Zavki, Ubaidulla Salikh Ogly

Born 1853; died 1921. Uzbek poet; also wrote in Tadzhik.

Zavki, the son of a craftsman, was born in Kokand and studied at a madrasah. His poem “Demish Khan” (1874-75) satirizes the tyrannical rule of Khudoyarkhan and advocated the unification of the Kokand Khanate with Russia. Zavki’s early satirical works—”What Happened to Victor” and • “Abdurakhman Shaitan”—unmask swindlers, bribe-takers, and ignorant clergy. One of his best works is Satire on Traders (1905-06), in which the poet acerbically exposes Kokand’s clerks, merchants, and brokers. In “The Masters” (1916) and “Ergash the Bandit” (1918), Zavki attacked the bourgeois nationalists. His poems of the Soviet period are notable for their topicality, attacking the Whites and the Basmachi. Zavki’s work influenced the formation of Soviet Uzbek literature.