Sultanmakhmut Toraigyrov

Born Oct. 16, (28), 1893, in what is now Baianaul Raion, Pavlodar Oblast; died there May 21, 1920. Kazakh poet and democratic publicist.

Toraigyrov studied in a madrasah. In 1913 he began working as secretary of the editorial staff of the first Kazakh magazine, Aykap, in which he first appeared in print as a poet, publicist, and essayist. His works have been published in book form only in the Soviet period.

Toraigyrov’s lyric poetry is decidedly civic in nature and deals with the life of the poet’s own people. There is a philosophical character to the poems “A Life in Delusions” and “The Poor Man, ” both published posthumously in 1922; the poems also attack social injustice. Toraigyrov wrote one of the first Kazakh novels, The Beautiful Kamar, which was published in 1933.