Aibek

(pseudonym of Musa Tashmukhamedov). Born Dec. 28, 1904 (Jan. 10, 1905), in Tashkent; died there on July 1, 1968. Soviet Uzbek writer. People’s Writer of Uzbekistan (1965). Member of CPSU from 1948. Academician at the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR (1943). Deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, at the fifth and sixth convocations.

Born into the family of a weaver, Aibek graduated from the faculty of economics of the Central Asian Institute in 1930. His first collection of poems, Feelings, was published in 1926. In The Torch (a collection of poems, 1932) and the poems Vengeance (1932) and The Blacksmith Dzhura (1933), he developed themes relevant to contemporary life and called upon his readers to oppose the old order. His first novel, Sacred Blood (1943), described the life of the Uzbek people during World War I. He was widely acclaimed for his historical-biographical novel Navoi (1945; State Prize of the USSR, 1946). During World War II he wrote the patriotic poems “To the Brave Cavalrymen,” “Victory Is Ours,” “Death to the Enemy,” “Of My Native Land,” and others. The poem Khamza (1948) deals with the life and activity of Khamza Khakim-zade Niiazi, a pioneer in Soviet Uzbek literature. The novel Wind of the Golden Valley (1950) deals with daily life on the kolkhozes. The life of the workers in Pakistan and their struggle for peace and democracy is treated in the poems Impressions of Pakistan (1950), Zafarand Zakhra (1951), and Lovers of Justice (1954) and in the novella In Search of Light (1956). The novel The Sun Will Not Dim (1958) deals with the heroism of the Soviet soldiers during World War II; the novella Childhood (1962, Khamza State Prize of the Uzbek SSR) is autobiographical. The novel The Great Road (1967) is about socialist revolution. Aibek’s translations into Uzbek include Eugene Onegin by A. S. Pushkin, Faust by J. W. Goethe, Masquerade by M. Iu. Lermontov, and works by M. Gorky and V. G. Belinskii. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, four other orders, and a medal.