Kurbansakhatov, Kurbandurdy

Born 1919 in the village of Karaiab, now in Mary oblast. Soviet Turkmen writer.

Kurbansakhatov graduated from the Gorky Pedagogic Institute in Ashkhabad (1941). He published the collection of verses The Soldier Returned Home in 1947 and the verse tale The Foolish Shah (in Russian) in 1955. Later he turned to prose about contemporary life—for example, the collections of novellas and stories Surai (1955), The Heart Is Not a Stone (1958), Forty Coins (1961; Russian translation, 1964), and Dear Man (1965). Kurbansakhatov wrote a novella about the great Turkmen poet Makhtumkuli (Invitation, 1961, in Russian) and a novel about the contemporary Turkmen countryside (Toily Mergen, 1970). He also wrote a number of plays, including Khang (1966) and Unshed Blood (1968).

Kurbansakhatov served as chairman of the board of the Writers’ Union of Turkmenia from 1950 to 1955. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and a medal.