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Friedebert Tuglas (1886-1971) - surname until 1923 MIKHELSON |
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Estonian author, scholar, critic, national writer of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (1946). Friedebert Tuglas published only two novels, Felix Ormusson (1915) and Väike Illimar (1937). However, he became a highly influental culture figure in his country. Tuglas' other works include short stories, poems, literature studies, and travel books, written mostly during his long period of exile. He also introduced the essay and aphorism into Estonian literature as serious literary genres. "He would rather die than live forever without hope Friedebert Tuglas was born Friedebert Mihkelson in Ahja, near the city of Tartu. His father worked as a carpenter for the manor of Anja. Tuglas's early years were happy ones. He studied in Tarto and attended the Cymnasium of Treffner in 1904-1905. The evenings he spent in the secret meetings of the Russian Social-Democatic Workers' Party. After becoming involved in revolutionary activities in 1905, his education was cut short. For some time he was imprisoned in Toompea Gaol in Tallinn by the Czarist authorities. Following
his release from prison, Tuglas went into exile, which lasted over ten
years (1906-1917). This was a difficult period for Tuglas, both
economically and mentally. He was a wanderer, who lived in several
countries, and occasionally visited Estonia by using false passports.
While in Finland, at that time a Grand Duchy of Russia before achieving
indepencence, he was welcomed into the home of the illustrator and
graphic artist F.G. Älander. Nowadays the jugend house, situated in
Oulunkylä, Helsinki, is known as "Villa Tuglas". In Paris he had a room
in a building called La Ruche. Tuglas' first major work was the prose poem Jumala saar (1905, Island of God), published in Noor-Eesti album I. As a short story writer Tuglas made his debut
in 1906 with 'Hingemaa.' 'His Own Plot of Land' was a realistic story about rural
proletariat. Two years later appeared a collection of short stories, Kaheksi,
in which had found his own voice, subtle intimacy and impressionistic
depiction of human emotions. Largely an autodidact in literature, Tuglas read widely
to develop his own esthetic views. At Helsinki University Library he
read Russian symbolist and decadent newspapers. The literary group
Noor Eesti (Young
Estonia) was for
Tuglas an important channel to advocate his theories of literature. He
became one of its leading members with such names as Gustav Suits
(1883-1956), Ernst Enno (1875-1943), and Willem Ridala (1885-1942). The
group also
attracted artists: Nikolai
Triik, the artistic editor of the Noor Eesti magazine, Konrad Mägi,
Aleksander Tassa, Jaan Koort were the most prominent figurers. "Let us remain Estonians, but let us also become Europeans." This
slogan introduced by Gustav Suits was the Young Estonians' motto. Tuglas'
essays on method and style in literature exercised a
decisive influence on the writers' perception of their country, painfully aware of living in
the cultural periphery. In his 1912 essay 'Literary Style' Tuglas said:
"Since there are no big cities here, we have come to know the cultural
moods of the city and the broader work too theoretically, indirectly,
through education, foreign literature, and art. . . . We are but
theoretical Europeans." ('Theoretically European and/or Upstart? Decadence in an Estonian key' by Mirjan Hinrikus, in Nordic Literature of Decadence, edited by Pirjo Lyytikäinen, Riikka Ross, Viola Parente-Čapková, Mirjan Hinrikus, 2020, p. 175) During the years of World War I, Tuglas published the resigned novel Felix Ormusson (1915), in which
the central character realizes the uselessness of his romantic ideals but cannot change himself. The Finnish writer Aino Kallas, an inner circle member of the Noor Eesti, compared in Nuori Viro: muotokuvia ja suuntaviivoja (1918) the protagonist with Goether's Werther, Benjamin Constant's Adolphe, Musset's Octave in The Confession of a Child of the Century, Lermontov's Pechorin in A Hero of Our Time – they all suffer from the same melancholy, which the French Romantic school gave the name "ennui". The events in the novel take place during the summer months, when the writer Felix Ormusson, self-centered aesthete, visits his friend's summer house and falls for his wife and then her sister. Felix is not a realiable narrator – he considers his friend Johannes clumsy petty-bourgeois, but the reader realizes that Johannes is good husband, industrious and has progressive ideas. "Life is not an aesthetic phenomena", Felix eventually admits. "It is only comical." Felix Ormusson is one of the most consistent examples of impressionistic technique in Estonian prose. Tuglas began to work on
the novel in Finland in 1907-08, continued in Paris four years later, and
finished it in 1914 on the shores of Lake Ladoga, after returning back to Finland. By that time the book had taken the form of a diary. Originally Tuglas planned this volume as the first part of a trilogy (Puuhobu ratsanik, Prantsuse daam, Vabade kunstnike kodu), but he never wrote the sequels. Only two fragments were published posthumously in Rahutu rada (1973, The restless path). Kallas suggested that there are autobiographical elements in Felix Ormusson – Tuglas's colleagues called him Felix, but the author himself rejected straightforward similarities between him and his character. Fragments dealing with Felix's experiences in Paris hint that his life would take a more tragic direction. Jälle laulik rahva keskel, When Estonia gained independence from Russian rule in 1917, Tuglas returned to home. In 1918, he married Elo Oinas; she died in 1970. Tuglas edited several literary magazines, among them Odamees, Ilo, Tarapita. He attacked against dilettantism, provincial narrowness, confusion of styles, and advocated for a short time among others Georg Brandes's literary theories. The 1917-1919 albums of the Siuru
literary movement, illustrated by Nikolai Triik (Album 1), Ado Vabbe
(Album 2), and Anton Starkopf (Album 3), published Tuglas's
poems. His wartime
stories were collected in Saatus (1917, Fate) and Raskuse vaim (1920,
Spirit of heaviness), illustrated by Ado Vabbe. Tuglas mixed in these
works horror and supernatural elements with real world. This line
continued in the following stories in the 1920s. According
to Kallas, Tuglas' leaning toward fantasy, "the graveyard imagery",
derived from the spirit of the Noor-Eest movement, but "the sense of
horror is already in his blood". (Nuori Viro: muotokuvia ja suuntaviivoja by Aino Kallas, 1918, p. 224) From
1923 to 1926, Tuglas was the chief editor of the literary monthly Looming
(Creative Endeavour), founded by himself. He served also Chairman of
the Estonian Writers' Union. Known widely under his nom-de-plume
"Tuglas", he finally turned it into his official surname. The name is
said to be Douglas, but pronounced in the Estonian way. Tuglas' study Juhan Liiv (1927) was a major
contribution to the growing body of Estonian literary research. In 1928, he made a long trip to North Africa,
recording his experiences and impressions in the three volume travelogue Teekond Põhja-Aafrika (1928-30).
After a long silence as a novelist Tuglas
published in 1937 Little Illimar,
which drew from his childhood memories. In the light of humour, Tuglas
looked the bygone life of a manor through the eyes of a small boy, who
sees many things for the first time in his life, including a man riding
a miraculous machine, a bicyle. Several
of Tuglas's manuscripts were destroyed during the
Soviet bombing raids of Tartu in 1944. After WW II, accused of
cosmopolitanism, "anti-Soviet sentiments", etc., Tuglas was expelled
from the Writers' Union. For some time before the membership was
renewed in 1955, he was not allowed to publish his writings. To earn
his living, Tuglas worked as a translator. His first bookin the
Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic did not appear until 1960. It was
his memoirs, Mälestused, which
dealt with politically neutral period, the years between 1885-1910.
Translations of his chief works found eventually their way into many
European countries. As a corresponding member of the Estonian Academy
of Sciences, Tuglas was able to be in contact with writers outside
Estonia. Friedebert Tuglas died in Tallinn on April 15, 1971, and was buried at the Metsakalmistu Cemetery. His home, which had formerly belonged to the poet Marie Under and her husband who had fled to Sweden in 1944, was turned into the Tuglas Museum, and renamed in 1991 the Tuglas and Under Museum. Tuglas' works have been translated into Finnish, English, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, German, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Latvian, Serbo-Croatian, Esperanto and other languages. In Finland Tuglas became first known for his collection of short stories, Vilkkuva tuli (1911), which was translated from Estonian by Emilia Tavia. Kohtalo (1919) was translated into Finnish by Aino Kallas. Tuglas was made an honorary member of the Finnish Writers' Association in 1928 and in 1937 he was elected as an honorary member of the PEN Club in London. Starting from Kallas's novel Tähelend: koidula elulugu (1918), he became the main translator of her works into Estonian. During Estonia's independence period between the world wars and after 1945, when Estonia was incorporated into the the USSR as the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, Tuglas maintained wide official and unofficial contacts with Finnish writers. Because of the postal censorship, personal contacts were more important than formal. An edition of Tuglas's collected works in eight volumes came out between 1957 and 1962. Previously suppressed or abridged material has been published in the new edition of collected works. The project began in 1986. Tuglas is listed in the book A Hundred Great Estonians of the 20th Century (2002). For further reading: Nuori Viro: muotokuvia ja suuntaviivoja by Aino Kallas (1918); Mälestused by F. Tuglas (1960); Friedebert Tuglas by Nigel Andresen (1968); Katri Vala ja Friedebert Tuglas: varhaisia kosketuskohtia by Kerttu Saarenheimo (1971); Friedebert Tuglas: kultuurilooline essee by August Eelmäe (1986); 'Kesän ja rakkauden helle' by Kai Laitinen (afterword in Felix Ormusson by Friedebert Tuglas, 1988); Elukiri: 1952-1958 by Elo Tuglas (1993); 'Friedebert Tuglas,' in A Hundred Great Estonians of the 20th Century, compiled by Tiit Kändler (2002); Kultuurisild üle Soome lahe: Eesti-Soome akadeemilised ja kultuurisuhted 1918-1944, ed. by Sirje Olesk (2005); Tuglaksen tuli palaa: Tuglas-seuran ja suomalais-virolaisten suhteiden historiaa by Heikki Rausmaa (2007); 'Introduction' by Eric Dickens, in The Poet and the Idiot: And Other Stories by Friedebert Tuglas, translated by Eric Dickens (2007); Karl Asti ja Friedebert Tuglase reisid: sõprade teateid rännuteedelt 1905-1950, koostanud ja kommenteerinud Janika Kronberg (2017); An Introduction to Estonian Literature, translated and edited by Hilary Bird (2018) - Note 1: Tuglas Award for short stories is delivered annually. Note 2: Tuglas translated also works from such writers as Aleksis Kivi (Seitsemän veljestä) and Leo Tolstoy (Pietari I). Suom.: Valtaosa Tuglasin novellituotannosta ilmestynyt suomeksi teoksissa Vilkkuva tuli ja Kohtalo ja Kultainen rengas. Selected works:
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