Ata Salikh

Born 1908 in the village of Shorden, near the city of Mary. Soviet Turkmen popular poet. Member of the CPSU since 1941. Born into a poor peasant family.

At the age of three, Ata Salikh lost his eyesight. His first attempts at poetry date from 1919. In his verse he glorified the Party (“The Bolshevik Is Invincible, Friends!,” 1920) and socialist labor (“I Will Not Lose a SingleGram,” 1936), and he came out against survivals of the past (“Stop!,” 1935). During the Great Patriotic War he created many poems and songs imbued with patriotism. His postwar works are devoted to peaceful labor, friendship among peoples, and the denunciation of warmongers (the lyric poem “A Word in All Sincerity,” 1947). Ata Salikh is the originator of the fable genre in Turkmen literature (“The Lion and the Fox,” 1945; “The Pumpkin’s Laughter,” 1955; “The Jackal and the Cock,” 1955).