Galiaskar Kamal

(pseudonym of Galiaskar Kamaletdinov). Born Dec. 25, 1878 (Jan. 6, 1879), in Kazan; died there June 8, 1933. Soviet Tatar writer and public figure. Son of a handicraftsman.

In 1901, Kamal published the newspaper Tärakkï’y (Progress) and organized the Mägarif (Enlightenment) Publishing House. In 1906 he began working on the newspaper Azad (Freedom) and later Azad khalïk (Free People), in which articles were published propagandizing the ideas of Marxism. He was the editor and publisher of the satirical journal Yäshen (Lightning, 1908–09) and worked on the newspaper Yulduz (Star, 1907–17). His works were first published in 1900. Kamal’s most important works—the drama The Unfortunate Youth (1907, second version) and the comedies Because of a Gift (1908), The Mistress (1911), Our City’s Secrets (1911), and Bankrupt (1912; Russian translation 1944)—sharply castigated the vices of bourgeois society. After the October Revolution he wrote satirical poems and collaborated on the newspapers Esh (Labor) and Kïzíl bayrak (Red Banner). Kamal translated N. V. Gogol’s The Inspector-General, A. N. Ostrovskii’s Thunderstorm, and M. Gorky’s The Lower Depths into Tatar.