Nigmati, Rashit

(real name Rashit Nigmatullinovich Nigmatullin). Born Jan. 27 (Feb. 9), 1909, in the village of Dingizbai, in what is now Bol’shaia Chernigovka Raion, Kuibyshev Oblast; died Oct. 13, 1959, in Ufa. Soviet Bashkir poet. People’s Poet of the Bashkir ASSR (1959). Member of the CPSU from 1944.

Nigmati first appeared in print in 1926. His poetry collection Prelude was published in 1933. The narrative poems The Voice of History (1934) and Fair Are the Valleys of Ak-Idel’ (1940) memorably describe the heroic traits of the Soviet people. Soviet soldiers are portrayed in his best works of the war years: Poem About a Hero (1941) and the heroic and inspirational narrative poem My Son, Kill a Fascist! (1942). The narrative poem The Bolshevik (1948) is devoted to the path traveled by the Communist Party. The labor of Soviet people is a theme that resounds throughout Nigmati’s postwar works, such as the narrative poem The Girl From Sakmar (1952) and the poetry collection A Word of Greeting (1955). Nigmati also wrote plays and children’s works and translated works by A. S. Pushkin, V. V. Mayakovsky, and other writers. He was awarded two orders, as well as medals.