John Vares

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Johannes and Emilie Vares (1931)

Johannes Vares (pseudonym: Johannes Barbarus ; born December 31, 1889 July / January 12,  1890 greg. In the village of Heimtali , today Parish of Pärsti , Viljandi County ( Estonia ); † November 29, 1946 in Tallinn , Estonian SSR ) was an Estonian Writer , poet, doctor and politician.

Life

Johannes Vares attended high school in Pärnu and studied medicine at the University of Kiev from 1910 to 1914 . He took part as a military doctor in the First World War and from 1918 to 1920 in the Estonian War of Independence against Soviet Russia .

Johannes Vares then settled as a doctor in Pärnu, became involved as a radical socialist and began a career as a writer under his pseudonym Johannes Barbarus. Especially the French literature of the time and the Clarté movement exerted a strong influence on him. He himself was active in the artist group Siuru , in which he brought strong elements of French poetry.

When Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union , Johannes Vares was Prime Minister of the first Soviet puppet government from June 22 to August 25, 1940 . With the annexation of Estonia into the Soviet Union on August 25, 1940, he became Chairman of the Presidium of the Provisional Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic ( Eesti NSV Ajutise Ülemnõukogu Presiidiumi esimees ). He held the office until his death in 1946.

From 1941 to 1944 he fled the German occupation forces into exile in Russia . He returned to Estonia with the reoccupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II .

As Johannes Vares came more and more into the crosshairs of the NKVD , he shot himself in November 1946 in the government seat of Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn.

Literary work

Barbarus began as a symbolist , but quickly turned to Expressionism , the most important representative of which, alongside Marie Under, he became in Estonia. Not least because of his medical profession, his poetry shows points of contact with Gottfried Benn . His later poems can then be described as cubist or constructivist , which is already expressed in the titles of his collections: The geometric man (1924), the multiplied man (1927). In view of the emergence of fascism , Barbarus' poetry became more politically active again in the 1930s. After the political upheaval of 1940, his poetry became a veritable propaganda poem for the new rulers.

Awards

bibliography

  • Mirage . Tartu: Noor-Eesti 1918. 70 pp.
  • Inimene ja sfinks ('Man and Sphinx'). Tallinn: Auringo 1919. 79 pp.
  • Disaster ('disasters'). Tallinn: Auringo 1920. 63 pp.
  • Vahekorrad ('conditions'). Tartu: Tarapita 1922. 95 pp.
  • Geomeetriline inimene ('The Geometric Man'). sl: sn 1924. 109 pp.
  • Multiplitseerit inimene ('The multiplied man'). Tallinn: Eesti Kirjanikkude Liit 1927. 102 pp.
  • Maailm on lahti! ('The world in turmoil!'). Tallinn: sn 1930. 121 pp.
  • Tulipoint ('fire point'). Tallinn: sn 1934. 159 pp.
  • Memento: kaks mälestuspoeemi ('Memento: two memorial poems '). Tallinn: Sõprus 1936. 64 pp.
  • Kalad kuival ('Fish on dry land'). Tartu: Noor-Eesti 1937. 167 pp.
  • Üle läve ('Over the Threshold'). Tartu: Noor-Eesti 1939. 114 pp.
  • Relvastatud värsid ('Armed Verses'). Moscow: ENSV Riiklik Kirjastus 1943. 80 pp.
  • Beef tea delicacies ('On Front Paths'). Tallinn: Ilukirjandus yes art 1944. 73 pp.
  • Samm-sammult võidule ('step by step to victory'). Tallinn: Ilukirjandus yes art 1946. 145 pp.
  • Vastu voolu ('Against the Current'). Tallinn: Ilukirjandus yes art 1946. 198 pp.

German translations

Only a few poems by Barbarus have been published in German translation that have found their way into magazines or anthologies.

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eesti kirjanike leksikon. Koostanud Oskar Kruus yes Heino Puhvel. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 2000, pp. 48-49.
  2. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt : History of Estonian Literature. From the beginning to the present. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter 2006, pp. 443–444.
  3. ^ For individual references see Cornelius Hasselblatt: Estonian Literature in German Language 1784–2003. Bibliography of primary and secondary literature. Bremen: Hempen Verlag 2004, pp. 30–31.
personal data
SURNAME Vares, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Barbarus, Johannes (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian writer, poet and communist
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Heimtali , today Pärsti Municipality , Viljandi County ( Estonia )
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 1946
Place of death Tallinn