Chingiz Aitmatov

Author profile

born

December 12, 1928 in Sheker, Russian Federation

died

June 10, 2008

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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Chinghiz Aitmatov was an author who wrote in both Russian and Kyrgyz. He was the best known figure in Kyrgyzstan literature.

Aitmatov's parents were civil servants in Sheker. The name Chingiz is the same as the honorary title of Genghis Khan. In early childhood he wandered as a nomad with his family, as the Kyrgyzstan people did at the time. In 1937 his father was charged with "bourgeois nationalism" in Moscow, arrested and executed in 1938.

Aitmatov lived at a time when Kyrgyzstan was being transformed from one of the most remote lands of the Russian Empire to a republic of the USSR. The future author studied at a Soviet school in Sheker. He also worked from an early age. At fourteen he was an assistant to the Secretary at the Village Soviet...more Chinghiz Aitmatov was an author who wrote in both Russian and Kyrgyz. He was the best known figure in Kyrgyzstan literature.

Aitmatov's parents were civil servants in Sheker. The name Chingiz is the same as the honorary title of Genghis Khan. In early childhood he wandered as a nomad with his family, as the Kyrgyzstan people did at the time. In 1937 his father was charged with "bourgeois nationalism" in Moscow, arrested and executed in 1938.

Aitmatov lived at a time when Kyrgyzstan was being transformed from one of the most remote lands of the Russian Empire to a republic of the USSR. The future author studied at a Soviet school in Sheker. He also worked from an early age. At fourteen he was an assistant to the Secretary at the Village Soviet. He later held jobs as a tax collector, a loader, an engineer's assistant and continued with many other types of work.

In 1946 he began studying at the Animal Husbandry Division of the Kirghiz Agricultural Institute in Frunze, but later switched to literary studies at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow, where he lived from 1956 to 1958. For the next eight years he worked for Pravda. His first two publications appeared in 1952 in Russian: The Newspaper Boy Dziuio and Ашым. His first work published in Kyrgyz was Ак Жаан (White Rain) in 1954, and his well known work Jamilya appeared in 1958. 1980 saw his first novel The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years; his next significant novel, The Scaffold was published in 1988. The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years and other writings were translated into several languages.

Aitmatov suffered kidney failure and on 16 May 2008 was admitted to a hospital in Nuremberg, Germany, where he died of pneumonia on 10 June 2008, aged 79. His obituary in The New York Times characterized him as "a Communist writer whose novels and plays before the collapse of the Soviet Union gave a voice to the people of the remote Soviet republic of Kyrgyz" and adds that he "later became a diplomat and a friend and adviser to the Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev."

Chinghiz Aitmatov belonged to the post-war generation of writers. His output before Jamila was not significant, a few short stories and a short novel called Face to Face. But it was Jamila that came to prove the author's work. Louis Aragon described the novellete as the world's most beautiful love story, raising it even above Rudyard Kipling's World's Most Beautiful Love Story. Aitmatov's representative works also include the short novels Farewell, Gulsary!, The White Ship, The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years, and The Scaffold.

Aitmatov was honoured in 1963 with the Lenin Prize for Jamila and later he was awarded a State prize for Farewell, Gulsary!. Aitmatov's art was glorified by admirers. Even critics of Aitmatov mentioned high quality of his novels.

Aitmatov's work has some elements that are unique specifically to his creative process. His work drew on folklore, not in the ancient sense of it; rather, he tried to recreate and synthesize oral tales in the context of contemporary life. This is prevalent in his work; in nearly every story he refers to a myth, a legend, or a folktale. In The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years a poetic legend about a young captive turned into a mankurt serves a tragic allegory and becomes a significant symbolic expression of the philosophy of the novel.

A second aspect of Aitmatov's writing is his ultimate closeness to our "little brothers" the animals, for their and our lives are intimately and inseparably connected. The two center characters of Farewell, Gulsary! are a man and his stallion. A camel plays a prominent role in The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years; one of the key turns of the novel which decides the fate of the main character is narrated through the story of the camel's rut and riot. The Scaffold starts off and finishes with the story of a wolf pack and the great wolf-mother Akbara and her cub; human lives enter the(less)

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Books by Chingiz Aitmatov

Average rating: 3.92 · 1,139 ratings · 80 reviews · 50 distinct works

	Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov, Чингиз Айтматов, Chingiz Atmatov 3.85 avg rating — 365 ratings — published 1958 — 22 editions	My rating:
	The White Steamship by Chingiz Aitmatov, Чингиз Айтматов, T. Feifer 4.00 avg rating — 151 ratings — published 1970 — 10 editions	My rating:
	Ut, Nr.57, Ein Tag Länger Als Ein Leben by Tschingis Aitmatow, Chingiz Aitmatov 4.13 avg rating — 435 ratings — published 1980 — 21 editions	My rating:
	Farewell Gul'sary by Chingiz Aitmatov, Чингиз Айтматов, J. French 3.94 avg rating — 86 ratings — published 1967 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Пегий пес, бегущий краем моря by Chingiz Aitmatov, Чингиз Айтматов 4.08 avg rating — 50 ratings — published 1977 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Toprak Ana by Chingiz Aitmatov, Cengiz Aytmatov 3.68 avg rating — 66 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	Cengiz Han'a Küsen Bulut by Chingiz Aitmatov, Cengiz Aytmatov 4.00 avg rating — 24 ratings — published 1994 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Тополек мой в красной косынке by Chingiz Aitmatov, Чингиз Айтматов 3.98 avg rating — 49 ratings — published 1961 — 6 editions	My rating:
	Cemile-Sultanmurat by Chingiz Aitmatov, Refik Özdek (Translator) 3.94 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 2009	My rating:
	Der erste Lehrer 4.36 avg rating — 36 ratings — published 1966 — 5 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Chingiz Aitmatov

“The only thing I'll never have is what I have lost for ever and ever... As long as I live, until I draw my last breath, I shall remember Asel and all those beautiful things that were ours. The day I was to leave I went to the lake and stood on the rise above it. I was saying good-bye to the Tien Shan mountains, to Issyk-Kul. Good-bye, Issyk-Kul, my unfinished song! How I wish I could take you with me, your blue waters and your yellow shores, but I can't, just as I can't take the woman I love with me. Goodbye, Asel. Good-bye, my pretty poplar in a red kerchief! Good-bye, my love, I want you to be happy...”
― Chingiz Aitmatov, To Have and to Lose

5 people liked it

“Oh, Issyk-Kul, my Issyk-Kul--my unfinished song! Why did I have to remember that day when I came here with Asel and stopped on the same rise, right above the water? Everything was the same. The blue-and-white waves ran up the yellow shore holding hands. The sun was setting behind the mountains, and at the far end of the lake the water was tinged with pink. The swans wheeled over the water with excited, exultant cries. They soared up and dropped down on outspread wings that seemed to hum. They whipped up the water and started wide, foaming circles. Everything was the same, only there was no Asel with me. Where are you, my slender poplar in a red kerchief, where are you now?”
― Chingiz Aitmatov, To Have and to Lose

2 people liked it

“Bu yerlerde trenler doğudan batıya, batıdan doğuya gider gelir, gider gelirdi... Bu yerlerde demiryolunun her iki yanında ıssız, engin, sarı kumlu bozkırların özeği Sarı Özek uzar giderdi. Coğrafyada uzaklıklar nasıl Greenwich meridyeninden başlıyorsa, bu yerlerde de mesafeler demiryoluna göre hesaplanırdı. Trenler ise doğudan batıya, batıdan doğuya gider gelir, gider, gelirdi...”
― Chingiz Aitmatov, The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years

tags: steppe , train

1 person liked it

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Chingiz Aitmatov

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Quotes by Chingiz Aitmatov

Topics Mentioning This Author

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Books by Chingiz Aitmatov