Abdulla Mustafa Ogly Shaik

(real surname, Talybzade). Born Feb. 12 (24), 1881, in Tiflis; died July 24, 1959, in Baku. Soviet Azerbaijani writer and teacher. Honored Art Worker of the Azerbaijan SSR (1941).

From 1898 to 1900, Shaik studied in Mashhad, Iran. In 1901 he took up residence in Baku and became a teacher. After the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan he worked to build a socialist culture. In his prerevolutionary works, Shaik combined elements of realism and romanticism. He wrote powerful prose filled with criticism of social injustice and oppression. Outstanding examples include the novel Heroes of Our Age (1909), the novella The Unhappy Family (1912), and the story “The Letter Did Not Arrive” (1908), which describes the life of petroleum workers.

Shaik’s poetry of the Soviet period is pervaded with patriotism and revolutionary optimism, for example, “It’s All Ours” and “Rise Up!” His stories are devoted to the new life and expose vestiges of the past. Shaik’s most significant prose work is the historical revolutionary novel Araz (1938), which is about the Baku proletariat and its struggle for freedom.

Shaik is the author of folktales in verse and the first Azerbaijani plays for children; he also produced a series of textbooks, teaching aids, and essays on literary criticism. He translated the works of Nizami, Ferdowsi, Shakespeare, A. S. Pushkin, I. A. Krylov, J. Swift, D. Defoe, and other authors into Azerbaijani. Shaik’s works have been translated into numerous languages of the peoples of the USSR.

Shaik was a deputy to the second and fourth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and several medals.