Endel Sõgel

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Endel Sõgel (born June 17, 1922 in Vastseliina , † December 7, 1998 in Tallinn ) was an Estonian literary scholar and journalist.

Life

Endel Sõgel graduated from Petseri in 1940 and actively supported the new regime after the Sovietization of Estonia in 1940. He was initially Komsomol secretary in Võru County , after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 he was active in various extermination battalions and was a member of the Red Army until 1947 . Retired as a captain , he studied at the party school from 1948 to 1950 before enrolling as a distance learning student at the University of Tartu . He graduated from the Pedagogical Institute in Tallinn in 1955 .

In September 1952 Sõgel was appointed by the Department of Universities and Scientific Institutes of the Central Committee of the EKP as Scientific Secretary of the Institute for Language and Literature (Estonian. Keele ja Kirjanduse Instituut ) of the Estonian Academy of Sciences , the forerunner of the present-day Institute for the Estonian Language and of the Under and Tuglas Literature Center . At this institute he quickly became department head (1953) and deputy director (1963), from 1968 he led the institute as director for twenty years. During this phase he embodied in himself the "iron ideological control over the Estonian humanities." After his retirement in January 1988, he lived undisturbed in Tallinn for ten years, but was attacked and accused of complicity in the June 1941 portations .

Sõgel had been a member of the CPSU since 1940 and a member of the Estonian Writers' Union since 1951 .

plant

Sõgel was primarily concerned with the Marxist re-evaluation of all Estonian literature, which he tried to carry out in educational and propaganda writings. For this purpose he published a number of new school books in 1953. His candidate thesis from 1962 was entitled "Questions of Estonian Literary History". Afterwards, as editor-in-chief, he watched over the correct political orientation of the new Estonian literary history, which appeared under his aegis in seven volumes between 1965 and 1991. To this day it is the most extensive Estonian literary history with over 4,000 pages and, despite the inevitable ideological orientation, it is still an important source work for dealing with Estonian literature. Sõgel also published a few collections of essays on literature. In general, Sõgel never looked at the artistic quality of a text, but "assessed literature solely from the standpoint of the proletariat and the revolutionary struggle."

Awards

bibliography

  • Eesti kirjanduse ajalugu I – IV . ('History of Estonian Literature I – IV', textbooks for 8th to 11th grade Estonian high school). Tallinn: Eesti Riiklik Kirjastus 1953. 87 + 124 + 165 + 284 pp.
  • Kirjandusloo lehekülgedelt ('From the history of literature'). Tallinn: Eesti Riiklik Kirjastus 1963. 348 pp.
  • (Editor in charge) Eesti kirjanduse ajalugu viies köites. ('History of Estonian Literature in Five Volumes'). Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1965–1991. (Published in a total of seven volumes, as volumes four and five consist of two sub-volumes. The name Sõgel is no longer mentioned in the last sub-volume V, 2.)
  • Revolutsioon ja kirjandus ('Revolution and Literature'). Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1972. 384 pp.
  • (Editing, together with Endel Nirk :) Eesti kirjanduse biograafiline leksikon. ('Biographical Lexicon of Estonian Literature') Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1975. 462 pp.
  • Karastunud sõpruses (memories). Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1982. 135 pp.
    • A German version of this had already appeared before: Friendship steeled in the fire of war . Translation into German: P. Salzmann. Tallinn: Perioodika 1978. 119 pp.
  • Viisnurk ja meie ('The Soviet Star and Us'). Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1980. 182 pp.

Literature on the author

  • Eeva Ahven: Endel Sõgel 50, in: Keel ja Kirjandus 6/1972, pp. 380–381.
  • Naftoli Bassel: Ühiskonna- ja kirjanduselu rindejoonel, in: Looming 6/1972, pp. 1031-1039.
  • Viktor Maamägi: Tõsine töömees, in: Looming 6/1982, pp. 815–821.
  • Peeter Ernits: Seltsimees Sõgel, Siberis Näeme !, in: Luup 12/1997, pp. 56–58.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eeva Ahven: Pilk paberipeeglisse. Keele ja Kirjanduse Instituudi kroonika 1947–1993. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus 2007, p. 108.
  2. ↑ Mati Hint: Keel on tõde on õige ja vale. Tartu: Ilmamaa 2002, p. 13.
  3. ↑ Eeva Ahven: Pilk paberipeeglisse. Keele ja Kirjanduse Instituudi kroonika 1947–1993. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus 2007, p. 1023.
  4. ↑ Peeter Ernits: Seltsimees Sõgel, Siberis Näeme !, in: Luup 12/1997, pp. 56–58.
  5. ↑ Eesti kirjanike leksikon. Koostanud Oskar Kruus yes Heino Puhvel. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 2000, pp. 557-558.
  6. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt : History of Estonian Literature. From the beginning to the present. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter 2006, p. 39.
  7. ↑ Eesti kirjanike leksikon. Koostanud Oskar Kruus yes Heino Puhvel. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 2000, p. 558.
personal data
SURNAME Sõgel, Endel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian literary scholar and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Vastseliina
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1998
Place of death Tallinn