August Kastra

He was the first chair of the Confederation of Estonian Trade Unions in Estonia and a member of the Reval (Tallinn) Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in early 20th century.

Imprisoned during Joseph Stalin’s great purge in 1936, he died in the Gulag concentration camp in October 1941.

In Tallinn, Kastra worked in several newspapers (Trud, Tallinna Teataja), attending meetings of the then-illegal Bureau of Reval Trade Unions.

[3] Following a conflict with Jaan Anvelt, who wrestled the control of Kiir from Kastra in 1913,[4][5] he was expelled from RSDLP in June 1917, however the workers of Reval still elected him to the Reval Council of Workers and Soldier Deputies, and then as chair of the Confederation of Estonian Trade Unions.

Kastra died on 21 October 1941, in the Sorok concentration camp “Shiznya” which was located in the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic.