Mirshakar, Mirsaid

(also, M. Mirshakarov). Born Apr. 23 (May 6), 1912, in the kishlak (village) of Sindev, in presentday Shugnan Raion, Tadzhik SSR. Soviet Tadzhik author and public figure. People’s poet of the Tadzhik SSR (1962). Member of the CPSU (1944).

Mirshakar is the son of a poor livestock raiser. In 1930 he completed the courses at the Central Soviet Party School in Dushanbe. He began to appear in print in 1930. In 1932–33, Mirshakar was the editor of the newspaper Sokhtmoni Vakhsh. His narrative poem The Banner of Victory (1934) dealt with the Vakhsh construction project and with the everyday life of the canal builders.

Mirshakar’s narrative poems reflecting historic events in the life of the Tadzhik people after the October Revolution of 1917 have greatly influenced the development of epic genres in Soviet Tadzhik poetry. These poems include The Golden Kishlak (1942; State Prize of the USSR, 1950), The Turbulent Piandzh (1949; State Prize of the USSR, 1950), Lenin in the Pamirs (1955), Love and Duty (1962), and Lenin’s Gaze (1962).

Mirshakar’s plays include Tashbek and Gul’kubran (1946), The Golden Kishlak (1949), and My City (1951). Mirshakar is one of the founders of Tadzhik children’s literature.

From 1940 to 1943 and 1946 to 1959, Mirshakar served as the executive secretary of the administrative board of the Writers’ Union of the Tadzhik SSR. He was a deputy to the third through eighth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Tadzhik SSR. Since 1961 he has been chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Tadzhik SSR and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Tadzhikistan since 1963. Mirshakar has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, three other orders, and a number of medals.