriel ehk Pirita kloostri viimsed päevad. In October 1980, Valton was a signatory of the Letter of 40 Intellectuals, a public letter in which forty prominent Estonian intellectuals defended the Estonian language and protested the Russification policies of the Kremlin in Estonia. The signatories also expressed their unease against Republic-level government in harshly dealing with youth protests in Tallinn that were sparked a week earlier due to the banning of a public performance of the punk rock band Propeller.