Kaisyn Kuliev

Born Nov. 1, 1917, in the village of Verkhnii Chegem, in present-day Chegem Raion, Kabarda-Balkar ASSR. Soviet Balkar poet. People’s Poet of the Kabarda-Balkar ASSR (1967). Member of the CPSU since 1944.

Kuliev participated in the Great Patriotic War (1941-45). He studied at the A. V. Lunacharskii State Institute of Theatrical Arts (1935-39). His first poem Greetings, Morning! was published in 1937. Already in his prewar verses Kuliev proved him-self as a poet sensitive to contemporary life and as a subtle lyricist acutely aware of his country’s natural beauties (The Song of the Little Mountain Stream, The Rain Found Us on the Road ). In his major lyric cycle My Neighbors (1939-45; published, 1957), Kuliev depicted Soviet people—workers highly skilled in their jobs. During the war he published several cycles of verses about the courage of the people during the time of trials. In the postwar period he turned to the historical past of the Balkars (the cycle Songs of the Ravines, 1947-51). The immortality of Lenin’s ideas is emphasized in A Mountaineer’s Poem About Lenin (1959-60). The verses of the collection The Wounded Stone (1964; A. M. Gorky State Prize of the RSFSR, 1966) are devoted to the life of the Balkar people and to their wisdom and fortitude. The works of Kuliev have been translated into many languages. His creative work has influenced the development not only of Balkar but also of all Soviet poetry. A deputy to the fifth convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Kuliev has been awarded three orders and various medals.