Arnold Susi

{{Short description|Estonian writer}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Arnold Susi

|image = Arnold Susi 1938.jpg

|caption = Arnold Susi,1938

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1896|01|04}}

|birth_place = Kuban Oblast, Russian Empire

|death_date = {{Death date and age|1968|05|29|1896|01|04}}

|death_place = Tallinn, Estonia

|other_names =

|known_for = The Gulag Archipelago by
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

|occupation = Lawyer

|nationality = {{EST}}

| children = 3, including Heli Susi

}}

Arnold Susi ({{IPA|et|ˈɑrnolt ˈsusʲi|lang}}; 4 January 1896 – 29 May 1968) was a lawyer and the Minister of Education in the Estonian government of Otto Tief established on 18 September 1944 during WWII.{{cite web |url=http://www.valitsus.ee/?id=7366 |title=The heads of state celebrated the 63rd anniversary of the establishment of Otto Tief's government |access-date=2008-10-24 |publisher=The Government of the Republic of Estonia |date=2007-09-19 }}

In 1945, Susi befriended Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in a Soviet prison. In the 1960s, when writing The Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn hid at Susi's country house in Estonia.{{cite book |title=Invisible Allies |last=Solzhenitsyn |first=Aleksandr |year=1997 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-1-887178-42-6 |pages=46–64 The Estonians |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5yYBZ35HPo4C }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Solzhenitsyn also briefly describes his meeting with Arnold Susi in that book.

Susi also wrote his memoirs of World War I in Doom of the Russian Empire (in Estonian: Vene impeeriumi hukk), which he wrote while in Abakan. He died in Tallinn, aged 72.

In 2019, the Estonian Ministry of Justice created the Heli and Arnold Susi Mission Award for the Courage to Speak Out, which recognizes individuals who have dared to use the power of their words to stand up for democratic values and human rights.{{Cite web|url=https://www.just.ee/et/Sonajulgus|title=Arnold ja Heli Susi nimeline sõnajulguse missiooniauhind|website=Vabariigi Valitsus: Justiitsministeerium|date=2019|access-date=13 June 2020|language=et|archive-date=13 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613170927/https://www.just.ee/et/Sonajulgus|url-status=dead}}