AKIPRESS.COM - The Archive Service under the Ministry of Digital Development shared a photo of novelist Chyngyz Aitmatov in childhood.
The photo is from the collection of the Central State Archive of Film, Photo, and Sound Documents.
The photo shows little Chyngyz Aitmatov (the first) visiting his grandfather Hamza Abdulvaliev (1850-1932).
The photo was taken in Karakol in 1929, that is, 95 years ago.
From the memoirs of Rosetta Aitmatova (Chyngyz Aitmatov's sister): "Our mother, Nagima Aitmatova, née Abduvalieva, was born on December 7, 1904 in the city of Karakol. Her father, Hamza Abduvaliev, was one of the most authoritative, rich and famous people in Issyk-Kul region at that time... It is quite possible that Hamza first studied in a madrasah and then in a Russian school, because at that time he was a highly educated, well-rounded person: Hamza read and wrote in Tatar, knew Arabic script, was fluent in Russian and Cyrillic, and knew a lot about merchant business."
Chyngyz Aitmatov was born on December 12, 1928, and died on June 10, 2008. He was an outstanding Kyrgyz writer, People's Writer of the Kyrgyz SSR (1974), Hero of Socialist Labor (1978), member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since 1959.
His father, Torekul Aitmatov, was a prominent statesman of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic, but was arrested in 1937 and executed in 1938. His mother, Nagima Khazievna, an ethnic Tatar, was an actress in a local theater. In 1952, he began publishing stories in Kyrgyz in periodicals. After graduating, he worked at the Research Institute of Livestock for three years, while continuing to write and publish stories. In 1956, he entered the Higher Literary Courses in Moscow (graduated in 1958). In the year he graduated, his story "Face to Face" (translated from Kyrgyz) was published in the magazine "October". That same year, his stories were published in the magazine "Novy Mir", and the novella "Jamila" was published, which brought Aitmatov worldwide fame; even his critics recognized Aitmatov's talent.