Kaziiau Ali

Born Dec. 11, 1879, in Andreiaul, in present-day Khasav“iurt Raion, Dagestan ASSR; died Sept. 23, 1964, in Makhachkala. Soviet Kumyk poet; People’s Poet of Dagestan (1949).

Kaziiau Ali came from a family of poor peasants. He fought in World War I (1914–18) and, during the years of the Civil War (1918–20), served in the ranks of the Red partisans. He was among the first to join a kolkhoz. He began composing verses orally and subsequently learned to read and write. His first collection of verses, Kaziiau Ali Recites, appeared in 1934. His later collections—for example, The Old Man’s Saber (1944), Selected Poems (1959), and / Too Am With You (posthumous, 1969)— depict the new life in the mountains and the new people. Kaziiau Ali was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and several medals.