Tembot Kerashev

Born Aug. 7 (20), 1902, in the aul (village) of Koshekhabl’, in present-day Adygei Autonomous Oblast. Soviet Adygeian writer. Member of the CPSU since 1928.

Kerashev graduated from the Institute of Industrial Economics in Moscow (1929). His work was first published in 1925. His articles, essays, and short stories of the 1920’s and early 1930’s depict the revolutionary changes in the life, work, and psychology of the Adygeian peasantry. Kerashev was the first in the literature of the peoples of the Northern Caucasus to write in the genre of the social novel. An example of this genre is his novel The Road to Happiness (1940; Russian translation, 1947; State Prize of the USSR, 1948), which deals with the construction of socialist economy and culture in Adygeia. His novel Competing With a Dream (book 1, 1955, in Russian) is devoted to the postwar life of an Adygeian aul. Kerashev is the author of such novellas as The Daughter of the Shapsugs (1951, in Russian), Abrek (or Rebel Mountaineers, 1957; Russian translation, 1959), and The Revenge of the Horse Herder. He raised the problem of the upbringing of youth in the novella The Daughter of a Wise Mother (1963) and the novel Kuko (1968). Kerashev’s works are characterized by realistic descriptions of characters and landscapes, psychological penetration of characters, and a polemically passionate style. He has been awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor as well as medals.