“Looking for a Form”: Testimonial Discourse in Soviet Estonian Documentary Literature

<jats:p> The chapter traces the emergence of testimony as a new literary and memorial form in Soviet (Estonian) literature in Ülo Tuulik’s documentary novel <jats:italic>In the Way of the War</jats:italic> (1974). It places Tuulik’s text in the context of the new Soviet war literature that is critical of the sacrificial heroism of the Great Patriotic War narrative. By focusing on the experiences of the affected community and on documentary material of witness testimony, the text is similar to later work by Ales Adamovich and Svetlana Alexievich. Tuulik also develops a meta-documentary reflection on the difficulties of searching for a new literary form framed by the Aristotelian discourse on truth and probability. </jats:p>