Story of the exhibit

The combine originally belonged to the former Lenin collective farm in Paide district and worked in its Anna branch. At the end of the 1970s it was written off and passed to the Nõmme forestry district; its operator was Arne Pääsuke (11.12.1935 – 02.03.1997). Later, when Estonia regained independence, A. Pääsuke brought the combine to Küti farm at Taga-Võõbu near Kose, where it harvested grain for years. For the last two or three years before coming to the Old Tech Park, however, the machine stood unused. In August 2008 long-time Old Tech Park helpers Vello Virks and Indrek Kääramees got the combine ready for the Old Tech Park's harvest day. On 30 August the SK-4 took part in the harvest day alongside an SK-5 "Niva", a Yenisei-1200-N, three Don-1500s and a modern New Holland. Laine Müür remembers: "Arne Pääsuke came here to the Nõmme forestry district as a forest ranger at the beginning of 1970 from Laatre in Viljandi County, from the Mõisaküla forestry district; we lived together for over 20 years. He came to the ranger district next to mine (mine was called Vahessaare). He got this combine through Karla Vaksmaa, who had a senior position at the Anna workshop; the chairman of the collective farm at the time was Toivo Rebane. It was a written-off combine. This may have been around 1978–1980, so A. Pääsuke had the combine for 10–12 years before Estonia regained independence. Newer and more powerful combines came to the collective farm, so the old SK-4 was written off. A. Pääsuke harvested grain with this combine on the lands of the Nõmme forestry district. In those days there were big fields at Pöite, Vanamõisa, Nõmme... When Estonia became independent, the combine stayed on our farm. For 6–7 years it worked on the fields of Küti farm every autumn; it has stood completely idle for maybe 2–3 years. Arne Pääsuke died in 1997. As far as I remember, in collective farm times this combine harvested barley here on the fields of Taga-Võõbu. The operator was Hillar Saar from Mustla, who later left the area. At that time the village had 65 hectares of arable land or a little more. Pääsuke was a real machinery man. When he came here in 1970, I had a "Zaporozhets" that I had brought from Kyiv myself in 1965. He took the engine apart – the garage table and floor were covered with all sorts of nuts, bolts and gears. I peeked in through the door and thought this car would never run again. But he put it back together, however long it took! He and Karla Vaksmaa were inseparable: every autumn they went hunting together until midwinter. The moose hunt here was usually in my ranger district, that is, in Vahessaare. A. Pääsuke was a good forester, a good hunter, and he was handy with machinery too."