Gusein Mekhti

(pseudonym of Mekhti All ogly Gusei-nov). Born Apr. 4 (17), 1909, in the village of Shykhly, in present-day Kazakh Raion; died Mar. 10, 1965, in Baku. Soviet Azerbaijani author and critic. Member of the CPSU from 1941. Born into the family of a teacher in a peasant school.

Gusein Mekhti’s first story, The Shearing of the Sheep, was published in 1927. His early stories depict the Azerbaijani countryside of the first postrevolutionary years, as well as the struggle against patriarchal feudal relationships. His novel The Flood (1933–36) describes the events of the Civil War. In the novella Tarlan (1940; in Russian translation, The Skirmish, 1956), Gusein Mekhti develops the theme of the socialist reconstruction of the Azerbaijani countryside. He wrote the first Azerbaijani historical narrative about Meshadi Azizbekov, The Commissar (1942; Russian translation, 1949). During the Great Patriotic War, he wrote the story “The Call” and the historical play Dzhavanshir. A broad picture of the life and work of oil workers is depicted in his novel Apsheron (1947; Russian translation, 1949; its sequel, Black Cliffs, 1957). His historical novel Morning (parts 1–2, 1950–53; Russian translation, 1954) is devoted to the formation of individuality and character. In 1966 his novel Underground Waters Flow Into the Ocean was published posthumously.

Gusein Mekhti’s plays include Glory (1938–39), based on the life of a frontier Azerbaijani village, Nizami (1940), and Waiting (1944, with I. Efendiev), which is about loyalty to civic duty. He was chairman of the Writers’ Union of the Azerbaijan SSR and secretary of the Writers’ Union of the USSR. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan (1958–65). Gusein Mekhti was also a deputy to the fifth convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR and to the sixth convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He has been awarded two orders.