Abutalib Gafurov

Born Nov. 21, 1882, in the aul of Shuni, Dagestan. Soviet Lakh poet. People’s Poet of Dagestan (1939). Born into a poor family.

During the Civil War, Gafurov was a musician and a fighter in a partisan detachment. His poems were first published in the journal Shagi revoliutsii (Revolution’s Steps; 1932). He is the author of the collection New World (1934). Gafurov wrote poems about the labor exploits of the Soviet people and the life of the Lakh peasants in the kolkhozes (the poems “Wish,” “Mountains,” and “Aul Kuli”). Some of Gafurov’s poems became folk songs (“I Did Not Know,” “Be Not Surprised”). He introduced rhyme and octometer into Lakh versification and created a new genre in Dagestan literature—prose alternating with verse. He writes miniature short stories and children’s verse. Gafurov has been a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Dagestan ASSR several times. He has been awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.