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Basyr GafarovSoviet philologist
Date of Birth: 10.01.1907
Country:  Operator |
Content:
- Early Life and Education
- Teaching and Party Work
- World War II and Military Service
- Post-War Academic Career
- Crimean Tatar National Movement
- Later Years and Legacy
Early Life and Education
Basir Gafarov was born on January 10, 1907, in the village of Beshtarym in Crimea. Orphaned at a young age, he was raised by relatives. He excelled in his studies at school, graduating with honors.
Teaching and Party Work
In the mid-1920s, Gafarov attended a pedagogical college in Totayköy. He subsequently taught Crimean Tatar language and literature at the factory and technical school of the Voikov Kerch Metallurgical Plant. From 1934 to 1941, he worked in the Crimean regional party committee.
World War II and Military Service
With the outbreak of World War II, Gafarov was drafted into the Red Army's 51st Army. From 1941 to 1942, he served as a political commissar in the 1st Front Regiment. In the following two years, he taught history of the Communist Party at the Uryupinsk Military Infantry School. He was demobilized due to illness in September 1944.
Post-War Academic Career
After the war, Gafarov was one of the few Crimean Tatars who avoided deportation. From 1947 to 1951, he pursued a postgraduate degree at the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He specialized in Crimean Tatar and wrote a dissertation on the conjugation system of the Gagauz language. In 1951, he earned his Candidate of Philological Sciences degree.
Crimean Tatar National Movement
From the mid-1950s, Gafarov became actively involved in the Crimean Tatar national movement. He was among the first to petition high-ranking Soviet officials about the plight of Crimean Tatars. He signed collective letters to Nikita Khrushchev, Dmitry Shepilov, and the "Appeal of Crimean Tatar Servicemen."
Later Years and Legacy
From 1952 to 1969, Gafarov worked in the library of the Moscow Institute of Soil Science. Upon his retirement, he joined the Institute of General Pedagogy of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. He passed away in 1991 and was buried in the village of Kolchugyno (Bulganak) in the Simferopol district. Gafarov bequeathed his scholarly works and personal library to the Republican Crimean Tatar Library named after Gasprinsky.
