Poetry
Poeem Stalinile
Not translated into English
Juhan Smuul · 1949
Synopsis
A long narrative poem written for Stalin's seventieth birthday, in a form that Soviet literature regarded as the heir of Pushkin and placed in the front rank. The young poet from Muhu sings the leader's praises there with a faith that researchers today judge sincere, and gives him the figure he had admired since childhood on the coast: that of an all-powerful captain at the helm, steersman of humanity.
Context
The poem was published in Tallinn in 1949 by the state publishing house, seventy-five pages revised by Paul Rummo. At the dictator's death, Smuul wrote one more poem of mourning; but after the denunciation of the cult of personality in 1956, he was the first and one of the few to publicly regret having taken part in it, speaking of a human error. His work then took other paths: the humorous prose of Muhu, the theatre, and the Antarctic diary that won him the Lenin Prize.
Who it is for
Just over seventy pages in Estonian, never translated into French or English. It helps to know that this long narrative poem was the genre the regime favoured.
Prizes and reception
The poem that made its author the most prominent Stalinist poet in Estonian literature.