The biography of Suleiman Stalsky, especially his childhood, is full of tragic events. It is amazing how a boy who grew up in difficult conditions, managed to keep his love for people in his heart. The biography of the national Dagestan poet and the founder of poetry in Lezgin language shows how kindness of soul and sincerity help even the most humble person to gain recognition and touch the hearts of various people with his work. Stalsky's poetry is still the main literary reflection of the folk life of the Caucasian peoples at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. What kind of man was the poet Suleiman Stalsky?
Biography
Suleiman Hasanbekov was born on May 18, 1869 in the Dagestan aul Ashaga-Stal, his parents were Lezgins living in poverty. The birth of the future poet was unusual: quarreling on the eve of childbirth, Suleiman’s father drove the pregnant wife out of the house, and the woman had to give birth in a stable. The mother, who was barely alive after giving birth, was not even allowed to the baby: the neighbor fed the baby, and the unfortunate woman had to leave the house. Soon, she died at some of the villagers who sheltered her, never once having seen her son.
Apparently, the insult to the mother of the boy at the father was very strong, as he continued to take her out on his son. From the age of four, Suleiman was busy with homework, and when his father married for the second time, he completely became a kind of servant, "an errand boy."
At eleven, Suleiman became an orphan. From the age of 13, he was forced to become a wage worker, he labored in Derbent, Samarkand, Ganja and Baku. The poet often recalled that all his youth passed in his work, but once he woke up and realized that he was already thirty years old. Soon Suleiman got married, his chosen one was the daughter of the burgher from the neighboring village of Orta-Stal.
First creativity
All this time, busy with the work and structure of his life, Suleiman Hasanbekov did not even think about poetry. But once in the village where he lived with his wife, the Lezgi poet ashug came. Ashugi is a Caucasian version of a minstrel or troubadour, that is, vagrant singers who accompany themselves with some simple instruments and perform folk songs.
For Suleiman, the ashug’s speech was a real revelation: he suddenly realized that he himself could express his thoughts in this way. That same evening, he composed his first poems in the Azerbaijani language, subsequently reciting them in both Dagestan and Lezgi. The novice poet had a poor command of writing, and therefore collected poems and songs he collected in his memory, retelling them to friends and neighbors.
The first real poems by Suleiman Stalsky is the Nightingale, composed in 1900.
On an apple tree, in thick foliage,
The permanent nightingale sings
How pure, how tender your voice is
Oh inspired nightingale!
Eat away from the world
Careless, you are happy now.
Ah, you don’t care about us,
Blessed Nightingale!
You are ready to despise people
Ringing in the garden a hundred frets.
But, coward, you run from the cold.
Be ashamed of the arrogant nightingale!
Wait where are you?
Give up fears!
Tell me how you lived.
Perhaps you had to starve?
Be an honest nightingale.
But this winter you're not dear
It was a winter day not strict with you.
You saved all your colors,
My incomparable nightingale.
The hawk soared ... Hide away
In a thick shadow, on a forest night!
Can i help you
My bold nightingale?
You don’t know the end
You don’t know if you’re calm
You are like a gramophone
The beauty of the universe is the nightingale!
Forget about frustration!
Find the nest! Stay with me!
And the sounds of Suleiman in the chest
Pour in, priceless nightingale!
Soon, the work of the beginning poet spread throughout Dagestan, poetry was passed from mouth to mouth. At the same time, his pseudonym came to Suleiman: not knowing his surname, people called him by birthplace: first Ashaga-Stalsky, and then simply Stalsky.
Since 1909, the biography of Suleiman Stalsky mentions his competitions with famous ashugs, in which he never once hit his face in the mud.
Soviet period
After the revolution, serious talent was paid to the talented Dagestan poet, who praised freedom and ridiculed slavery and the rich. All the joy of the common people regarding the change of power was expressed in simple and sincere verses by Suleiman Stalsky. Important for the poet was a speech at the All-Union Livestock Congress: Joseph Stalin himself listened to his poems from the presidium. Translations of poems from Lezgi into Russian began to appear in various newspapers, most often in Pravda and Izvestia.
Already in 1927, a collection of Lezgi poets was published in Moscow. It included the poems of Suleiman Stalsky. His work was highly appreciated by the Russian-speaking poets of that time for their genuine sincerity and Caucasian ability to play with words.
In 1934, Suleiman Stalsky was elected as a delegate from Dagestan to the first All-Union Writers' Congress. Maxim Gorky, who praised Stalsky’s work, called him the “Homer of the 20th Century”. Gorky and Stalsky in the photo below.
Recognition and rewards
From 1917 to 1936, the poetic biography of Suleiman Stalsky includes many poems and poems dedicated to Stalin, Ordzhonikidze, Dagestan, the Red Army, life in the USSR, Bolsheviks. Since at that time Stalsky kept all his works exclusively in his memory, the well-known at that time Lezgi linguist Hajibey Hajibeyov was recording his poems. For several hours, and sometimes several days, Hajibeyov wrote down poems dictated to him by Suleiman Stalsky, who knew how to keep in his head thousands of lines composed at different times. In 1936, in his article on Stalsky, Hajibeyov opposed the naming of Suleiman as an ashug. Suleiman Stalsky himself also protested against the title of ashug, calling himself an independent poet and author.
In 1934, Stalsky was declared the People's Poet of Dagestan, and in 1936 the poet was awarded the Order of Lenin.
Memory
Suleiman Stalsky died on November 23, 1937 in Makhachkala (Dagestan). In memory of the national poet, in the year of his death, the Dagestan village of Samurkent was renamed Stalskoye, the name is preserved to this day. in 1969, the Kasument district of Dagestan was renamed Suleiman-Stalsky district - this event was timed to coincide with the centenary of the poet's birthday, in the same year a commemorative stamp was issued with a portrait of Stalsky. In addition, the streets in Dagestan, Rostov-on-Don, Omsk, Novorossiysk are named after the poet, the Republican Prize in Literature and the State Lezgi Musical Theater are Stalsky. In Makhachkala, a commemorative bust of Stalsky was installed.
So the song is born
In 1957, a motion picture was shot by the Baku film studio filming a biography of Suleiman Stalsky, entitled "This is how a song is born." The movie was shot in Azerbaijani, the directors were Mikail Mikailov and Rza Tahmasib. The plot was based on intravital stories and memoirs of Suleiman himself, the stories of his family and friends, as well as "Parables about Stalsky" - small Dagestan instructive and funny stories, the main character of which was the poet. Such parables became part of Dagestan folklore from the 1930s until the war. The role of Suleiman Stalsky was performed by actor Konstantin Slanov. Frame from the film in the photo below.
It is noteworthy that the film was released in color, although it was a rarity for Azerbaijani cinema of that time.