Musa Jalil is a famous Tatar poet. Each nation is proud of its outstanding representatives. His poems brought up more than one generation of true patriots of their country. The perception of instructive stories in the native language begins with diapers. Moral attitudes laid down from childhood turn into the credo of a person for his whole life. Today, his name is known far beyond the borders of Tatarstan.
The beginning of the creative path
The real name of the poet is Musa Mustafovich Jalilov. Few people know it, since he called himself Musa Jalil. The biography of each person begins with birth. Musa was born on February 2 (15), 1906. The life of the great poet began in the remote village of Mustafino, which is located in the Orenburg region. The boy was born into a poor family as a sixth child. Mustafa Zalilov (father) and Rakhim Zalilov (mother) did everything possible and impossible to raise children with people worthy of respect.
To call childhood difficult means to say nothing. As in any large family, all children began to take an active part in maintaining the household and fulfilling the clear requirements of adults. The elders helped the younger ones and were responsible for them. The younger ones studied with the elders and revered them.
Early showed a craving for the study of Musa Jalil. A brief biography of his training fits into several sentences. He tried to study, could clearly and beautifully express his thoughts. Parents give him to Husainia, a madrasah in Orenburg. The divine sciences were mixed with the study of secular subjects. The boy's favorite subjects were literature, drawing and singing.
Thirteen year old teenager joins the Komsomol. After the bloody civil war ended, Musa was engaged in the creation of pioneer detachments. To attract attention and an accessible explanation of the ideas of pioneer, he writes poetry for children.
Moscow - a new era of life
Soon he receives membership in the Bureau of the Tatar-Bashkir section of the Central Committee of the Komsomol and goes on a trip to Moscow.
Moscow State University accepts it in its penates in 1927. Moussa becomes a student in the literary department of the ethnological faculty. In 1931, Moscow State University was undergoing a reorganization. Therefore, he receives a diploma in the Faculty of Writing. The poet Musa Jalil continues to compose all the years of study. His biography written in student verses is changing. They bring popularity. They are translated into Russian and read at university evenings.
Immediately after receiving his education, he is appointed editor of children's magazines in the Tatar language. In 1932 he works in the city of Serov. He writes works in many literary genres. Composer N. Zhiganov creates operas based on the plots of the poems Altyn Chech and Ildar. Musa Jalil invested the legends of his people in them. The biography and work of the poet are entering a new era. The next career step in Moscow is the head of the literature and art department of the Kommunist newspaper in Tatar.
The last pre-war years (1939-1941) in the life of Musa Jalil were connected with the Writers' Union of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. He has been appointed executive secretary and manages the writing department of the Tatar Opera House.
War and the life of the poet
The Great Patriotic War broke into the life of the country and changed all plans. 1941 is becoming a turning point for the poet. He deliberately asks for Musa Mustafovich Jalil to the front. The biography of a warrior poet is the path he chooses. He goes to the draft board, asks for the front. And receives a refusal. The persistence of the young man soon gives the desired result. He received a summons and was drafted into the Red Army.
He is sent to a semi-annual political instructor course in the small town of Menzelinsk. Having received the title of senior political officer, he is finally sent to the front line. First the Leningrad Front, then Volkhovsky. All the time among the soldiers, under shelling and bombing. Courage on the verge of heroism inspires respect. He collects material and writes articles for the newspaper “Courage”.
The 1942 Luban operation tragically ends Musa’s writing career. On the outskirts of the village of Myasnoy Bor, he is injured in the chest, loses consciousness and is captured.
A hero is always a hero
Hard trials either break a person or temper his character. No matter how worried about the shame of the capture of Musa Jalil, a biography, a brief summary of which is available to readers, speaks of the invariability of his life principles. In the conditions of constant control, exhausting work and humiliating bullying, he is trying to confront the enemy. He searches for associates and opens his “second front” for the struggle against fascism.
Initially, the writer got into the camp. There he called himself a stranger to Musa Gumerov. They managed to deceive the Germans, but not their fans. He was recognized even in the fascist dungeons. Moabit, Spandau, Pletzensee - these are the places of Musa’s imprisonment. Everywhere he is resisting the invaders of his homeland.
In Poland, Jalil ended up in a camp near the city of Radom. Here he organized an underground organization. He distributed leaflets, his poems about victory, supported others mentally and physically. The group organized the prisoners of war from the camp.
The "accomplice" of the Nazis in the service of the Fatherland
The Nazis tried to lure captured soldiers to their side. The promises were tempting, but most importantly - there was a hope to stay alive. Therefore, it is decided to take the chance of Musa Jalil. Biography makes adjustments to the life of the poet. He decides to join the committee on the organization of divisions of traitors.
The Nazis hoped that the Volga peoples would rise up against Bolshevism. Tatars and Bashkirs, Mordovians and Chuvashs were, according to their plan, to form a nationalist detachment. The corresponding name was chosen - "Idel-Ural" (Volga-Ural). This name was given to the state, which was to be organized after the victory of this legion.
The Nazis did not succeed. The small underground detachment created by Jalil opposed them. The first detachment of Tatars and Bashkirs sent to the front near Gomel turned their weapons against their new masters. In exactly the same way, all other fascist attempts to use prisoners of war against Soviet troops ended. The Nazis abandoned this idea.
The last months of life
The Spandau concentration camp turned out to be fatal in the life of the poet. There was a provocateur who reported on an upcoming prisoner escape. Among those arrested was Musa Jalil. The biography again makes a sharp turn. He was indicated by a traitor as an organizer. The verses he distributed of his own composition and leaflets urged him not to lose heart, to rally for the struggle and to believe in victory.
The solitary confinement of the Moabit prison became the last refuge of the poet. Torture and sweet promises, death row and gloomy thoughts did not break the core of life. He was sentenced to death. In the Pletensee Prison on August 25, 1944, the sentence was carried out. The guillotine built in Berlin cut short the life of a great man.
Unknown feat
The first post-war years became a black page for the Zalilov family. Musa was declared a traitor, accused of treason. The poet Konstantin Simonov played the role of a true benefactor - he contributed to the return of a good name. A notebook written in the Tatar language fell into his hands. It was he who translated the verses authored by Musa Jalil. The biography of the poet changes after their publication in the central newspaper.
More than a hundred poems of the Tatar poet were squeezed into two small notebooks. Their sizes (palm-sized) were necessary for shelter from bloodhounds. They received a common name from the place of detention of Jamil - "Moabite notebook". Sensing the closeness of the last hour, Musa handed the manuscript to his cellmate. Belgian Andre Timmermans managed to keep the masterpiece.
After being released from the dungeons, the anti-fascist Timmermans took poetry to his homeland. There, at the Soviet embassy, he handed them to the consul. In such a circuitous way, the evidence of the poet’s heroic behavior in fascist camps came to his homeland.
Poems are living witnesses
The first time poems were published in 1953. They were released in Tatar - the native language for the author. Two years later, the release of the collection is repeated. Now in Russian. It was like returning from the other world. The good name of the citizen has been restored.
Musa Jalil posthumously in 1956 was awarded the title "Hero of the Soviet Union", twelve years after the execution. 1957 - a new wave of recognition of the greatness of the author. He was awarded the Lenin Prize for the popular Moabit Notebook.
In his poems, the poet seems to foresee the future:
If they bring news about me,
They will say: “He is a traitor! Betrayed the homeland ", -
Do not believe it, dear! The word is
Friends will not say if they love me.
His confidence that justice will triumph and the name of the great poet will not sink into oblivion, amazes:
Heart with the last breath of life
He will fulfill his firm oath:
I’ve always dedicated songs to my homeland,
Now I give my life to my homeland.
Perpetuating the name
Today the name of the poet is known in Tatarstan, throughout Russia. He is remembered, read, praised in Europe and Asia, America and Australia. Moscow and Kazan, Tobolsk and Astrakhan, Nizhnevartovsk and Novgorod the Great - these and many other cities of Russia have made a great name in the names of their streets. In Tatarstan, the village received the proud name of Jalil.
Books and films about the poet allow us to understand the meaning of poems, the author of which is the Tatar master of the word Musa Jalil. The biography, briefly outlined for children and adults, is reflected in the animated images of the feature film. The film has the same name as the collection of his heroic poems - “The Moabite Notebook”.