While the story of The Little Comrade is based on Leelo Tungal’s childhood memories, one should not forget that we are still dealing with a work of literature. This means that the little Leelo we meet in the book is not equivalent to a person who actually existed, but is rather a character in a literary text fulfilling the role of narrator. Thus little Leelo (who at the beginning of the first novel is three and a half years old) must illuminate for the reader things a child so young most likely could not have known, or convey conversations that the author Leelo Tungal most likely did not remember, all for the sake of telling a holistic story. While working on the novels, for instance, the author often sought assistance from archives and correspondences between family members, in order to better understand the events of that time.
And it is in this way that historical facts, personal memories, and of course literary fantasy intertwine within the text. The use of a child narrator is a common artistic technique found in many literary works. The unfiltered and sincere outlook of a child may be used within an artistic text for the achievement of various purposes. For example, inability to understand the surrounding world may produce a comic effect. At the same time, naivety with which a child approaches the negative aspects of the world may create fear and tearfulness within the receiver. The Little Comrade produces both of these effects repeatedly — in many cases, the reader does not know whether to laugh or cry.