Ragim, Mamed

(pen name; full name Mamed Ragim Abbas ogly Guseinov). Born Apr. 7 (20), 1907, in Baku; died May 6, 1977, in Baku. Soviet Azerbaijani poet. Honored Artist (1940) and People’s Poet of the Azerbaijan SSR (1964).

Ragim began publishing in 1926. He is the author of the collections of verses Wishes (1930), The Ram Attack (1942), In the Arms of the Don (1943), and others. His narrative poem “The Immortal Hero” (1933) is dedicated to S. M. Kirov. His three narrative poems “Over Leningrad” (1948; State Prize of the USSR, 1949), about the defenders of the hero-city, “On Apsheron Land” (1950), about Azerbaijani metalworkers, and “On the Caspian Sea” (1958), about oil workers, form a trilogy. The play Khagani (1955) is about the 12th-century Azerbaijani poet. Ragim translated into the Azeri language works by Sh. Rustaveli, A. Navoi, A. S. Pushkin, M. Iu. Lermontov, J. W. von Goethe, S. Petöfi, O. Tumanian, and A. T. Tvardovskii. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals.