Khydyr Deriaev

Born 1905, in the village of Egriguzer, present-day Mary Oblast. Soviet Turkoman writer. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Turkmen SSR (1969) and People’s Writer of the Turkmen SSR (1967).

The son of a peasant cattle breeder, Der’iaev graduated from Middle Asian State University and became an instructor at Ashkhabad Teachers College in 1931. He is the author of a textbook on the syntax of Turkoman. Der’iaev became well known as a writer with the publication of the novel Fate (vols. 1-3, 1960-67), which paints a broad picture of Turkoman peasant life on the eve of the Great October Socialist Revolution. He is the author of the narrative poem A Waking Dream (1965) and the dramas Fate (1961, staged in 1962; based on motifs of his novel), Mekhri (1963, staged in 1964), and Khodzhanepes (1968, staged in 1969). Der’iaev has been awarded the Order of Lenin.