The Kazakh writer Saken Seyfullin is considered the founder of the modern national literature of his country. He was a prominent figure in the Bolshevik Party and held important government posts in his native republic.
Origin
The birthday of Saken Seyfullin is considered October 15, 1894. The child was born in a nomadic village in the territory of the then Akmola district. Today this territory belongs to the Karaganda region of the Republic of Kazakhstan. His real name given at birth was Sadvakas. The writer began to call himself a saken due to the fact that this gentle and simplified treatment at his home was used much more often and more willingly.
The boy was born in a family with a small income. His father was a musician and played dombra - a national instrument of Kazakhs and Nogais. He loved hunting and was engaged in the cultivation of hunting species of birds. Saken's mother knew by heart all the local folklore and was a skilled storyteller. From early childhood, Saken Seyfullin was surrounded by epics and epic poems that were passed from mouth to mouth in his native village. Of course, this instilled in the boy an interest in literature, which in the future determined his fate - the fate of the famous national writer.
Childhood
At 11, Saken Seyfullin was sent to the nearest school, which was located at the Uspensky mine. Father wanted his son to master Russian literacy. There the boy spent three years. Later, the writer recalled that the childhood impressions of the paintings of the hard working conditions of the miners were forever imprinted in his memory.
Saken continued his studies, first in Akmolinsk, and then in Omsk. The local seminary was not without reason called Siberian University. It was a regional center for education and science. Higher education institutions in that turbulent era have always become places where bold political ideas have taken root.
Novice revolutionary and poet
Saken Seyfullin could not help but undergo an advanced influence. The biography of the young man in 1914 was marked by two important events. Firstly, the budding poet joined the revolutionary organization "Unity", consisting of Kazakh nationalists, and secondly, his first collection of poems, "Past Days", was released at the same time.
In the political arena, Saken was making progress. He spoke a lot at secret meetings of revolutionaries and honed his art of rhetoric. Then the young man came under the supervision of the royal secret police. In The Days of Bygone, the poet bitterly talked about the fate of his people. Saken did not like the impoverished condition of most Kazakhs and the dominance of obsolete patriarchal customs in the villages.
Witness of revolutions
In 1916, Omsk Seminary said goodbye to the next generation of graduates, among whom was Saken Seyfullin. A brief biography of the writer of that time is a typical example of a person of his education and position. The first year of his adult life, he worked at school.
After that, Saken moved to Akmolinsk. Then in Russia there were two revolutions. With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the writer supported the new order. He took an active part in organizing and creating a new Council of workers and peasants' deputies of the city of Akmolinsk. In May 1918, the local Bolsheviks were overthrown by whites. Seyfullin was captured. Kolchak's supporters decided to transport him to Omsk.
White captive
Red prisoners were transported through Siberia in the so-called death cars. Saken Seyfullin also visited them. Photos of these creepy compositions heading for concentration camps can be found today in museum displays and history books. Half-dead prisoners rode in wagons blown by the icy wind. Periodically, they were tortured by whites. The civil war, of course, led to the bitterness and brutality of the participants in both sides of the conflict.
The writer shared his bitter memories of those terrible days in one of his most famous books, titled The Thorny Path. Seyfullin, like other prisoners, received rations only once every three days. Many also started dehydration, to which the guards did not react. The poet managed to escape from the "death car" only thanks to a bold and even reckless escape.
Educator
In 1920, the writer returned to Akmolinsk. This city, like the one where Saken Seyfullin was born, finally fell under the rule of the Bolsheviks. Having restored the documents and strengthened the physically young intellectual, he took a lively part in the construction of a new socialist country. In 1922 he was elected Deputy Commissar of Education of the Kazakh Republic. But this position was only the beginning of his fast-paced state career.
While educating the population of his native country, Seifullin was especially acutely aware of its cultural decline. The writer again began to study the national language. He began to write articles and print in local newspapers. Then the Bolsheviks at their XII Congress decided that it was necessary to spread the Russian language in the other republics of the USSR.
Saken Seyfullin could not accept this state of affairs. He used a variety of levers. Firstly, the writer published several categorical articles in which he publicly advocated that all stationery in Kazakhstan should be kept in the national language in defiance of the Bolshevik decision in Moscow. Secondly, Seifullin, already known throughout the country, pressed the CEC with the help of his administrative resource. Thanks to this, on November 22, 1923, a historic decision was made. The CEC issued a decree that enshrined the rule: Kazakh state papers should now be kept in the national, not Russian.
Creative zenith
In the late 1920s and 1930s, Seifullin was torn between his many deeds and writer's concerns. He was a rector at several Kazakh universities. The poet combined these positions with the chair of the editor-in-chief of the Literary Front magazine. Also Seyfullin was directly behind the creation of the Union of Writers of Kazakhstan.
Along with his administrative and journalistic duties, the poet did not forget about the most important thing - creativity. He published several collections, and also set about composing large-format prose. In the early 30s, the novels The Thorny Way and Our Life, which was composed in the genre of bright and witty satire, were released. Seyfullin has been extremely active and active for many years. Therefore, it is not surprising that many years later, compatriots began to call him the father of Kazakh Soviet literature.
Arrest and death
The biography of Saken Seifullin (in Russian there is also a description of the life path of this man) states that at the end of 1936 he was invited to Moscow as a famous public figure and writer to events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the death of Alexander Pushkin. Then the Kazakh poet was the first among his compatriots to receive the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. It seemed that Seyfullin was experiencing his creative and public triumph.
However, already in 1937 he was arrested in Alma-Ata. The writer, like many other high-ranking Bolsheviks of the "first call", fell into the millstones of repression unleashed by Stalin. Saken Seyfullin recognized as "the enemy of the people." Confessions were beaten out of him by torture. April 25, 1938 he was shot in one of the Alma-Ata prisons of the NKVD. The writer was rehabilitated in 1957, posthumously. Today he is one of the main national heroes and symbols of modern independent Kazakhstan.