Karim, Mustai

(pseudonym of Mustafa Safich Karimov). Born Oct. 20, 1919, in the village of Kliashevo, in present-day Chishmy Raion, Bashkir ASSR. Soviet Bashkir poet; People’s Poet of the Bashkir ASSR (1963). Member of the CPSU since 1944.

Karim graduated from the department of language and literature of the Bashkir Pedagogic Institute in 1940. He fought in the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) and began publishing his works in 1935. His first verse collections were The Detachment Set Off (1938, with V. Nafikov) and Vernal Voices (1941). The heroism and tragedy of the Great Patriotic War found expression in the narrative poems December Song (1942), UVmasbai (1942–44), and Black Waters (1961) and in many lyric verses. His postwar poems reflect the work and life of the Bashkir people (“Girls of Our Kolkhoz,” 1948, and “Sabantui,” 1953).

Karim’s contemporary poetry is characterized by a deepening of sociophilosophical themes (The Rivers Converse, 1961, and When the Cranes Came, 1964). He is also a playwright: The Wedding Continues (1947), The Kidnapped Girl (1959), On the Night of a Lunar Eclipse (1964; K. S. Stanislavsky State Prize of the RSFSR, 1967), and The Land of AiguV (1969). Karim has written novellas for children and has translated into Bashkir the works of T. G. Shevchenko and others. His works have been translated into many languages.

Karim served as chairman of the board of the Writers’ Union of Bashkiria (1951–62) and as secretary of the board of the Writers’ Union of the RSFSR (since 1962). A deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR at its fourth and fifth convocations, he became vice-chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in 1963. He was awarded the Salavat Iulaev State Prize of the Bashkir ASSR (1967), the Order of Lenin, five other orders, and several medals.