Mamakaev, Magomet

(pen name, Magomet Tur). Born Dec. 16 (29), 1910, in the village of AchkhoiMartan, present-day Chechen-Ingush ASSR; died Aug. 2, 1973, in Groznyi. Soviet Chechen writer. Member of the CPSU (1927).

Mamakaev was the son of a peasant. He graduated from the Communist University for the Workers of the East in 1930. He was first published in 1926. His first collection of poetry, The Swallow, was published in 1931. He wrote the poetry collections Bloody Mountains (1936), The Spark (1940), My Pass (1958), I Shall Return (1963), Even the Stones Speak (1966; Russian translation, 1968), and Land of Marian (1971). Mamakaev’s poetry deals with heroic times and people remaking the world in a revolutionary way. He introduced new poetic meters and new rhythms into Chechen poetry.

In 1956, Mamakaev published a book of prose, The First Whistle.ln his novel Murid of the Revolution (1962; Russian translation, 1968) he depicts the revolutionary events in Chechen. The novel Zelimkhan (1968; Russian translation, 1971) deals with the social and class contradictions in Chechnia in the early 20th century. Mamakaev was the author of The Chechen Clan (Taip) During the Period of Its Disintegration (1962). In 1960, Mamakaev became editor of the literary anthology Orga (Argun). He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and a medal.