Sest ümmargusest maailmast. Laiemasse maailma - Gustav Ränk

Gustav Ränk has published numerous scientific works on the folk culture and beliefs of different nations. The memoirs "Because the Round World" and "Laiemasse Maalima" published in Sweden are also written with the eyes of a folk scientist, which are now published for the first time under joint covers. The author compellingly describes his childhood and youth in North Saaremaa, his later development into an outstanding scientist and his activities for the good of the Estonian state and people, until he had to flee his homeland from the returning Soviet occupation power and adapt in exile.

Gustav Ränk, a classic of Estonian folklore and one of our most outstanding humanitarian scientists, was born on February 18, 1902 in the village of Nõmme in the municipality of Pärsamaa in Saaremaa as the son of a farmer.

Ränk received an appointment as a primary school teacher at the Kuressaare pedagogical courses, graduated from Tallinn College and then the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Tartu, later becoming a Doctor of Philosophy; was a member of the Estonian Students' Society. He worked as a teacher in several schools and in various positions at the Estonian National Museum, incl. as the assistant head of the Department of Folklore and as the secretary of the museum, and in 1943-1944 as the director of the museum, leading the rescue of Estonian cultural heritage from the destructive war. Ränk was the first professor of ethnography at the University of Tartu in 1938-1944. 1944 in September he fled to Sweden. As a scholarship holder of the Swedish government, he got a job at Stockholm University's Institute of Folklore and was later an associate professor of ethnology at Stockholm University. Ränk was also a lecturer and head of the Estonian Scientific Institute, which operated in Sweden. The University of Tartu recognized his merits in 1990. by being elected an honorary doctorate. Gustav Ränk died on April 5, 1998 in Stockholm and is buried in the Karja cemetery in Saaremaa.