Mirza Azhdar Ogly Ibragimov

Born Oct. 15 (28), 1911, in the village of Eve, Sarab Province, southern Azerbaijan. Soviet Azerbaijani writer and public figure. Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR from 1945. People’s Writer of Azerbaijan (1961). Member of the CPSU from 1930.

Ibragimov’s works were first published in the early 1930’s. His works enjoy great popularity. The drama Khaiat, staged in 1935, is about the socialist transformation of the countryside. In the drama Madrid, staged in 1938, Ibragimov depicts the heroic struggle of the Spanish people against fascism. The play Makhabbet, staged in 1942, describes the people’s labor on the home front during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945). Ibragimov is the author of the comedies Country Girl (staged in 1962) and A Good Man (staged in 1965), as well as the drama Smoldering Hearths (staged in 1967). His dramatic works are noted for sharp plot confrontations and realistic characterization. Episodes from the national liberation movement in Iran are related in the cycle Southern Tales and the novel The Day Will Come (1948; in Russian translation, 1950; State Prize of the USSR, 1951). Ibragimov’s novel Great Support (1957; in Russian translation, Confluence of the Waters, 1958) describes life on a postwar collective farm. His epic novel Pervane (1969–70) is devoted to the life and revolutionary activity of N. Narimanov. Ibragimov writes essays and literary criticism on the subjects of language and literature.

From 1954 to 1958, Ibragimov served as the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR. He was a deputy to the first through the seventh convocation (except for the sixth) of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. From 1965 to 1975 he served as the first secretary of the Union of Writers of Azerbaijan. Ibragimov has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and several medals.