Smuul, Johan

Born on February 18, 1922 in the village of Koguva on the island of Muhu in Estonia in the family of a peasant fisherman. After graduating from elementary school in 1936, he began to engage in fishing and agriculture. In 1941 he was drafted into the Red Army , but due to health reasons he didn’t get to the front and in 1944 he was demobilized.

Since 1943, he was a literary employee of the Estonian newspaper Rahva Häal (Voice of the People), then deputy editor of the newspaper Sirp I Vasar (Hammer and Sickle) and editor of the Pioneer magazine in Tallinn . Member of the CPSU (b) since 1950 .

In 1953-1971 - deputy chairman and chairman of the Writers' Union of the Estonian SSR.

Secretary of the Board of the joint venture of the USSR (1954-1971).

In 1956-1958 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Socialist Republic.

Member of the Supreme Council of the ESSR . Member of the Armed Forces of the USSR 5-6 convocations (1958-1966). He died on April 13, 1971 . He was buried at the Forest Cemetery in Tallinn .

He began to write in 1943 .

He published in Estonian the collections of poems “Severe youth” (1946), “For the apple trees to bloom” (1951), the poems “The Son of the Storm”, “What the Fisherman Talked About” (1947), “The Red Wagon Train from the Village of Koguva” (1947), “The Brigade of Guys from Järvesuu” (1948) on the labor enthusiasm of the builders of a rural power plant, “Poem to Stalin” (1949). The last two were included in the collection “Poems. Poems ”(1951).

The collections of "Poems", "Favorites", and also "Estonian poem" were published in Russian . In them, the author shows the creative work of Soviet youth. The poem "I am a Komsomolets" (1953) about the Great Patriotic War .

Book of essays "Letters from the village of Sygedate" (1955).

The grotesque-humorous story "The Amazing Adventures of the Muhumites at the Anniversary Song Festival in Tallinn" (1957).

He traveled extensively around the world on various expeditions, which was reflected in his works The Ice Book (1958, Russian translation 1959), The Sea of ​​Japan, December (1963).

Smulu owns the satirical grotesque anti-bourgeois plays The Colonel’s Widow, or Doctors Know Nothing (1965), Life of the Penguins (Before the Foxes Come) (1969), plays Atlantic Ocean (1956), Asa (1959) ), “Yin from Kihnu Island is a wild captain” (1964), satirical “Monologues” (1968), the libretto of the opera “Storm Bank” by G. G. Ernesaks (1949), songs.

• The Stalin Prize of the third degree (1952) - for the collection "Poems. Poems "(1951)
• Lenin Prize (1961) - for the Antarctic travel diary “Ice Book” (1958)
• two awards "Soviet Estonia" (1949, 1950)
• Order of Lenin (10.28.1967)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labor (12/30/1956)
• Order of the Badge of Honor
• medals
• People's writer of the Estonian SSR (1965)

Wife - Deborah Vaarandi (1916-2007)

In 1971, the annual literary prize of the ESSR named after Johan Smuul was established. The prize was awarded to Estonian writers (one of the well-known prize winners is the children's writer Eno Raud ).

In the writer’s homeland, in 1971, a memorial museum was opened ^[1] .

In Tallinn, the memory of Juhan Smuul is immortalized with a bas-relief mounted on the wall of the House of Writers ( Harju Street , 1). One of the streets of Tallinn is named after him.

Surovtsev Yu., Juhan Smuul, M., 1964;

Pitlyar I., To the sounds of the march, “New World”, 1966, No. 12.

Autobiography ^[2]

Smuul, Juhan // Brief Literary Encyclopedia / Ch. ed. A.A. Surkov . - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia , 1962-1978.