Friedebert Tuglas
Encyclopedia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
n writer and critic who introduced Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
and Symbolism
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
to Estonian literature
Estonian literature
Estonian literature refers to literature written in the Estonian language The domination of Estonia after the Northern Crusades, from the 13th century to 1918 by Germany, Sweden, and Russia resulted few early written literary works in Estonian language. The oldest records of written Estonian...
. Persecuted under the czar, he became an acknowledged representative of Estonian literature in the Soviet era
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
Biography
The son of a carpenter, Tuglas studied at the Hugo Treffner GymnasiumHugo Treffner Gymnasium
The Hugo Treffner Gymnasium is a secondary school in Tartu, Estonia with special emphasis on science education. Founded by Hugo Treffner, it was the only large secondary school in the 19th century Estonia with dominantly Estonian students and no age restrictions...
from 1904 to 1905. After imprisonment for revolutionary activities, he went into exile in 1906, living in Finland and France, before returning to Estonia in 1917.
His most famous short story is Popi ja Huhuu. He was the leader of Estonian literary group Young Estonia
Young Estonia
Young Estonia was a neo-romantic literary group established around 1905 and led by the poet Gustav Suits and short story writer Friedebert Tuglas. Other members of the group included Villem Grünthal-Ridala and Johannes Aavik. Gustav Suits articulated the ideology of the group thus:"What buoys up...
(Noor-Eesti) in the beginning of 20th century. He was one of the founders of the Estonian Writers' Union
Estonian Writers' Union
The Estonian Writers Union , is a professional association of Estonian writers and literary critics.-History:...
and served as its chairman in 1922, 1925–1927 and 1937-1939.
Tuglas was granted the title of People's Writer
People's Writer
People's Writer was a title granted by the Republics of the Soviet Union and the Autonomous Republics of the Soviet Union to its distinguished writers.It was a title similar to that of People's Artist of the Soviet Union for literary achievements....
of the Estonian SSR
Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic , often abbreviated as Estonian SSR or ESSR, was a republic of the Soviet Union, administered by and subordinated to the Government of the Soviet Union...
in 1946. The same year he was elected a corresponding member of the Soviet Estonian Academy of Sciences. He subsequently fell into disfavor, officially blacklisted, deprived of his civil rights and excluded from membership in all institutions, including the Writers’ Union from which he was expelled in 1950.
Tuglas died in Tallinn in 1971, aged 85, not long after completing his memoirs, acknowledged as a major work in the writer's life. A museum commemorating his life was opened in Tallinn the same year. A short story prize commemorating Tuglas was established in 1971.