Heli Susi

Heli Susi (; 14 November 1929 – 8 June 2020) was an Estonian teacher and translator.

Early life Heli Susi was born in Tallinn as the youngest child and only daughter of lawyer Arnold Susi, who was the Estonian Minister of Education during Acting Prime Minister Otto Tief's last Government of Estonia before the Soviet troops occupied Estonia during the Second World War in September 1944, and Ella Adelgunde Roost, who was a teacher. Her older brothers were Heino Susi, a writer and a biochemist, and Arno Susi, an economist. She attended the Elfriede Lender Private Gymnasium and Tallinn Secondary School No. 8.

In order to maintain secrecy from authorities, members of the Susi family told their neighbors that Solzhenitsyn was a Moscow professor who was temporarily living at the farm to complete a dissertation. Heli Susi acted as custodian of the manuscripts, hiding them in various places throughout Estonia: the banks of the Ahja river, in the linen closet of a family friend, and the basement of a house in Tartu.

Solzhenitsyn included Heli Susi among the 257 "witnesses of the Archipelago," "whose stories, letters, memoirs, and corrections were used to create this book."