Berdy Kerbabaev Turkmen Soviet writer Date of Birth: 15.03.1894 Country: Turkmenistan

1. Biography of Berdy Kerbabayev
2. Early Career and Education
3. Revolutionary Historical Novels
4. Works during the Great Patriotic War
5. Post-War Works
6. Accomplishments and Recognition
7. Style and Legacy

Biography of Berdy Kerbabayev

Berdy Muradovich Kerbabayev (1894-1974) was a Turkmen Soviet writer and one of the founding figures of Soviet Turkmen literature. He was born on March 3, 1894, in the village of Kouki-Zeren, currently located in the Tedzhensky District of Turkmenistan.

Early Career and Education

Kerbabayev began his literary career in 1923 as a satirical poet. In 1927-1928, he studied at the Eastern Faculty of Leningrad University. During this time, he published two poems, "The World of Maidens" (1927) and "Enslaved, or the Victim of Ada" (1928), in which he advocated for the affirmation of Soviet moral norms and the elimination of remnants of the past.

Revolutionary Historical Novels

From 1930 onwards, Kerbabayev worked on the first revolutionary historical novel in Soviet Turkmen literature. The first part of the novel, "The Decisive Step," was published in 1940. The complete work was published in the Turkmen language in 1947 and reissued in a new edition in 1955. In 1948, Berdy Kerbabayev became a laureate of the State Prize of the USSR.

Works during the Great Patriotic War

During the years of the Great Patriotic War, Kerbabayev wrote the novella "Kurban Durdy" (1942), the poem "Aylar" (1943), and the plays "Brothers" (1943) and "Makhtumkuli" (1943). He also served as the chairman of the Union of Writers of Turkmenistan from 1942 to 1950.

Post-War Works

After the war, Kerbabayev's works predominantly focused on themes of socialist construction. He wrote the novella "Aisoltan, a Village of White Gold" (1949, State Prize of the USSR 1951) and the novel "Nebit-Dag" (1957) about the lives of oil workers. In 1965, he released the historical novel "Born by a Miracle" about the Turkmen revolutionary and statesman K. Atabayev. In the 1960s, Berdy Kerbabayev translated works by Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, and other Russian and Soviet writers and poets into the Turkmen language. His works were also translated into Russian and published in Moscow.

Accomplishments and Recognition

Berdy Kerbabayev was elected as an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Turkmen SSR in 1951 and was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor in 1969. He received the Republican Mahmutkuliyev Award in 1970 and was decorated with three Orders of Lenin. He passed away in Ashgabat in 1974.

Style and Legacy

Berdy Kerbabayev's literary works can be classified as part of the "great style" of literature, which was developed during the Soviet period in Russian and the languages of the Soviet peoples. His distinctive feature was the predominance of large literary forms such as novels, novellas, and poems, as well as his inclination to view the destinies of his characters through the prism of significant historical events. Kerbabayev's works often focused on solving important tasks and exploring profound personal discoveries, while relegating the minor and mundane to the background.