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IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997 41
ANTONINA APOLLO 1909—1993
Hannes and his dear wife Raia Palu who, according to the records at the Bahá’í World Centre, were the first two inhabitants of Estonia to accept the Message of Baha’u’llah, rendered imperishable services to the Cause by keeping its banner hoisted through so many years before the doors to widespread teaching opened in those lands. Mrs. Antonina Apollo, who learned of the Faith from them in 1977, became a faithful and devoted believer, collaborating with them and with the successive visiting teachers and pioneers in building up the community of Tallinn.
The Universal House of Justice requests you to convey to Mrs. Raia Palu and to Mr. Valeri Apollo its loving sympathy in the loss that each of them has suffered. It will pray at the Sacred Threshold for the progress of the souls of these two dearly loved followers of Bahá’u’lláh, who have earned an immortal place in the annals of the Cause in the Baltic States.
Department of the Secretariat August 5, 1993
ntonina Apollo, nee Anissimova, was
born in Tallinn, Estonia, on November 3, 1909. Her mother was of Estonian descent, and her father was Russian. She started her schooling in Finland and continued it in Tallinn until 1928, when her family moved to Novosibirsk, Russia’s third largest city. She
later enrolled as an extramural student at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute.
Antonina married Mr. Setskin and lived with him in Ivanovo, Russia. From that union one son, Valeri, was born in 1930. The marriage did not endure and ended in divorce.
Accused of being a spy for having lived outside of Russia and for being able to speak several foreign languages, Antonina was arrested in 1937 and given a five—year sentence to a labor camp in Arhangelsk. She was not released until 1947. She returned to her native Estonia, and in 1950 she was arrested a second time and sent to a prison camp in the Krasnojarsk region of Siberia. There she met and married Albert Apollo, an Estonian journalist who was also imprisoned. In 1956 both were pardoned, and they returned to Estonia to build a small home near Tallinn.
Antonina worked as a bookkeeper and as a teacher of German. She was a gifted and prolific painter, an Esperantist, a writer, and a translator. She knew nine languages and wrote poetry in at least five of them, and she kept up a large correspondence
Antonina Apa/la
[Page 42]
42 THE BAHA’I’ WORLD
with her many friends in different parts of the world.
She was introduced to Johannes (I—iannes)26 and Raia Palu, internationally known Esperantists and the first Estonians t0 bravely declare their belief in Baha’u’llah. Hannes and Raia were very active teachers of the Cause, spending much of their time traveling and promoting the Faith through participation in Esperanto events and visits to the friends and other Esperantists. With the support of his wife, Hannes translated Balati’u’l/d/J and the New Em from Esperanto into Estonian. Through the efforts of Hannes and Raia and Habib’u’llah Zabihian, a Bahá’í from Finland, Antonina became the third Estonian Bahá’í. She declared in 1977, shortly after her introduction to Hannes and Raia. In a letter dated February 15, the Universal House of Justice wrote:
The House of Justice will supplieate at the Sacred Threshold for divine confirmations to surround Mrs. Apollo and Mr. and Mrs. Palu so that her faith may be strengthened and so that the love and unity binding together these first three believers in Estonia may grow ever stronger and will produce great victories in the years to come. It will also pray to Baha’u’llah for the healing of Mr. Apollo.
Antonina’s husband suffered a long and paralyzing illness that eventually claimed his life.
At Ridvain 1990, Antonina and Hannes Palu were elected to the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Tallinn, the fulfillment of an international goal of the Six Year Plan. Whenever her frail health permitted, Antonina attended Assembly meetings,
26 See Hanncs Palu, pp 75—77.
taking an active part in the consultations and in the work of the community.
During her last years, Antonina lived in a one-room apartment in Lasnamae, in another part ofTallinn. On several occasions the believers enjoyed her warm and generous hospitality at Feasts and at other meetings she hosted in her beautiful, painting—filled apartment.
Antonina left this world on January 15, 1993, at the age of eighty—three. With a service that opened with a believer singing, “We All Come from God and to Him Shall We Return,” Antonina’s was the first Bahá’í funeral carried out in the Baltic States. Copies ofa leaflet with prayers and words from the Bahá’í scriptures in Estonian, Russian, and Esperanto were given to family and friends. Antonina was buried at the Rahumagi Cemetery near Tallinn. She was survived by a son, Valeri, living in Moscow, and a brother in Ivanovo, Russia.
