Begin Your Journey With Professor Martens Departure Outlined By Jaan Kross Provided As Electronic Format

portrait of an aging diplomat and civil servant could have been as dry as reading an EU Directive on Border Controls, but this is a subtle and engaging work as Professor Martens takes us on a journey through his life and into his soul.
A real person, an Estonian diplomat in the service of Czarist Russia, Martens is a proud man of achievement, a perennial candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, a master of the subtlety and precise composition of international treaties.
At the turn of theth Century though he is not operating in a meritocracy and ever alert to nuance, he feels every snub to his humble provincial origins.
Subservient to Czar Nicholas, but calling him "Nicky" behind his back, loving to his wife, but serially unfaithful, scornful of fame but precious about his reputation, Martens is a wonderfully three dimensional character given a sympathetic hearing by his fellow Estonian Kross.
Kirjeldab omal ajal oma ametis üle maailma tuntud eesti soost rahvusvahelise õiguse professori Friedrich Fromhold Martensi mõtteid ja mõningaid tegemisi Pärnust Valka sõites.
Lugedes peatükki armuafäärist ühe kunstiüliõpilasega ja paari muud kohta tundus mulle uskumatu, kuidas Jaan Kross niimoodi üksikasjalikult Friedrichi vaatepunktist kirjutada suudab.
A very difficult book to read in the sense that there is so much detail that you absolutely must give this story your full attention, and not everything is spelled out for you in terms of the Professor Martens Departure's underlying message.
It is one of those novels you really must think about while and after you're reading it, If, however, you want a very good work by an Estonian author, this is it, I've already ordered two more of Kross's books he is a very gifted writer, I think my only criticism of this book would be the depth of detail because it is easy to become lost if you are not paying careful attention.
It also tends to impede an uninterrupted session of reading when there are so many details, But beyond that, I felt the book to be insightful and a very good story,


is the year in which this book takes place it is four years after the signing of the Portsmouth Treaty, after the RussoJapanese War in which at one blow the Japanese defeated Russia's navy.
Professor Friedrich Fromhold Martens, an Estonian native, is riding the train from Parnu, his hometown, to St, Petersburg, where he has been summoned, The book is composed of his thoughts and a review of his life and career in the service of Imperial Russia under the Czar.
Martens became a professor of international law, and shortly after his career began, he was asked to serve the Czarist regime as an expert in treaties asked to put together a complete history of every treaty Russia and the Empire has ever been involved with all of this to aid in the decisions to be made in creating a treaty with the Japanese after Russia's defeat at their hands.


As he searches his life through his mind musings, his overaching thoughts seem to me, imho to be of his own concept of limitations placed on him throughout his life, either because of nationality or self interest, and regrets caused by what he did and did not do in his lifetime.
But his realizations come too late, For example he notes how in private, he and his colleagues "exercise our light sarcastic wit on the Emperor, his ministers, his court, the secret police, the rascals favored by the state, Rasputin.
but always within limits in the presence of outsiders, we hold our tongue, "Then he proceeds to contrast his own actions against those of Tolstoy, who spoke out in favor of anarchy rather than

government under the brutal regime of Czarist Russia.
Time and again, Martens muses on how he could have done things differently, but did not, even when what the Emperor Nicholas II "the chickenbrain"asked him to do contradicted what he really believed.
Even during one of Czarist Russia's darkest moments in, "Bloody Sunday," he had knowledge ahead of time and did not warn anyone what was about to happen.
Even his own basic beliefs regarding the state and its obligation to the individualreflected his understanding about what should be, yet he holds back in practice.


There is a LOT in this novel, so this is just a barebones outline, Anyone interested in Czarist Russia and the place of the "provincials" from the Balkan countries during that time should definitely put this on their list of books to read.


I would recommend this book to readers of historical fiction, but prepare to devote all of your energy to reading it.
A few chapters into this book, I was scrambling for Google, What I discovered is that this novel's protagonist, Professor Martens, was a real historical figure, an international law expert in the Russian court of the earlyth Century.
He was an important figure in numerous important international treaty negotiations, This novel, set late in his life, takes us with him on a train trip from his small village toward a rendezvous with his wife and official meetings with other diplomats in St.
Petersburg. As he travels, we listen to his internal dialogue, anticipating a planned conversation with his wife in which he plans to begin an era of total candor.
He reviews his personal and professional past, examining successes and failures and imagines that this new honesty will be insurance against his own death.
During the journey, he also temporarily shares his compartment with a young professional journalist with socialist sympathies who knows a bit about him through her professional connections.
At times Martens also tells the reader about another Martens, who lived a century earlier, another international law expert, but for Germany.


It is a rare novel that gives insight into what it must feel like to be in contention for, but not win, a Nobel Peace prize, or to be left unsure whether your absence from an official list of participants in a major treaty negotiation was a typist's error or a sly political maneuver by a competitive colleague.


Through Martens' selfexploration, sitelinkJaan Kross explores the moral challenges faced by highly placed civil servants in autocracies, as well as the complexities of Estonian identity.
Martens regrets, as well as some professional compromises, ethical failures in his personal life: infidelity, a lack of generosity to those who sought his support, despite his own success after early humble origins.
Martens is a wonderful character, drawn with subtlety and skill, Those with an interest in political history and moral selfreflection will find this book a fascinating trip,

Edited
A great historical novel about a real person, Friedrich Martens, an Estonianborn Russian diplomat who was a key negotiator for the Russian Czar.
For example, he helped negotiate the treaty ending the RussoJapanese War with Teddy Roosevelts administration at Portsmouth, New Hampshire in.




Martens was involved in establishing the World Court at The Hague and the International Red Cross organization.


The book is a fictionalized but very factual biography, Unlike a traditional biographical work, we learn more about his childhood late in the book, The book is translated from the Estonian,

The book is structured as Professor Martens in his old age reflecting back as he travels from Estonia to St.
Petersburg, Russia by train. All his life he has been amazed and troubled by the many reallife similarities his life had with an earlier German predecessor, also named Martens, also a lawyer, also a professor of international law and an international diplomat.




As Martens reflects back in time, we learn that the good professor grew up as an orphan, has quite an ego, and had several extramarital affairs over his lifetime.


It is fascinating that in the book we see foreshadowing of Soviet and Nazi atrocities in that the author demonstrates how everyone thought they were “just doing their job” in the Czars persecutions, imprisonments and executions of early Communist agitators.


A good historical novel,

The author, Kross, got crosswise with Soviet authorities and spent years in Siberian labor camps, Wikipedia tells us that Kross was first arrested by the Germans for six months induring the German occupation of Estonia, suspected of what was termed "nationalism", i.
e. promoting Estonian independence. Then, onJanuary, when Estonia had once again become part of the Soviet Union, he was arrested by the Soviet occupation authorities who kept him a short while in the cellar of the NKVD headquarters, then kept him in prison in Tallinn, finally, in October, deporting him to a Gulag camp in Vorkuta, Russia.
He spent a total of eight years in this part of North Russia, six working in the mines at the labour camp in Inta, then doing easier jobs, plus two years still living as a deportee, but nevertheless not in a labour camp.


top image from nhd, uscourts. gov
bottom from en, wikipedia. org Väga krossilik. Kui meeldisid "Keisri hull" ja "Paigallend" peaks seegi raamat väga meelt mööda olema, Tegevustik hõlmab eeskätt, sajandi teist poolt. Reason read: Reading, Estonian literature, historical fiction,
The background for the storyis the year four years after the signing of the Portsmouth Treaty, after the RussoJapanese War in which at one blow the Japanese defeated Russia's navy.
Professor Friedrich Fromhold Martens, an Estonian native, Martens became a professor of international law, Shortly after his career began, he was asked to serve the Czarist regime as an expert in treaties asked to put together a complete history of every treaty Russia and the Empire has ever been involved with all of this to aid in the decisions to be made in creating a treaty with the Japanese after Russia's defeat at their hands.


So this novel based on a real life individual explores the inner thought life the man, It also has flashbacks a century back to another Martens almost as if in parallel worlds,
This part made it hard to stay oriented to the story, All of the story occurs during a train ride from the professors home town to St, Petersburg but while the time is short, the story is very dense and hard to stay engaged, I think it was good to read it at this time when Russia is back in the news, has probably violated treaties and the US has violated treaties and wonder if we had a negotiator worth their weight, could we resolve this current event and are we at risk of taking on what other countries have previously failed.
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