Akhmed Faizi

(real surname Faizullin). Born Feb. 26 (Mar. 11), 1903, in Ufa; died Aug. 11, 1958, in Kazan. Soviet Tatar writer. Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1957).

Faizi began publishing in 1918; he studied at the Orenburg Eastern University in 1921. He fought in the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). For a time Faizi was influenced by formalism, but he adopted a realistic approach in the mid-1920’s. His narrative poem Flutes (1933) dealt with the spiritual quest of the intelligentsia; the ballad The Desert and Man (1936) was about the moral fortitude of Soviet man. Faizi’s ballad Why the Black Stone Is Silent (1940) was dedicated to V. I. Lenin. Faizi also published numerous lyrics and collections of poetry.

Faizi studied the life and work of the Tatar poet G. Tukai. He wrote the drama Tukai (1938), published the first part of a novel about Tukai (1952), and wrote the scenario for the first Tatar ballet, Shurale (1955), based on Tukai’s verse folktales. Faizi also wrote the libretto for an opera about the Tatar poet M. Dzhalil’ (music by N. Zhiganov). Faizi’s plays were important contributions to the development of Soviet Tatar literature.