Alexis Rannit

Alexis Rannit (born Alexey Konstantinovich Dolgoshev - Алексей Константинович Долгошев; Estonian: Aleksis Rannit; 14 October 1914 – 5 January 1985) was an Estonian poet, critic and literature researcher.

Biography He was born in Kallaste, in the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire (nowadays in Tartumaa, Estonia). He spent his childhood in Saint Petersburg. In 1939, he graduated from the University of Tartu, where he studied applied arts. He conducted research on Lithuanian literature and personally knew many Lithuanian authors. From 1938 to 1940, he worked as a correspondent of the Riga newspaper Segodnya.

In 1940, he married Lithuanian opera singer Gražina Matulaitytė (1899–1993) and moved to Kaunas, where he worked until 1941 as a translator at the Kaunas State Drama Theatre, and later as a librarian at the Lithuanian National Library (until 1944).

In 1944, as the Red Army was approaching, Rannit emigrated to Germany, where he continued with his studies at the Institute of Applied Arts in Freiburg (1946–1950).

In 1953, he moved to the US universities. He was a founding member of International Association of Arts Critics, represented the Estonian authors at the PEN club, and was part of the editorial staff of Continent.

Аlexis Rannit died on 5 January 1985 at his home in New Haven, Connecticut.

Works Rannit started writing poems in Russian, and since 1930, wrote in Estonian. He translated Lithuanian poets' works into Estonian and published seven collections of poetry. His works have been translated into English, Russian, Hungarian, Lithuanian and German language.