Musa Cälil | |
|---|---|
 Musa Cälil 1930s. | |
| Native name | Муса Җәлил |
| Born | Musa Mostafa ulı Cälilev 15 February [O.S. 2 February] 1905 Mustafino,Orenburg Governorate,Russian Empire |
| Died | 25 August 1944(1944-08-25) (aged 38) Plötzensee,Nazi Germany |
| Occupation | Poet,playwright,journalist,editor,resistance fighter |
| Nationality | Soviet |
| Period | Interwar period |
| Notable awards | Hero of the Soviet Union Order of Lenin Stalin Prize |
| Spouse | Äminä Zalilova |
| Children | Çulpan Zalilova |
Musa Cälil[a] (Tatar:Муса Җәлил,Tatar pronunciation:[muˈsɑʑæˈlil];Russian:Муса Джалиль,romanized: Musa Dzhalil; 15 February [O.S. 2 February] 1905 – 25 August 1944) was a Soviet Tatarpoet andresistance fighter duringWorld War II. He is the only poet of theSoviet Union awarded simultaneously theHero of the Soviet Union award for his resistance fighting and theLenin Prize for having writtenThe Moabit Notebooks; both awards were bestowed upon him posthumously.[1]
Musa Cälil was born inMustafino, a village inOrenburg Governorate, to a family ofjunk dealers. He graduated fromHusainiya Madrasa [tt][b] inOrenburg. His first published works were revolutionary verses. TheTurkicaruz wezni poetic rhythm is seen in Cälil's early works, which is attributed toGisyanism (ğıysyanizm; гыйсъянизм), aromantic poetic style celebrating revolution that was often found in young Tatar poetry of the 1920s.[c] In 1919, he joined the undergroundKomsomol cell in Orenburg (the region was under the control ofWhite Russians at that time). Then, Musa participated in theRussian Civil War against pro-White forces; due to his young age, he did not fight at the front, instead serving in aRed Army unit. In 1920, Cälil returned to his native village, establishing the pro-Communist youth organization The Red Flower there. He also became a Komsomol activist in Mustafino. He represented his village at the governorate Komsomol conference.[2]
In 1920, theTatar ASSR was established andKazan became its capital. In 1922, Musa, along with other Tatar poets[who?], moved to Kazan. During this time, verses that he wrote include "The Red Host", "The Red Holyday", "The Red Hero", "The Red Way", "The Red Force", and "The Red Banner". In Kazan, Cälil worked as copyist for theQьzьl Tatarstan newspaper and studied atrabfak of the Oriental Pedagogical Institute. He became acquainted with Tatar poets such asQawi Näcmi,Hadi Taqtaş, andĞädel Qutuy. In 1924, he became a member of the literary society October, backingProletkult. Since that year, his poetry departed from Ghisyanism and aruz and turned to the Tatar folk verse. His first collection of verses,Barabız (We are going) was published in 1925. One concept that the verses dealt with was pre-revolutionary life.[2]
During 1925 and 1926, Cälil became an instructor ofOrskuyezd Komsomol cell, where he visited Tatar andKazakhauls, agitating for Komsomol there. In 1926, he became the member of Orenburg governorate Komsomol committee. In 1927, Musa moved toMoscow, where he combined his study in theMoscow State University and job inTatar–Bashkir section of the Central Committee of Komsomol. Cälil joined theAll-Union Communist Party (b) in 1929, which was the same year that his second collection,İptäşkä (To the Comrade;Yañalif:Iptəşkə) was published. Living in Moscow, Cälil met Russian poets Zharov, Bezymensky, andSvetlov; Cälil also attendedVladimir Mayakovsky's performances. He entered theMoscow Association of Proletarian Writers; he became its third secretary and a leader of its Tatar section. By the end of the 1920s, lyricism appeared in Cälil's poetry.[2]
In 1931, Cälil graduated from the literature faculty ofMoscow University. Until 1932, he was a chief editor of the Tatar children's magazineKeckenə iptəşlər, which was later renamed toOktəbr Balasь (Little Octobrist). Then, he managed the section of literature and art in the central Tatar newspaperKommunist. In 1934, Musa Cälil published two collections. The first of them,The Millions, Decorated with Orders was devoted mostly to youth and Komsomol, whereas in the second,Verses and Poems, was a general compilation of his writing. However, a number of his lyrical poems weren't published due to being at conflict withStalinism.[2]
In 1935, the first Russian translations of his poems were published. During the 1930s, Cälil also translated to theTatar language writings of poets of the USSR peoples, such asShota Rustaveli,Taras Shevchenko,Pushkin,Nekrasov,Mayakovsky andLebedev-Kumach. In the late 1930s, he tended to write epic poems, such asThe Director and the Sun (1935),Cihan (1935–1938), andThe Postman (1938). As aplaywright of theTatar State Opera, he wrote four librettos for Tatar operas, one of which isAltınçäç (Golden Hair Maiden) ofNäcip Cihanov.[2] In 1939 and 1940, he served as the chairman of the Tatar ASSR Union of Writers.[3]
After theAxisinvasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Cälil volunteered for the Red Army. Graduatingpolitical commissar courses, he arrived at theVolkhov Front and became awar correspondent in theOtvaga newspaper. Cälil also wrote verse, which was at first patriotic but later evolving into lyricism concerning war and people experiencing war.
In June 1942, during theLyuban Offensive Operation, Cälil's unit was encircled; when his unit tried to run a blockade he became seriously wounded, shell-shocked, and captured. After months[when?] in concentration camps for Soviet prisoners of war, includingStalag-340 inDaugavpils,Latvia[4] andSpandau, Cälil was transferred toDęblin, a fortified stronghold inGerman-occupied Poland. There, theWehrmacht were assembling prisoners ofIdel-Ural and Eastern nationalities in the camp. Cälil responded by forming a resistance group.
In late 1942, the Wehrmacht started forming what they called "national legions". Among others,the Idel-Ural legion was formed inLager Jedlnia,General Government, consisting of prisoners of war belonging to the nations of theVolga basin. Since the majority of the legion wereVolga Tatars, the Germans usually called it theVolga-Tatar Legion. The Wehrmacht began preparing the legionnaires for action against the Red Army. Cälil joined theWehrmacht propaganda unit for the legion under thefalse name of Gumeroff. Cälil's group set out to wreck theNational Socialist plans, to convince the men to use the weapons they would be supplied with against theNational Socialists themselves. The members of the resistance group infiltrated the editorial board of theIdel-Ural newspaper the German command produced, and printed and circulated anti-Hitler leaflets among the legionnaires into esoteric action groups consisting of five men each. The first battalion of the Volga-Tatar Legion that was sent to theEastern Front mutinied, shot all the German officers there, and defected to theSoviet partisans inBelarus.
On 10 August 1943, he was arrested with his comrades by theGestapo and sent toMoabit Prison inBerlin. He sat in a cell withBelgian patriot and resistance fighterAndré Timmermans and aPolish prisoner. Cälil studied theGerman language in prison to communicate with his cellmates. In prison, he compiled verses composed in the prison into self-made notebooks. He and his group of 12 were sentenced to death on 12 February 1944 andguillotined atPlötzensee Prison, Berlin, on August 25. His body was never recovered.
Cälil's first notebook was preserved by the TatarsĞabbas Şäripov and thenNiğmät Teregulov, both of whom later died in Stalin's camps. Şäripov was also imprisoned in Moabit and received Cälil's andAbdulla Aliş's writings when the prison guards hid from bombing. To preserve the writings, Cälil's group fenced him off.[5] The second notebook was preserved by theBelgian cellmate André Timmermans. Those notebooks were passed to the Tatar ASSR Union of Writers in 1946 and 1947 correspondingly. They were published as two books under the titleMoabit Däftäre (The Moabit Notebook). Cälil's widow Äminä Zalyalova gave the originals to the National Museum ofTatarstan for safekeeping.
One notebook was brought to the Soviet embassy inRome by the ethnically TatarTurkish citizen Kazım Mirşan in 1946. However, this notebook was lost in the archives ofSMERSH, and pursuits for it since 1979 have had no results.[citation needed]These notebooks were inarabic script.
In 1946,MGB opened a file on Musa Cälil branding him as a traitor. In April 1947, his name was included in the list of wanted "dangerous criminals".
Then Tatar writers and the Tatarstan department of state security proved Cälil'sunderground work against theThird Reich and his death. In 1953,The Moabit Notebooks were published in Kazan[3] and the Russian translation also was published inLiteraturnaya Gazeta, owing to its editor,Konstantin Simonov.[6] Musa Cälil was awarded the star of theHero of the Soviet Union in 1956 and LiteratureLenin Prize in 1957 forThe Moabit Notebooks.[1]
A monument to Musa Cälil is placed near theKazan Kremlin; the museum in his flat was opened in Kazan in 1983.[3] His poetry was popularized in the Soviet Union and theWarsaw Pact countries.
Soviet Tatar composerNazib Zhiganov wrote an "opera-poem"Dzhalil based on the life of Cälil. This was premiered in Tatar in Kazan in 1957, and later recorded by conductorBoris Khaykin for Moscow radio.
Musa Cälil Tatar Library was opened inConstanța,Romania, in 2014.[7]
The Symphony-poem "Musa Jalil" written bySoviet Tatar composerAlmaz Monasypov in 1971 was dedicated to the poet. Aminor planet3082 Dzhalil discovered by Soviet astronomerTamara Mikhailovna Smirnova in 1972 is named after him.[8]
On October 13, 2021, a monument to Cälil had its grand opening in theSverdlovsk Oblast withinYekaterinburg.[9]
| 1929 | İptäşkä ("To the Comrade") |
| 1934 | Ordenlı millionnar ("The Millions Decorated with Orders") |
| 1935–41 | Altınçäç |
| 1940 | Xat taşuçı ("The Postman") |
| İldar (operalibretto) | |
| 1943 | Tupçı antı ("The Oath of the Artilleryman") |
