Fatikh Zarifovich Amirkhan

Born Jan. 1 (13), 1886, in Kazan; died there on Mar. 9, 1926. Tatar writer and publicist. Born into a mullah family.

In 1905, Amirkhan participated in the Shakird movement for radical school reforms, for which he was expelled from the madrasah. He founded the radical newspaper El’-islakh (Reform, 1907–09). In his literary and sociopolitical works Amirkhan came out against the remnants of feudalism in daily life, and he depicted the aspiration of Tatar youth for modern life and Russian culture. His works include the novellas Tatar Girl (1909), Fatkhulla khazrat (1909), and At the Crossroads (1912) and the drama Youth (1910). Amirkhan contributed much to the development of Tatar literary criticism, and he struggled for realistic art. After the October Revolution he worked as a journalist.