August Jacobson

August Mihkelevich Jakobson (1904 - 1963) - Estonian Soviet writer, state and party leader. People's Writer of the Estonian SSR (1947). Born on August 20 (September 2), 1904 in the village of Rääma (now Pärnumaa, Estonia) in the family of a factory worker. He studied at the gymnasium; he earned money for his studies on peat extraction, in the port, in timber depots. In the last class of the gymnasium, in 1925, he began writing his first novel, A Suburb of Poor Sinners: this is a book about the urban poor, rich in autobiographical material. The novel was printed in 1927. At the end of the gymnasium, the future writer entered the University of Tartu: he studied political economy, then medicine. In the first period of creativity, before Estonia joined the USSR, Jacobson wrote several novels, many narratives and stories from the life of Estonian workers, intellectuals and the bourgeoisie, sharply criticizing the bourgeois system. However, the works of that period are characterized by the futility and elements of naturalism. The establishment of Soviet power in Estonia had a very positive effect on the writer's work. He is actively involved in the construction of a young union republic. Having mastered the method of socialist realism, he skillfully depicts the complex processes taking place in the country. His work is permeated with the pathos of the approval of the socialist world. The play “Life in the Citadel” (1946) shows the ideological growth of the Estonian intelligentsia, the play “Fighting without the front line” (1947) depicts the struggle of the Estonian proletariat in the 20s of the 20th century. The play Rust (1947) is dedicated to overcoming bourgeois remnants in the minds of people. The class struggle in the Estonian countryside, which has embarked on the path of collectivization, the author portrays in the play Our Life (1948). In the same year, the play “Two Camps” was written about the clash of two worldviews, communist and bourgeois, pro-fascist, among the Estonian intelligentsia. The play "The Builder" (1949) tells about the post-war restoration of the economy. Member of the CPSU (b) since 1942. 1939 - Chairman of the Writers' Union of Estonia 1940 - after the formation of the ESSR, works in the editorial office of the newspaper Kommunist and at the same time is the editor-in-chief of the publishing house Fiction and Art of the Estonian SSR. 1946-1951 - Member of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the CP (B) of Estonia 7/7/1950 - 4.2.1958 - Chairman of the Presidium of the ESSR Supreme Soviet 1950-1954 - Chairman of the Board of the Joint Venture of the Estonian SSR. From 1941 - deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He died on May 23, 1963 in Tallinn.