ESTONIAN SYMPHONIC MUSIC. THE FIRST CENTURY 1896-1996.
Theodor Luts’s Vahva sõdur Joosep Toots (The Brave Soldier Joosep Toots, 1930), the
hero was a very popular figure from a series of juvenile books.
Estonia’s first internationally known film star coloratura soprano Miliza Korjus
(1909-1980) achieved fame. Thanks to her extraordinary voice and talent she was
selected for the role of Johann Strauss’s love interest in the US film The Great Waltz,
directed by Julien Duvivier.
The government’s cultural policy was to emphasise the need for all layers of
society to work together and thereby centralising the nation as a whole. Individual
artists had to reflect the national spirit through the means of their respective discipline. 1
The prominent folklorist and Academician Dr. Oskar Loorits wrote:
…not an individual is dominating, but the mass of people, bound together by a strong feeling of
kinship and solidarity
annaabi.ee 
