Chinghiz Aitmatov
Encyclopedia
Chyngyz Aitmatov (12 December 1928, Sheker
, Kirghiz ASSR
, USSR - 10 June 2008, Nuremberg
, Germany) was a Soviet and Kyrgyz author who wrote in both Russian and Kyrgyz
. He was the best known figure in Kyrgyzstan
's literature.
. In early childhood, Aitmatov wandered as a nomad
with his family, as the Kyrgyz people did at the time. In 1937 his father was charged with "bourgeois nationalism
" in Moscow, arrested and executed in 1938.
Aitmatov lived at a time when Kyrgyzstan was being transformed from one of the most remote lands of the Russian Empire to a republic of the USSR. 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 Village Soviet
. He later held jobs as a tax collector, a loader, an engineer's assistant and continued with many other types of work.
In 1946 he began studying at the Animal Husbandry
Division of the Kirghiz Agricultural Institute in Frunze
, but later switched to literary studies at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute
in Moscow, where he lived from 1956 to 1958. For the next eight years he worked for Pravda
. His first two publications appeared in 1952 in Russian: "The Newspaper Boy Dziuio" and "Ашым." His first work published in Kyrgyz was "Ак Жаан" (White rain, 1954), and his well-known work "Jamilya
" (Jamila) appeared in 1958. 1980 saw his first novel The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years; his next significant novel, The Scaffold was published in 1988. The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years and other writings were translated into several languages. In 1994, he was a member of the jury at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival
.
Aitmatov suffered kidney failure, and on 16 May 2008 was admitted to a hospital in Nuremberg, Germany, where he died of pneumonia
on 10 June 2008 at the age of 79. After his death, Aitmatov was flown to Kyrgyzstan, where there were numerous ceremonies before he was buried in Ata Beyit cemetery, which he helped found and where his father most likely is buried, in Chong-Tash village, Alamüdün district
, Chüy oblast, Kyrgyzstan.
His obituary in The 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 leader Mikhail Gorbachev
."
"
was not significant, a few short stories and a short novel called Face to Face. But it was Jamilya that came to prove the author's work. Aitmatov's representative works also include the short novels Farewell, Gulsary!, The White Ship, The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years
, and The Scaffold.
Aitmatov was honoured in 1963 with the Lenin Prize
for Tales of the Mountains and Steppes (a compilation including "Jamilya", "First Teacher" and "Farewell Gulsary") and was later awarded a State prize for Farewell, Gulsary!. Aitmatov's art was glorified by admirers. Even critics of Aitmatov mentioned the high quality of his novels.
Aitmatov's work 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. In The 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.
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 center characters of Farewell, Gulsary! are a man and his stallion. A camel plays a prominent role in The 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 Scaffold 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.
, NATO, UNESCO
and the Benelux
countries.
English translations
Sheker
Sheker is a village in the Kara-Buura District of Talas Province of Kyrgyzstan. It is the birthplace of Chinghiz Aitmatov....
, Kirghiz ASSR
Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic
The Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Kirghiz SSR, the Kyrgyz SSR, or even Kirghizia, was one of republics that made up the Soviet Union...
, USSR - 10 June 2008, Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
, Germany) was a Soviet and Kyrgyz author who wrote in both Russian and Kyrgyz
Kyrgyz language
Kyrgyz or Kirgiz, also Kirghiz, Kyrghiz, Qyrghiz is a Turkic language and, together with Russian, an official language of Kyrgyzstan...
. He was the best known figure in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
's literature.
Life
He was born to a Kyrgyz father and Tatar mother. Aitmatov's parents were civil servants in ShekerSheker
Sheker is a village in the Kara-Buura District of Talas Province of Kyrgyzstan. It is the birthplace of Chinghiz Aitmatov....
. In early childhood, Aitmatov wandered as a nomad
Nomad
Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...
with his family, as the Kyrgyz people did at the time. In 1937 his father was charged with "bourgeois nationalism
Bourgeois nationalism
Bourgeois nationalism is a term from Marxist phraseology. It refers to the alleged practice by the ruling classes of deliberately dividing people by nationality, race, ethnicity, or religion, so as to distract them from possible class warfare...
" in Moscow, arrested and executed in 1938.
Aitmatov lived at a time when Kyrgyzstan was being transformed from one of the most remote lands of the Russian Empire to a republic of the USSR. 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 Village Soviet
Soviet (council)
Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
. He later held jobs as a tax collector, a loader, an engineer's assistant and continued with many other types of work.
In 1946 he began studying at the Animal Husbandry
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
Division of the Kirghiz Agricultural Institute in Frunze
Bishkek
Bishkek , formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan.Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan.The name is thought to...
, but later switched to literary studies at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute
Maxim Gorky Literature Institute
The Maxim Gorky Literature Institute is a higher education institute in Moscow. It is located at 25 Tver Bulvar in Central Moscow.It was founded in 1933 on the initiative of Maxim Gorky, and received its current name at Gorky's death in 1936....
in Moscow, where he lived from 1956 to 1958. For the next eight years he worked for Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
. His first two publications appeared in 1952 in Russian: "The Newspaper Boy Dziuio" and "Ашым." His first work published in Kyrgyz was "Ак Жаан" (White rain, 1954), and his well-known work "Jamilya
Jamilya
Jamilya is the first major novel by Chingiz Aytmatov, published originally in Russian in 1958. The novel is told from the point of view of a fictional Kyrgyz artist, Seit, who tells the story by looking back on his childhood...
" (Jamila) appeared in 1958. 1980 saw his first novel The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years; his next significant novel, The Scaffold was published in 1988. The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years and other writings were translated into several languages. In 1994, he was a member of the jury at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival
44th Berlin International Film Festival
The 44th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 10 to 21, 1994.-Jury:* Jeremy Thomas * Chinghiz Aitmatov* María Luisa Bemberg* Hsu Feng* Morgan Freeman* Francis Girod* Corinna Harfouch* Carlo Lizzani...
.
Aitmatov suffered kidney failure, and on 16 May 2008 was admitted to a hospital in Nuremberg, Germany, where he died of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
on 10 June 2008 at the age of 79. After his death, Aitmatov was flown to Kyrgyzstan, where there were numerous ceremonies before he was buried in Ata Beyit cemetery, which he helped found and where his father most likely is buried, in Chong-Tash village, Alamüdün district
Alamudun District
Alamudun is a raion of Chuy Province in northern Kyrgyzstan. Its capital is Lebedinovka. The district surrounds Bishkek, but does not include it, because the city forms a province-level unit of its own. :-Rural communities and villages:...
, Chüy oblast, Kyrgyzstan.
His obituary in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
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 leader Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
."
Work
Chinghiz Aitmatov belonged to the post-war generation of writers. His output before "JamilyaJamilya
Jamilya is the first major novel by Chingiz Aytmatov, published originally in Russian in 1958. The novel is told from the point of view of a fictional Kyrgyz artist, Seit, who tells the story by looking back on his childhood...
"
was not significant, a few short stories and a short novel called Face to Face. But it was Jamilya that came to prove the author's work. Aitmatov's representative works also include the short novels Farewell, Gulsary!, The White Ship, The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years
The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years
The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years , originally published in Russian in the Novy Mir literary magazine in 1980, is a novel written by the Kyrgyz author Chinghiz Aitmatov.-The title of the novel:...
, and The Scaffold.
Aitmatov was honoured in 1963 with the Lenin Prize
Lenin Prize
The Lenin Prize was one of the most prestigious awards of the USSR, presented to individuals for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was created on June 23, 1925 and was awarded until 1934. During the period from 1935 to 1956, the Lenin Prize was...
for Tales of the Mountains and Steppes (a compilation including "Jamilya", "First Teacher" and "Farewell Gulsary") and was later awarded a State prize for Farewell, Gulsary!. Aitmatov's art was glorified by admirers. Even critics of Aitmatov mentioned the high quality of his novels.
Aitmatov's work 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. In The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years, a poetic legend about a young captive turned into a mankurt
Mankurt
Mankurt is a 1990 Soviet film written by Mariya Urmatova and the last film directed by Khodzha Narliyev...
serves as a tragic allegory and becomes a significant symbolic expression of the philosophy of the novel.
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 center characters of Farewell, Gulsary! are a man and his stallion. A camel plays a prominent role in The 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 Scaffold 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.
Diplomatic career
In addition to his literary work, Chinghiz Aitmatov was the Kyrgyzstan ambassador to the European UnionEuropean Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, NATO, UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
and the Benelux
Benelux
The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe comprising three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany...
countries.
Major works
(Russian titles in parentheses)- A Difficult Passage (1956)
- Face to Face ("Лицом к лицу", 1957)
- JamilyaJamilyaJamilya is the first major novel by Chingiz Aytmatov, published originally in Russian in 1958. The novel is told from the point of view of a fictional Kyrgyz artist, Seit, who tells the story by looking back on his childhood...
("Джамиля", 1958) - The First Teacher ("Первый учитель", 1962)
- Tales of the Mountains and Steppes ("Повести гор и степей", 1963)
- Farewell, Gulsary!("Прощай, Гульсары", 1966)
- The White SteamboatThe White Ship (Aitmatov novel)"The White Ship" is a novel written by Kyrgyz writer Chinghiz Aitmatov. It was first published in 1970....
("Белый пароход", 1970) - The Ascent of Mt. Fuji ("Восхождение на Фудзияму", 1973)
- Spotted Dog Running On Seashore ("Пегий пес, бегущий краем моря", 1977)
- Cranes Fly Early (Ранние журавли, 1979)
- The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years ("И дольше века длится день", 1980)
- The Scaffold ("Плаха", 1986)
- Cassandra's Brand ("Тавро Кассандры", 1996)
- When The Mountains Fall ("Когда горы падают", 2006)
English translations
- Short Novels, Progress Publishers (1964).
- Farewell Gul'sary, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (June 29, 1970). ISBN 978-0340128640
- White Steamship, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (August 14, 1972). ISBN 978-0340159965
- The White Ship, Crown Publishing Group; 1St Edition edition (November 1972). ISBN 978-0517500743
- Tales of the Mountains and the Steppes, Firebird Pubns; Second Printing edition (June 1973). ISBN 978-0828509374
- Ascent of Mount Fuji, Noonday Press (June 1975). ISBN 978-0374512156
- Cranes Fly Early, Imported Pubn (June 1983). ISBN 978-0828526395
- The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred YearsThe Day Lasts More Than a Hundred YearsThe Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years , originally published in Russian in the Novy Mir literary magazine in 1980, is a novel written by the Kyrgyz author Chinghiz Aitmatov.-The title of the novel:...
, Indiana University Press (February 1, 1988). ISBN 978-0253204820 - The Place of the Skull, Grove Pr; 1st edition (March 1989). ISBN 978-0802110008
- The place of the skull: Novel, International Academy of Sciences, Industry, Education & Arts (USA) (2000). ISBN 978-5726100623
- Time to Speak, International Publishers (May 1989). ISBN 978-0717806690
- The time to speak out (Library of Russian and Soviet literary journalism), Progress Publishers (1988). ISBN 978-5010004958
- Mother Earth and Other Stories, Faber and Faber (January 8, 1990). ISBN 978-0571152377
- Jamila, Telegram Books (January 1, 2008). ISBN 978-1846590320