Dabe Mamsurov

Born July 27 (Aug. 9), 1909, in the village of Srednii Urukh, present-day Irafskii Raion, Severnaia Osetiia ASSR; died Aug. 21, 1966, in Ordzhonikidze. Soviet Ossetian writer. Member of the CPSU (1939).

Mamsurov was the son of a peasant. From 1933 to 1935 he studied at Leningrad University. His first collection of poems, First Steps, was published in 1931. One of the principal themes in Mamsurov’s creative work is the moral growth of Soviet man (the novel A Difficult Operation, 1939). The path of the Ossetian people to the construction of socialism is depicted in the epic novel A Poem About Heroes (parts 1-2, 1948-58; Russian translation, books 1-2, 1960-70). Mamsurov wrote the dramas Chief Bagatar (staged 1940) and The Sons of Bat (staged 1942). The workers of the collective farm village are depicted in the novella Masters of Life (1947) and in the novel People Are People (1960). Mamsurov was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and a number of medals.