Fridebert Tuglas

(Friedebert Tuglas). Born Feb. 18 (Mar. 2), 1886, in the settlement of Ahja, in what is now Pólva Raion; died Apr. 15,1971, in Tallinn. Soviet Estonian writer and literary scholar. People’s Writer of the Estonian SSR (1946); corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR (1946).

Tuglas published his first works in 1901. He participated in the revolutionary movement of 1905 and from 1906 to 1917 lived in emigration. After the February Revolution of 1917 he returned to his homeland. He was chairman of the Union of Estonian Writers in bourgeois Estonia and from 1923 to 1926 was editor of the journal Looming (Creation).

In 1906, Tuglas published the collection of realistic short stories Peasant Allotment Lands. Influenced by symbolism, he wrote the collections of semifantastical short stories Fate (1917), Melancholy (1920), and Wandering Souls (1925). He is also the author of the short story collection “Marginaalia” (1966), the novel Felix Ormusson (1915), and the autobiographical novel Little lllimar (1937; Russian translation, 1959). He wrote studies, articles, and essays on Estonian and foreign writers, as well as a book about the development of Estonian realism, Critical Realism (1947). Tuglas’ works have been translated into many languages.

Tuglas was awarded two orders.