Abdulla Khamidovich Khamidov

Born Oct. 15, 1920, in the village of Starye Atagi, Chechen-Ingush ASSR; died July 6, 1969, in Groznyi. Soviet Chechen playwright. People’s Artist of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR (1959). Member of the CPSU from 1960.

From 1938 to 1941, Khamidov studied at the State Institute of Theatrical Arts; he graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Theater in 1961. His work was first published in 1934.

Khamidov’s play Sovdat and Daud (1958) reflects the struggle against survivals of the past. The play The Immortals (1969) is devoted to heroes of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. The playwright’s most important work is the comedy The Fall of Both-Ali (1967), in which a conflict between the old and the new unfolds within a contemporary family. Khamidov translated a number of works into Chechen, including L. N. Tolstoy’s The Power of Darkness and Shakespeare’s Othello.