The Shadow of the Gulag Born in the village of Ühtri on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa, Ülo Sooster’s early years were shaped by the quiet rhythms of his homeland. He sought formal training at the Tartu Art College, where he began to explore the strange and dreamlike logic of surrealism. However, the trajectory of his life was violently interrupted in 1949. Like many of his compatriots, he was arrested by Soviet authorities and deported to the Karaganda camp, where he endured ten years of hard labor in the Gulag. This period of profound hardship remained a defining, silent weight upon his exi…