Gafez

(pseudonym of Fedor Zakhar’evich Gagloity). Born Aug. 29 (Sept. 11), 1913, in Baku. Soviet Ossetian writer. Member of the CPSU since 1939.

Gafez was born into the family of a worker. He graduated from a pedagogical institute in 1950. He took part in the Great Patriotic War. His first collection of poems, Fändïrï zälta, was published in 1940. Gafez is the author of the poetry collections Life Is Good (1948), Peace (1952), and The Native Hearth (1959). His most popular narrative poems are Aminat (1949) and the Oak Forest (1956), which praise the spiritual beauty of the workers of Soviet Ossetia. Gafez also wrote prose (the collection of stories The Lamp of Dzadzh, 1961, and the novel Greetings, Mankind!, 1966). He is also known as a translator and critic.