Chinghiz Torekulovich Aitmatov[a] (12 December 1928 – 10 June 2008) was a Kyrgyz author who wrote mainly inRussian, but also in Kyrgyz. He is one of the best known figures inKyrgyzstan's literature.[2][3][4]
He was born to a Kyrgyz father andTatar mother. Aitmatov's parents were civil servants inSheker. In 1937, his father was charged with "bourgeois nationalism" inMoscow, arrested, and executed in 1938.[1]
Aitmatov lived at a time when Kyrgyzstan was being transformed from one of the most remote lands of theRussian Empire to a republic of theUSSR. The future author studied at a Soviet school in Sheker. He also worked from an early age. At fourteen, he was an assistant to the Secretary at the VillageSoviet. He later held jobs as a tax collector, a loader, and an engineer's assistant and continued with many other types of work.
By 1990 he fulfilled a number of board and administrative positions including on the Supreme Soviet's Committee for Culture and National Languages and theUnion of Soviet Writers.[5]
On 16 May 2008, Aitmatov was admitted withkidney failure to a hospital inNuremberg,Germany, where he died ofpneumonia on 10 June 2008 at the age of 79.[1] Aitmatov's remains were flown to Kyrgyzstan, where there were numerous ceremonies before he was buried in the villageKoy-Tash,Alamüdün District,Chüy Region, Kyrgyzstan, on theAta-Beyit cemetery, which he had helped to found[10] and where his father most likely is buried.[11]
His obituary inThe New York Times characterized him as "a Communist writer whose novels and plays before the collapse of the Soviet Union gave a voice to the people of the remote Soviet republic of Kyrgyz" and adds that he "later became a diplomat and a friend and adviser to the Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachev."[12]
Chinghiz Aitmatov belonged to the post-war generation of writers. His output before his well-known workJamila[13] in 1958 was not significant. Aitmatov's first two publications appeared in 1952 in Russian: "Газетчик Дзюйо" ("The Newspaper Boy Dziuio") and "Ашым" ("Ashim"). His first work published in Kyrgyz was "Ак Жаан" ("White Rain", 1954). Two other short novels from that period are "Трудная переправа" ("A Difficult Passage", 1956) and "Лицом к лицу" ("Face to Face", 1957). But it wasJamila that came to prove the author's work. Seen through the eyes of an adolescent boy, it tells of how Jamila, a village girl, separated from her soldier husband by the war, falls in love with a disabled former soldier staying in their village as they all work to bring in and transport the grain crop.
1980 saw his first novelThe Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years; his next significant novel,The Place of the Skull, was published in 1987.The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years and other writings were translated into several languages.
Aitmatov's art was glorified by admirers.[14] But even critics of Aitmatov mentioned the high quality of his work.[15] Aitmatov's writing has some elements that are unique specifically to his creative process. His work drew on folklore, not in the ancient sense of it; rather, he tried to recreate and synthesize oral tales in the context of contemporary life. This is prevalent in his work; in nearly every story he refers to a myth, a legend, or a folktale.[1] InThe Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years, a poetic legend about a young captive turned into a "mankurt" serves as a tragic allegory and becomes a significant symbolic expression of the philosophy of the novel.
His work also touches on Kyrgyzstan’s transformation from the Russian empire to a republic of the USSR and the lives of its people during the transformation. This is prevalent inFarewell, Gyulsary! Although the short story touches on the idea of friendship and loyalty between a man and his stallion, it also serves a tragic allegory of the political and USSR government. It explores the loss and grief that many Kyrgyz faced through the protagonist character in the short story.[citation needed]
A second aspect of Aitmatov's writing is his ultimate closeness to our "little brothers" the animals, for their and our lives are intimately and inseparably connected. The two central characters ofFarewell, Gyulsary! are a man and his stallion. A camel plays a prominent role inThe Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years; one of the key turns of the novel which decides the fate of the main character is narrated through the story of the camel's rut and riot.The Place of the Skull starts off and finishes with the story of a wolf pack and the great wolf-mother Akbara and her cub; human lives enter the narrative but interweave with the lives of the wolves.
In 1963, Aitmatov was honored with theLenin Prize for the compilation "Повести гор и степей" (the title translates into English "Tales of the Mountains and Steppes") which had been published earlier that same year containing the four novels "Джамиля" (Jamila), "Тополек мой в красной косынке" (To Have and to Lose), "Верблюжий глаз" (Camel's Eye) and "Первый учитель" (Duishen /The First Teacher).[16] This collection in Russian should not be confused with the 1969 collection in English titled as well "Tales of the Mountains and Steppes" which is a different compilation containing the three novelsJamila,Duishen andFarewell, Gyulsary! (besides an introduction by A. TurkovSpeak out in Golden Words of Truth).[17] He was later awarded a State prize forFarewell, Gyulsary!.
Some of his stories were filmed, likeThe First Teacher in 1965,Jamila in 1969, and several timesTo Have and to Lose.
As with many educated Kyrgyz, Aitmatov was fluent in both Kyrgyz and Russian. As he explained in one of his interviews, Russian was as much of a native language for him as Kyrgyz. Most of his early works he wrote in Kyrgyz; some of these he later translated into Russian himself, while others were translated into Russian by other translators. From 1966, he was writing in Russian.[18] By the mid-1990s, as his reputation in Kyrgyzstan was well established, Russian critics attacked him and his 1995 novelTavro Kassandry ("The Mark of Cassandra")--unfairly, according to literary critic Keneshbek Asanaliev, who commented that Aitmatov's Kyrgys detractors simply reprinted an attack piece by Russian critic V. Bondarenko. The latter also claimed that Aitmatov was anti-Russian, a claim that Asanaliev ridicules.[19]
In addition to his literary work, Chinghiz Aitmatov was from 1990 to 1993 the ambassador for theSoviet Union and then Russia to Belgium and, later, for Kyrgyzstan to theEuropean Union,NATO,UNESCO and theBenelux countries.[1]
To Have and to Lose («Тополек мой в красной косынке», 1961). in compilationShort Novels, Progress Publishers (1965).[28] (translated by Olga Shartse)
Camel's Eye /Camel Eye («Верблюжий глаз», 1961)
in compilationAnthology of Soviet Short Stories, two volumes, compiled by Nikolai Atarov,Volume 2, pp. 54–86, Progress Publishers (1976).[29] ("Camel's Eye", translated by Olga Shartse)
in compilationMother Earth and Other Stories,Faber (1989).ISBN978-0-571-15237-7 ("Camel Eye", translated by James Riordan)
Duishen /The First Teacher («Первый учитель», 1962)
in compilationShort Novels, Progress Publishers (1965).[28] ("Duishen", translated by Olga Shartse)
in compilationMother Earth and Other Stories, Faber (1989).ISBN978-0-571-15237-7 ("The First Teacher", translated by James Riordan)
The Lament of a Migrating Bird («Плач перелётной птицы», 1972). Felixstowe Premier Press (1973)[30] (translated by John French)
The Ascent of Mt. Fuji («Восхождение на Фудзияму», written together with Kaltai Mukjamedzhanov, 1973).Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1975).ISBN978-0-374-10629-4 (translated by Nicholas Bethell)
Cranes Fly Early («Ранние журавли», 1975). Raduga Publishers (1983).ISBN978-7080321133 (translated by Eve Manning)
Piebald Dog Running Along the Shore /Spotted Dog Running Along the Seashore («Деңиз Бойлой Жорткон Ала Дөбөт» / «Пегий пес, бегущий краем моря», 1977)
in compilationPiebald Dog Running Along the Shore and Other Stories, Raduga Publishers (1989).ISBN978-5050024336 ("Piebald Dog Running Along the Shore", translated by Alex Miller)
in compilationMother Earth and Other Stories, Faber (1989).ISBN978-0-571-15237-7 ("Spotted Dog Running Along the Seashore", translated by James Riordan)
The Place of the Skull («Плаха», 1987). Grove Press (1989).ISBN978-0-8021-1000-8 (translated by Natasha Ward)
The Time to Speak Out («Час слова», 1988). Library of Russian and Soviet Literary Journalism, Progress Publishers (1988).ISBN978-5-01-000495-8 (translated by Paula Garb)
The White Cloud of Genghis Khan («Белое облако Чингисхана», 1990). Independently Published (2023).ISBN979-8863496108 (translated by Dan Szetela)
The Plaint Of The Hunter Above The Abyss («Плач охотника над пропастью», written together with Mukhtar Shakhanov, 1993). Atamura Corporation, Almaty, Kazakhstan (1998).ISBN978-5766747444 (translated by Walter May)
^"Указ Президента Республики Узбекистан О награждении Айтматова Чингиза Торекуловича орденом "Дустлик" Республики Узбекистан".Narodnoe slovo (in Russian). No. 168. 31 August 1995. p. 1.
