Kugultinov, David Nikitich

Born Mar. 13, 1922, in the village of Gakhan-Avganara, now in Gorodovikovsk Raion, Kalmyk ASSR. Soviet Kalmyk poet. People’s Poet of the Kalmyk ASSR (1969). Member of the CPSU since 1943. A participant in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45.

Kugul’tinov made his literary debut in 1936. He graduated from the M. Gorky Literary Institute in 1960. His narrative poems include Love and War (1957), The Moabite Prisoner (1958), The Song of the Miraculous Bird (1961), Sar-Gerel (1963–64), Memories Awakened by Vietnam (1966), Time, the Sovereign (1967), and Reason’s Revolt (1965–71). He also wrote the poetry cycles Life and Reflections (1963–67) and All the Years (1939–67). He received the M. Gorky State Prize of the RSFSR in 1967 for his collection of poems I Am Your Coeval (1966).

Kugul’tinov early showed himself to be a romantic poet with a tendency to deal with the philosophical and civic aspects of his themes. The strong and courageous man, the patriot, is the hero of his works. The flashiness of Kugul’tinov’s early poetry was replaced by a Severo simplicity that emphasized the weight and profundity of his imagery. Kugul’tinov has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.