Carl Robert Jakobson

Carl Robert Jakobson was born in Tartu on July 26, 1841. Working as a teacher in Saint Petersburg, Jakobson joined the radical wing of the Estonian national movement, demanding equal civic and economic rights for Estonians against Baltic-German feudal dominance.

In 1878 in Viljandi, he established the historic newspaper Sakala, which became the political vanguard of the peasant majority. He designed model agricultural practices on his farm at Kurgja and served as President of the Society of Estonian Literati. His portrait was chosen to grace the post-Soviet 500-kroon banknote.