Gafur Kulakhmetov

(also, Gabdulgafur lu. Kulakhmetov). Born Apr. 22 (May 4), 1881, in Penza; died Apr. 1, 1918, in the village of lunki, now in Torbeev Raion, Mordovian ASSR. Tatar writer and social figure.

Kulakhmetov was the son of a petty industrialist. He graduated from the Kazan Teachers School in 1902 and obtained a position as a teacher (1902–12). He participated in illegal social democratic circles and read Lenin’s Iskra (Spark) and studied the works of K. Marx. In 1903, Kulakhmetov began translating revolutionary literature into Tatar and disseminating it. He contributed to the democratic press in 1905–06.

In 1906, Kulakhmetov published the narrative poem The Destroyed Pier, which called for struggle against tsarism. His play Two Thoughts (1906; published 1929) disclosed in allegorical forms the victory of the ideas of socialism. Kulakhmetov’s drama Young Life (1908), which was the first play in Tatar literature to show revolutionary workers, developed the theme of proletarian international solidarity.