Saryg-Ool, Stepan Agbanovich

Born Nov. 4 (17), 1908, in an area now under the jurisdiction of Torgalyg village soviet, Oviurskii Raion, Tuva ASSR. Soviet Tuva writer. People’s Writer of the Tuva ASSR (1973) and Honored Worker in Literature and Art of the Tuva ASSR (1963). Became a member of the Tuva People’s Revolutionary Party in 1929. Member of the CPSU since 1944.

Saryg-ool studied at the Communist University for Workers of the East from 1930 to 1934. His work first appeared in print in 1934. Saryg-ool is the author of verse anthologies, including The Bright Sun (1944), The Lights of Communism (1962), and My Ulug-Khem (1967). He is also the author of the novellas The Gift (1943), The Ertnelig Kolkhoz (1956), and The Tale Narrated by Angyr-ool (books 1–2, 1961–66; Russian translation, The Tale of a Happy Boy, book 1, 1966) and several short-story anthologies, including My Rich Land (1958) and Life Is Struggle (1968). He has also written screenplays, plays, opera librettos, and books for children. In addition, he has translated works by A. S. Pushkin, M. Iu. Lermontov, N. A. Nekrasov, A. P. Chekhov, and others into the Tuva language.

Saryg-ool was a deputy to the second and third convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Tuva ASSR, and in 1967 he became a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Tuva ASSR. He has been awarded two orders and various medals.