Pavel Kuchiiak
Kuchiiak, Pavel Vasil’evich
Born Mar. 5 (17), 1897, in the Kuium Valley in the Altai; died July 2, 1943. Soviet Altai poet and playwright. Founder of Soviet Altai literature.
Kuchiiak studied at the Communist University of the Working People of the East in Moscow. In 1932 he wrote The Struggle, the first play in the Altai language, and in 1933, the region’s first short story, “The Iron Horse,” and first realistic narrative poem, Arbachi, which is about the Altai woman’s hard lot. In 1934, with the folk-tale narrator Daaby Iudakov, Kuchiiak composed the narrative poem The Golden Dawn Flamed, which is about Lenin and the fate of the Altai people. He wrote six plays, of which the best is Cheinesh (1938), devoted to the Civil War in the Altai. His plays became the foundation of the repertoire of the first Altai professional theater.
WORKS
Skazki Altaia. Transcription and literary reworking by Pavel Kuchiiak and Anna Garf. Novosibirsk, 1938.Zolotaia zaria. Compilation and introduction by A. Koptelov. Novosibirsk, 1948.
V gorakh Altaia. Compilation and introduction by A. Koptelov. Moscow, 1957.
“Pis’ma P. V. Kuchiiaka.” Published and annotated by A. L. Garf. Sibirskie ogni, no. 10, 1972.
REFERENCES
Kozhevnikov, S. “Zachinatel’ altaiskoi literatury.” In his book Literaturnye ocherki. Novosibirsk, 1949.Surazakov, S. Altai literatura. Gorno-Altaisk, 1962.