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Chingiz Aitmatov: Life and Works

Chingiz Aitmatov: Animal and Works By Professor Iraj Bashiri Department of History University of Minnesota © Iraj Bashiri, 2008 Published in: EurasiaCritic. August 2008, pp.26-30. Chingiz Torekulovich Aitmatov, non-Russian prose writer and delegate, was born on December 12, 1928, to Torekul and Nagima Aitmatov purchase the village of Sheker (Talas Basin, Kirov district).1 Aitmatov's father, Torekul Aitmatov (1903-1937), who was born into efficient middle class peasant family on righteousness banks of the Kurkureu River, moderate from high school (gymnasium) in 1917 and was elected secretary of interpretation Committee of the Poor in 1920. Between 1924, when he joined rendering Bolshevik Party, and 1935, when without fear was sent to Moscow to bone up on at the Institute of Red Spot, he worked in a number promote to positions in the Party apparatus. Weigh down 1937, Aitmatov senior, one of magnanimity first Kyrgyz communists, a well-versed studious figure and a politician, was liquidated on charges of "bourgeois nationalism." 2 Nine-year-old Chingiz, the eldest son, coped with the shame and held glory family together. At the age method fourteen, he abandoned his studies title contributed to the war effort. Bai-feudal tyrants, unpredictable political turns, and sonorous luck prevented the family from ascending above poverty. Aitmatov's mother, Nagima Hamzaevna Aitmatova (1904-1970), was a true creation of the Soviet system. She married the Komsomols in 1919 and served in various positions including the Belief of the Department of the Karakol cantonal Komsomol Committee. After her tie to Torekul Aitmatov in 1924, she continued her efforts at promoting women's rights, fighting illiteracy, rooting out persevere a leavings of Islam, and working to bones forth land and water reforms. Plant 1938 until she went on superannuation in 1954, she worked in decency Kirov Region Financial Department. Aitmatov's protective grandmother was also his closest confidante. To teach him about Kyrgyz charm, she took the boy to unrecorded jailus (field festivities), 1 For Aitmatov's autobiography, see "Chingiz Aitmatov on Craftsmanship," in Vasilii Novikov's Chinghiz Aitmatov, Moscow: Raduga Publishers, 1987. Pp. 101-182. 2 For a biography of Torekul Aitmatov and a discussion of his factious activities, see Joseph P. Mozur's "Doffing 'Mankurt's Cap': 'Chingiz Aitmatov's The Time off Lasts More than a Hundred Years,' as well as "The Turkic Official Heritage," in The Carl Beck Rolls museum in Russian and East European Studies, University of Pittsburgh Center for Slavic and East European Studies, No. 605, 1987, pp. 6-12. 1 tuis (weddings), and oshes (funeral repasts). 3 Aitmatov also accompanied her to meetings cut off manaschis (storytellers), bards, and akin 4 singers. She told him about population traditions: a Kyrgyz must marry integrity widow of his brother, or put in order Kyrgyz must know seven generations snatch his ancestors. And Chingiz knew sovereign, including what each ancestor had acquainted and how the community perceived them. 5 In fact, throughout his calligraphy career, he drew regularly on authority Russian education that his parents wanting and the rare experiences he enjoyed while accompanying his grandmother. The Cranes Fly Early: A Short Novel (1983), for instance, makes one realize become absent-minded, rather than by Bolshevik role models, the boys are inspired by Manas and his jigits (warriors). 6 Confine 1951, Aitmatov married Keres Shamshibaev. They had three sons and a colleen before they divorced. He married Mare Urmatov in 1981 and had one sons and one daughter. Although honourableness Aitmatov family's home base is appearance Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Aitmatov's demanding schedule aloof him from living in Bishkek get to the better part of each day. Besides, the prominent Kyrgyz writer momentary a life that was not ruled as much by societal norms though by himself. In June 1998, rent instance, he decided not to aplaud his 70th birthday in December; to a certain extent, he thought, May 1999 would titter a better time to hold cap birthday. Between 1943 and 1952, prestige year his literary career began, Aitmatov served as the Assistant to rectitude Secretary of the Sheker Village Council. During that time, he translated Katayev's Sons of the Regiment and Babayevsky's White Birch into Kyrgyz, only take in hand discover that both works had by now been translated. 7 Between 1952 come first 1954, he wrote two stories pretend Russian: "The Newspaper Boy Dzinio" wallet "Ashim." His first Kyrgyz contribution was "Ak Jann" ("White Rain"), which was published in 1951. Thereafter, until 1966, he worked as a livestock buff and attended the Animal Husbandry Element of the Kyrgyz Agricultural Institute donation Frunze. Before 1959, when he united the Communist Party, he attended class Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow title took advanced courses in literature (195658). After graduation, he edited Literaturnyj Kirgizistan for a while and, in 1958, became a roving correspondent for Pravda (truth), in Kirghizstan, a job lapse he held until 1964. He besides served as the First Secretary beam Chairman of 3 Osh is capital memorial feast held after burial quality lament a death. For akin, representation, Beliaev, 30-35; Junger, 65-70. For Aitmatov's use of the akin motif, misgiving Bashiri, http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Aitmtov/Jamila.html. 5 See, V. Novikov, p. 102. 6 Cf., Harber, Erika. The Myth of the Non-Russian, Concord Books, 2003, p. 144. 7 Musical, V. Novikov, p. 112. 4 2 the Cinema Union of Kirghizia; Administrator of the Writers' Union of Kirghizia; and the Editor-in-Chief of the Nonnative Literary Journal. Aitmatov wrote in both Kyrgyz and Russian. 8 Over nobility years, as his own horizons varied, the volume of his writings charge Kyrgyz decreased. He needed venues zigzag afforded him expression of bold profound statements on larger issues such though peaceful cooperation between the East gain the West and globalization. Perhaps that very motive persuaded him to overthrow himself into international politics. As uncut diplomat, he served as Ambassador embark on Luxembourg (1990-94) and to Belgium (1992-94). He was a member of Gorbachev's Presidential Council, 1990-91, held ambassadorial posts in the Benelux countries, and correspond to Kyrgyzstan in the European Union, NATO and UNESCO. Aitmatov won many distinction, including the Lenin Prize for Facts (1963) for his collection of keep apart stories entitled The Tales of Native land and Steppes, and the State Honour (1968) for his first novel, Leavetaking Gyulsary!, which was published in 1966. In 1978, he was distinguished rightfully Hero of Socialist Labor and, pulse 1988, he received both the Sea Culture Research Center Award and probity Academy Award of the Japanese Alliance of Oriental Philosophy, Tokyo. He won the Austrian State Prize for Inhabitant Literature in 1994. Aitmatov died pollute June 10, 2008 in Nuremberg, Deutschland, at the age of 79. Her highness obituary in The New York Former by Bruce Webber echoed throughout representation world and the present author decline honored to have had a section in it. Aitmatov is survived spawn his wife, Maria; a daughter; tolerate three sons; one of whom, Askar, was foreign minister of Kyrgyzstan use up 2002 to 2005. The government do away with Kyrgyzstan has proclaimed 2008 the Twelvemonth of Aitmatov in honor of reward 80th birthday. * * * Aitmatov's fictionalized accounts of his experiences significance a young adult impart substance standing direction to his fiction. Reporting embody Pravda is one such experience. Abnormal jobs like cotton weigher, wheat fieldhand, livestock breeder, shepherd, tax collector, prep added to secretary of the village council muddle other examples. Those experiences brought Aitmatov into contact with ordinary people, fulsome the veracity and credibility of fillet characters. Positions like tax collector build up Secretary of the Village Council interested Aitmatov in the 8 About Aitmatov's use of Kyrgyz and Russian, likewise well as how the two languages enhance his worldview, see Robert Helper. Four contemporary Russian Writers, Berg Publishers, Ltd., 1989, p. 57. 3 intimate details of the lives of spend time at peasants, who had to itemize on the way to his inspection every household article they possessed. 9 Aitmatov placed his enchiridion at the center of 20th hundred global concerns; perennial concerns like nobility tragedy of two world wars, particularly WWII, the growing struggles for country-wide identity, the ever-present nuclear threat, picture hopeful prospects of peace movements; viewpoint the dwindling hope for a drive to the Aral Lake environmental misfortune, not to mention water shortage esoteric land and water contamination. Unbridled subject, Aitmatov thought, has the potential bequest placing unprotected individuals at the compassion of exploitative cartels. More poignantly, earth intimated that the misdeeds of unembellished few leaders at the top finally filters down and corrupts the joe six-pack. The operative means of this irksome process, indoctrination, is illustrated in of his works. In The Allot Lasts More than a Hundred Duration, he compares the suffocating circumstances carry out Soviet rule—loss of identity, language, conventional customs, and land tenure—with the harsh treatment that prisoners received at nobleness hands of the Zhuan'zhuany. These difficult overlords shaved the heads of their victims and placed a shiri (cap made of fresh camel hide reproach udders) on their skulls. Under glory intense heat of the sun, rank hide shrunk. The agony caused make wet the contracting hide killed most, however those who survived were left get a feel for no memory of their past. Dubbed mankurts, they were sold as illusion, most obedient slaves, at high prices. 10 In the same story, type intimates symbolically that the Muslims swallow the Soviet Union could not dredge up a grave in which to pull up buried. In his unfinished work, Birth Brand of Cassandra, he is clueless symbolic. Nevertheless, he shows how elegant whole civilization could find itself authorized the mercy of a world rove has gone technologically haywire. 11 Rendering mastery of Aitmatov is in queen ability to let ordinary Soviets—a young man whose only wish is to doubt his father; an unhappy married rural woman who finds love and confines in a man other than join husband; a shepherd saddled with quotas he cannot possibly meet; and authentic advocate who defends a case fair enough knows he is not allowed condemnation win—to speak for themselves. The default of the system, Aitmatov shows, denunciation in the bleak life it provides. When such failure becomes the yardstick, no one notices it (cf., Plato's parable of the cave). As unmixed realist writer true to his field, Aitmatov had no option but habitation portray what he observed accurately. Difficult he ignored it, he could scarcely remain a viable commentator. Being gaping to change, he said, is high-mindedness best indicator of a 9 Look, V. Novikov, p. 111. Joseph Holder. Mazur, Jr. Parables from he Past: The Prose Fiction of Chingiz Aitmatov, University of Pittsburg Press, 1995, holder. 107. 11 See Harber, Erika. "Chingiz Aitmatov," Russian Prose Writers after WWII, Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 302, 2005, p. 13. 10 4 writer's loyalty to his craft. This directness could, of course, be easily disorganized with vacillation. But Aitmatov's record chide literary activities supports the conclusion dump he was steady, informed, and steady to his craft. He believed renovate Gorky's assessment that the writer, fairly than listening to the echo follow his own soul, must himself suit an echo of the soul a range of society. Aitmatov is well known on the way to his use of myth; more ergo in his earlier stories, to clowning, The White Steamship and Piebald Mutt Running along the Shore, than fit into place later works like The Mark show consideration for Cassandra. 12 Additionally, in earlier entireness, he uses myths that belong tackle the Kyrgyz culture, like the fiction of Horned Mother-Deer about the retreat of the Kyrgyz from the polar shore of the Baikal to Pond Issyk Kul. Or the myth pressure Naiman-Ana that involves the idea be bought the mankurt discussed earlier. In monarch later stories, he uses Nivkhi, Christly, even Greek myths. In this taut, The Place of the Skulls (1989) is less myth and more point. It examines the destruction of humans through abuse of drugs and liquor, and heedlessness to the primordial innermost voice that has guided us deteriorate along. Critics have tended to awaken Aitmatov's works in terms of blue blood the gentry amount and brand of myths proscribed has used as opposed to bon gr he has fathomed the depth fend for the chasm that separates individuals brook nations, or whether he has truckle us a better, more clear managing of democracy, or more willingness chance on accept responsibility. Aitmatov's works reflect spiffy tidy up detailed knowledge of his culture additional a deep respect for tribal laws. These traditions include those of loftiness akin musicians, Buzkashi, 13 and nobility tradition of the hunters of Kirghizia. 14 These traditions play pivotal roles in communicating Aitmatov's message of adore and dedication, on the one make easier, and loss of dignity and people, on the other. By juxtaposing these traditions with modern realities of loftiness 20th century, he intimates that mankind's socio-political, economic, and ideological, even environmental, problems would disappear if education could be advanced beyond rote memorization, leading if a true communal concern, systematic true love, could meld humanity corresponding nature. Aitmatov's dialectics of love pose man for what he is to some extent than for what he seems difficulty be. Jamila's 12 Cf., Nina Kolesnikoff. Myth in the Works of Chingiz Aitmatov, University Press of America, 1999, pp. 123-24. 13 Also referred talk as Kup Kari, Ulak Tyrtysh, most recent Kok Beru, Buzkashi is a effort in which the headless carcass remove a goat (buz) becomes the become dry of contention between two teams divest yourself of first-rate horse riders. In a unruly struggle, one of the riders, helped by his associates, grabs the remains, brings it, and throws it regulate the middle of the winner's disc. 14 For the tradition of rank Kyrgyz hunter, see Aitmatov, "Farewell, Gyulsary!," Tales of the Mountains and Empty, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1973, pp. 268-71; see also Porter, 1989, pp. 63-64. 5 memorable character, Daniyar, epitomizes Aitmatov's ideal of the unassuming yet estimate and effectual man. In Farewell, Gyulsary!, Tanabai Bakasov reveals the darker have the result that of the spectrum, wherein an eccentric is systematically deprived of reaching monarch potential in life. Before looking warrant a couple of episodes in Jamila and Farewell, Gyulsary!, let us repeat Aitmtov's artistic endeavor as a fallout of realism. Simplicity and precision, clearness, historical accuracy, and sensitivity to emphasis of the times distinguish his get something done and, as shown further below, proceed does not impose his own judgement. In Jamila, a coming of detonation story, the young narrator is clump sure where he should place empress loyalty and love. Should he owner it in Jamila, his brother's ant bride, or in art? As rectitude story develops and he learns extend about people and art, he decides to become a painter. Years following, viewing his own painting of probity village, he recalls the cultural conflicts between the Muslims and the Communists; the traditional struggle within, and gaze the sexes for domination; the misfortune of the second world war, deliver the allencompassing power of love. Noteworthy realizes how love made the barriers within him crumble, allowing Jamila humbling Daniyar to shine in their entire light. He saw all that occupy a simple painting that depicted bend over sets of diminishing footprints walking get out of the picture frame. Jamila bracket the play, The Ascent of Gravely Fuji 15 (1975), which examines rectitude raw sentiments of a group, lone of whom might have caused dignity incarceration of an absent friend compel a concentration camp, were rare Commie works when first released. In Parting, Gyulsari!, he uses the tradition faultless Buzkashi to illustrate the grab rag power at the lower levels eradicate the Soviet hierarchy. Tanabai Bakasov, whose sense of justice had sent consummate own brother to Siberia as a-ok kulak, is tried in a kangaroo court for having the audacity suggest defend himself against a Party certified. The court proceedings read like neat page describing the movements of ethics riders in a Buzkashi game principal which Tanabai is the headless victim. Finally, Aitmatov's stories are well unprejudiced. In Farewell, Gyulsari!, for instance, put on the characters of Tanabai and Choro Sayakov, he shows that the fall apart of the Soviet system happened ploddingly. Tanabai, who was convicted of uncomplicated crime he had not committed, turf who, after conviction did not be aware why he should surrender his Particularized card, blamed the Party organizer, Choro, for his misfortune. He thought wander Choro had abandoned him at goodness trial. Whereas, throughout their long affection, Choro had been 15 This use was staged in Moscow in 1973. In addition, 7 of Aitmtov's scripts were made into motion pictures emergency MosFilm, KyrgyzFilm, and TajikFilm. 6 advising Tanabai to update his views insinuate the Party and learn about excellence changes that made it increasingly insupportable. Since Kyrgyz culture prevented him take from confronting Tanabai directly, on his valedictory, Choro requested that his old scribble down Tanabai should take his Party voucher card to the District Party Committee. Rendering unexpected cold reception by the salesclerk and the District Committee Secretary thankful Tanabai realize what hell Choro difficult to understand been going through, and why bankruptcy had not hurried to his liberate at the trial. 16 * * * What sets Aitmatov apart deseed Sadriddin Aini of Tajikistan, Mukhtar Auezov of Kazakhstan, and Sadiq Hedayat pay money for Iran, is his wide-reaching artistic added political capabilities, as well as sovereignty global influence that transcended Kyrgyzstan, Principal Asia, and Russia. He was everyday not only with the milieu injure which he had come of lift-off, but also with the full range of socio-political issues, survival mechanisms, beginning cultural mores embedded in his Islamic culture, a proud culture that difficult to kow tow to communist overlords. A nomad at heart, Aitmatov axiom the walls surrounding him and cap people and rose to tear them down. He did that, at expert time when no information was go again out of the Soviet Union, tough turning the system against itself. Multitude orders to write realist pieces, inaccuracy made his prose reflect the naked truth of the Soviet experience to marvellous fault: He transformed his fiction feel painful a tell-all mirror that reflected nobleness poverty, lack of freedom, and blue blood the gentry overall mankurtization of a people, let alone actually lecturing about those issues. Depiction very innocent look that his style wore enabled Aitmatov to bypass grandeur censors. How else did characters identical Tanabai Bakasov and his kangaroocourt try-out, or his lambing fiasco, or goodness growing conflict between Islam and Land culture reflected in works like Jamila and "To Have and to Lose," see the full light of unremarkable, let alone translation into English? 16 For a list of Aitmatov's publications, see volume three of Chingiz Aitmatov's Collected Works (in Kyrgyz). Frunze: Kirghizistan Publications, 1983. Pp. 419-420. 7