Kerim Otarov

Born Apr. 20 (May 3), 1912, in the Giurkhozhan aul (village), Terek Province, present-day city of Tyrnyauz, Baksan Raion, Kabarda-Balkar ASSR; died Oct. 13, 1974, in Nal’chik. Soviet Balkar poet. People’s Poet of the Kabarda-Balkar ASSR (1969). Member of the CPSU since 1940. Fought in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45.

From 1933 to 1938 and from 1943 to 1944, Otarov worked as a teacher. His first works were published in 1930. Otarov was the author of the collections Poems and Songs (1938), Roads (1956; Russian translation, 1959), Native Land (1960), Years (1964), and My Morning Star (1969). Otarov’s poetry is optimistic and topical. His poems of the 1960’s and early 1970’s reveal an increasing preoccupation with philosophical questions. Otarov’s works were significant in the development of Soviet Balkar literature.

From 1938 to 1941, Otarov served as chairman of the Writers’ Union of the Kabarda-Balkar ASSR. In 1963 he graduated from the department of philology of the Kabarda-Balkar University. Otarov was awarded two orders and a number of medals.