Isamaaline tundmus. Eesti ja Soome kirjamees Jüri Tilk ehk Yrjö Virula
Patriotic Feelings. Jüri Tilk alias Yrjö Virula – an Estonian and Finnish Man of Letters

Summary/Abstract: Jüri Tilk (1865–1929) as a public figure is not much known in Estonia, although he worked side by side with eminent public leaders and did no less. Associating with top specialists in Estonia and Finland, he initiated, on the Finnish example, the Estonian Temperance Movement. According to Tilk, temperance work was a question of ethnic survival. After teaching a village school Tilk became an active journalist working for the then quite solid newspaper Olevik, issued by Ado Grenzstein, where he soon rose to the position of second editor. Supported by his friends, he went to Helsinki for better education, whence he mediated the Finnish example to the Estonian press. After Grenzstein’s leaving the paper, and Estonia, Tilk could not find any compatriots as close and with similar ideals and so, after graduation he stayed in Helsinki, working in the local press. His public enthusiasm, however, gave way to frustration and withdrawal from patriotic activities. Most of Tilk’s courage for life was probably drained by certain changes in Estonian public life ungratefully dismissing Ado Grenzstein, who used to be his example and constant supporter. Thus Jüri Tilk became a reclusive Finnish intellectual unable to do much about the developments in his home country any more.

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