Chingiz Aitmatov

Born Dec. 12, 1928, in the kishlak (hamlet) Sheker, Kirovskii Raion, Kirghiz SSR. Soviet Kirghiz writer. Member of CPSU since 1959. Writes in Kirghiz and Russian.

Aitmatov graduated from an agricultural institute in 1953 and worked as a zootechnician. In 1952 he published his first story, the Russian-language “Newsman Dziuido.” His novella Dzhamilia (1958), about love which has stood the test, about the right of a previously oppressed Kirghiz woman to personal happiness and public work, became widely known. Aitmatov’s book Novellas of the Mountains and Steppes (1962) was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1963. In the novellas from this work (especially Dzhamilia and The First Teacher) and in the novella Farewell, Gul’sary! (1966; State Prize of the USSR, 1968), Aitmatov emerged as an innovative writer, a master of the psychological portrait. His central theme is the problem of man and society. Aitmatov’s heroes are spiritually powerful, humane, active people of the modern era. Aitmatov was deputy of the seventh convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.