The biography of M.O.Auezov
 
On September 28, 1897 there in the place of Ayakkaragan (near the winter-stay of Borli) in the family of the nomad-Kazakh of the Chinghiz volost of the Semipalatinsk region Omarkhan Auezov was born the son Mukhtar. His great grandfather Berdikhodzha was an orator and a well-read person, he followed the rites of his ancestors and possessed the gift of eloquence. The chronicles and annals confirm the relationship of the Auezovs with the sheikh Bakshaiysh-khodzha, who lived in the XIII c. in the Middle East, the great grandson of Khodzha Ahmed Yassaui himself. The first impressions of the childhood are linked with the Chingistau steppes and mountains. There are testimonies that grandmother Dinasil led the grandchild to the yurt of Abai, and the renowned poet, parentally caressing his head, wished him a lucky way in life and great happiness. When he was six years old his grandfather Auez (1830-1917) started teaching Mukhtar and his uncle and coeval Ahmet the Arabic alphabet by the book of verses of Abai. The grandfather, imitating the mullah-teachers, kept the pupils upon the book the whole day through, and everything that they had learned for the day had to be recited by heart before dinner to him and their father. Mukhtar Auezov was early deprived of his parents: his father Omarkhan died in 1900, mother Nurzhamal – in 1912. The little Mukhtar was brought up in the family of his uncle Kasymbek who in 1907 after one year of studying in the madrasah managed to send the boy to the 5-class city Russian school in Semipalatinsk providing the Zemstvo stipend of the Chingiz volost. The Russian schools prepared interpreters, and petty office-workers of the administrative apparatus. In the study year of 1912-1913 Mukhtar finishes with honours the first class of the teachers’ seminary, and he finishes the studies in the Semipalatinsk teachers’ seminary in 1919. The teachers of the seminary Abikei Satpayev, I.V.Malakhov, Nikolai and Victor Beloslyudovs, N.E.Konshin, Nazipa and Nurgali Kuldzhanovs, V.I.Popov, N.Sulima-Gruzinski, V.M.Morozov taught him to love the Kazakh folk literature and languages, the classics of the Russian and world literature, laid the basics of knowledge by the main branches. The young Auezov, according to the testimonies of the pedagogues, was marked for impeccable assiduity, extraordinary gifts, slim figure and some kind of aristocratic grandiloquence. He was an extraordinary sportsman playing for the best football team in the city named “Yarysh”. The Russian school, according to the testimony of the future writer, “attracted him by its open-hearted generosity.” During the study years Mukhtar listens for many long hours to the recollections of his grandfather Auez, who was only several years older than Abai, about Kunanbai. Mukhtar Auezov was linked with the future main hero of his whole life by many threads. Abai himself honoured by his presence the family festivity organized by Auez on the occasion of the grandchild’s birth. Nurganym, one of the wives of old Kunanbai, the father of Abai, was a sister to Auez. Afterwards Mukhtar made friends with the son of Abai Turagul and got married to Kamilya, the granddaughter of the great poet, the daughter of his son Magaui. Auezov saw Dilda, the first wife of Abai. Much information about Abai was narrated by Aigerim who was deeply devoted to his memory and who outlived the husband by some ten years. According to M.Auezov himself, “I had to read about the past in the darkened, weakened memory of my old interlocutors. Many things had to be revived through my own guesses, I had to decode them by comparing with the talks of another interlocutor. These recollections had to be treated with care and caution: thus a belated traveler after finding out a live coal in the ashes left by the caravan gone a long time before, carefully and cautiously ignites it breathing upon it thus causing a fire come to life.” In 1917 there in the yurt of Aigerim was staged the play written by Mukhtar Auezov named “Enlik-Kebek”. It was a gift on the occasion of the marriage and seeing off of Abai’s grand daughter Akysh,. The first amateur actors were the grandchildren of Abai and the near relations of the play’s author, in which the female roles were played by the village young men. This first play in the Kazakh language is still running after 90 years. In the summer of 1917 according to the ancient ritual and the will of the near relatives Mukhtar got married to the 15-year old beauty Raikhan. In 1918 there was born the daughter Mugamila, about whose welfare the father cared all his life. According to the testimonies of Mugamila-apa herself, there was organized in the village the fiest-shieldehana, on which there were present Sultanmahmut Toraigyrov, the seminar students Kanysh Satpayev and Alkei Margulan. After one year there was born the son Chokan, who died early. In 1920 when Raikhan was 18, her marriage with Mukhtar came to an end. In 1918 Mukhtar Auezov and Zhusupbek Aimautov started publishing the journal “Abai” in Semipalatinsk which after the 12-th issue was closed for ideological reasons. From December 1, 1919 the Soviet power got finally established in Semipalatinsk. In 1919 Mukhtar Auezov became a member of the Communist Party and got advanced by the party line to the post of the chairman of the Semipalatinsk provincial executive committee and the secretary of the Kazakh Central Executive Committee in Orenburg, at the same time trying to express himself in dramaturgy and journalism. From October 1919 M.Auezov participates in the underground organization against Kolchak. According to the extract from the book of orders of the Semipalatinsk regional revolutionary committee dated December 23, 1919 M.Auezov was admitted to the post of the head of the Heterogeneous subdivision of the Department of the regional revolutionary committee. In July 1920 Auezov was promoted from the head of the subdivision to the head of the Division. In May next year M.Auezov after a short-period arrest for “the non-acceptance of energetic measures for the execution of mobilization of the Kirghiz population”, becomes the full member of the provincial committee, the chairman of the Semipalatinsk provincial executive committee, the editor of the newspaper “Kazakh tili”. He is a delegate of all the conferences, including the IX-th All-Russia congress of Soviets, a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kazakh autonomy.  There in Semipalatinsk Mukhtar Auezov rendered invaluable help in the formation and growth of the first cultural-enlightenment circle “Es Aimak”. There in the club named “The Siberian barge haulers” for the Zaton workers was staged the play “El agasy”, the manuscript of which was regretfully lost afterwards. At the beginning of the year of 1921 Mukhtar writes the four-act drama named “Baibishe and tokal” which was staged under the immediate guidance of the playwright on March 23, 1921 in the club after Sverdlov. On December 20, 1922 the spectators saw the play “Enlik-Kebek”, the pearl of Kazakh dramaturgy, narrating about the steppe Romeo and Juliet. It was not incidental that the curtain of the first professional theatre in Kzyl-Orda in 1926 was lifted by the play “Enlik-Kebek” by M.Auezov. Altogether M.Auezov wrote more than 20 plays, but they had each a different fate. In Semipalatinsk especial popularity was enjoyed by the play of M.Auezov named “Karagoz”, created soon after “Enlik-Kebek” and vaguely reminiscent of a Hamlet situation published in 1926 and staged immediately in Semipalatinsk. It was at once taken off the repertoire and returned back to the stage only thirty years afterwards after the XX-th Congress of the CPSU.  Mukhtar Auezov teaches in the Kazakh pedagogical special school and also in the Soviet party school. Besides the dramaturgy, M.Auezov tries himself in the artistic prose, he writes short stories and essays, makes translations. The first short stories by M.Auezov include the narration miniature “The hurricane”, “The orphan’s fate” (1921), “The educated citizen” (1922), “The steppe pictures” (1922-23), “The steppe stories” (1923), “The marriage” (1923), “The ransom” (1925), “The finicky fiancée” (1925), “The beauty in black” (1925), “The satiety” (1926) and others. The short stories are published in the magazines “Sholpan”, “Sana”, “Tan”, “Abai”, “Kyzyl Kazakhstan”, in the Semipalatinsk regional newspaper “Kazak tili” and others. The short story “The orphan’s fate” the first-ever published creation of the writer – originally saw the light in the March issue of the magazine “Kyzyl Kazakhstan” in 1921, after that it was produced in Orenburg in 1922 as a separate book like “Enlik-Kebek”. It was namely this short story signed by the pseudonym Argyn that more definitely discloses the epic gift of M.Auezov, and his stylistics and the atmosphere has something in common with the stylistics of Joseph Conrad. The majority of the first publications were under the pseudonyms: Argyn, Zhayau Sal (The pedestrian singer), Konyr, Aighak (The witness) etc. During these same years in Semipalatinsk Mukhtar Auezov translates the work named “Buddha” by L.N. Tolstoy and publishes it in 1918 in the first issue of the magazine “Abai”. There in Tashkent in 1924 as a separate book were published “The stories on the genesis of the Earth” of professor Yu. Wagner in his translation. In future there in the creative arsenal of the translator were the works of W. Shakespeare, N. Gogol, I. Turgenev, J. London, L. Tolstoy, N. Pogodin, K. Trenev etc. Besides, M.Auezov becomes one of the authority theoreticians on artistic translation, during the better part of his life he was not only doing just translations: impersonating himself with Gogol, Turgenev, Chekhov, he simultaneously embodies the spirit of national culture in them (N.Anastasyev). In the publicist articles the writer-dramaturge touches upon the topical themes of enlightenment, culture and science, social order, he writes about the necessity to build factories and plants, to work mines and technically equip the production. He writes about Japan (“Abai”, #4, 1918) as a country where education and the teaching process of new generations are treated with especial responsibility. In the autumn of 1922 M.Auezov leaves his big state post in Orenburg and enters the Middle-Asian Turkestani university (Tashkent city) as an external student, begins cooperation in the magazine “Sholpan”. Then for “breaking the party discipline” and “manifestations of nationalism” Auezov was excluded from the Bolshevist party in which he had been a member for 3,5 years. There were published several short stories in Tashkent. But on May 9, 1923 M.Auezov “leaves the faculty of social sciences of the Turkestani state university due to the lack at the faculty of the speciality chosen by him” – the history of Russian literature. In the spring of 1923 Mukhtar Auezov by the suggestion of the prominent ethnographer, historian and folklorist Abubakir Divaev, the graduate of the Orenburg cadet corps, participates in the scientific commission that went to the Chinghiz volost of the Karkaraly uyezd “for the collection and acceptance of the preserved manuscripts of the translations of the works by Draper, Louis, Spenser” and also the original works by Abai – his philosophical notes and verses. Together with Auezov there went also Khalel Dosmukhamedov and Magzhan Zhumabayev. In October, 1923 he enters the philological department of the Leningrad state university. There at the faculty of social sciences, in the Slavic-Russian section of the literary-linguistic department takes place the acquaintance of Mukhtar Auezov and his future spouse Valentina Nikolayevna Kuzmina. He had hardly finished the first course when he by the urgent request of the organs of enlightenment of Kazakhstan, returns to Semipalatinsk where in 1924-1925 he teaches Kazakh literature, the theory and history of literature in the pedagogical technical school and edits the magazine “Tan”. As a member of the Oriental-Siberian branch of the Russian geographical society M. Auezov participates in the council of the Semipalatinsk section. In the summer of 1924 there in Semipalatinsk M. Auezov got acquainted with N.Anov, one of the translators of the novel “Abai”. He was excluded from the university and it took a lot of effort to return him back. There came from Semipalatinsk a letter which cogently requested that M. Auezov be restored among the students of the Moscow university. During this period there were written the short stories “The bloody night”, “In the shade of the past”, “The beauty in black”, “The incident in Karash-Karash”. He is elected deputy chairman of the Semipalatinsk department of the Russian geographical society, is a member of the methodological council of the Provincial department of people’s education. He actively publishes in the periodical press, teaches at the courses of the teachers’ qualification upgrading, makes the report at the literary evening named “The place of Abai in the Kirghiz literature” in connection with the 20-th year of Abai’s demise.In the summer of 1925 Mukhtar Auezov goes on an expedition to the auls of the Semirechye (the Seven Rivers), collecting the specimens of the song-folklore creative activity of the Kazakhs. Not a long time previous to that he had managed to visit the last Karkaraly fair with its renowned aityses (singing competitions between akyns (improvising singers). The result of these travels was the big article “The Kazakh folk creative activity and its poetical environment” with the key thesis: “Not a single significant fact in the life of the Kazakh does not pass for him unnoticeably, without being marked at least through the established traditional form of poetical word. The indubitable, the fundamental, the full-fledged meaning of the poetical word inherited as a stable tradition from the distant past of the Kazakhs up to the present times has not lost its actual meaning for the great majority of the steppe population.” The article was not published at all. During this travel from Leningrad to Pishpek and then by the carts through the Kordai pass to the Semirechye (the Seven Rivers) there takes place his acquaintance with I.Dzhansugurov, who was subsequently accused and then shot in 1938 “as a Japanese spy”. His spouse Fatima “in whom the spirit of the pedagogue and enlightener was wonderfully combined with the striking beauty“ was exiled from Almaty to Semipalatinsk, then to Merke. M.Auezov becomes close with the widow of “the enemy of the people” and in 1943 there was born the son Murat. In the autumn of 1925 he returns back to Leningrad and graduates from the university in 1928. Among the teachers were the academician V.Shcherba, A.A.Shakhmatov, professor Sipovski who was lively interested in the translations of Pushkin and Lermontov made by Abai, the Pushkin-study specialist N.Oksman, the then young S.P.Obnorski and V.V.Vinogradov and the recent graduates of the university B.Eihenbaum and V.Zhirmunski. At the Oriental faculty Mukhtar Auezov listened to the lectures of academician Bartold, Samoilovich and other Orientalists. The effulgent and happy period in the life of O.M.Auezov. There within the hailing distance from Decembrists’ street, 14 where M.Auezov rented a flat was the Tavricheski garden. The precise geometry of the prospects of the city helps preserve the similarity with the house. There in the literature were born the new trends: akmeism, the Society for the study of poetical language, the Association of real art, “The Serapionov brothers” etc. In 1926 the third-grade student concludes the agreement with the People’s commissariat of enlightenment of Kazakhstan for the publication of the already written “History of Kazakh literature” in the Kazakh language, the whole circulation of which goes to waste. The editorial board of the Big Soviet Encyclopaedia offers M. Auezov the order for the compilation of the dictionary and the writing of articles about the prominent figures in the Kazakh and Kirghiz literatures. There in 1928 saw the light the story “Kily zaman” (The evil year). After graduating from the Leningrad university in the August of 1928 the young family moves to Tashkent. Mukhtar Auezov continues education at the post-graduate course at the Oriental faculty of the Middle-Asian university in Tashkent city. By studying the literature of “the middle-Asian Turks” and the epos “Manas” he tries to understand the mystery of the longevity and the never-ending poetic energy of this literary monument. As the result there came out the scientific investigation named “The narrators of “Manas” and the reader environment”. In the 1920-s, in the period of scientific youth and writer’s maturity, M.Auezov becomes a professional scientist-folklorist , the first step to which was made in Tashkent. The death of the first-born child Eldes. The birth of the daughter Leila. There in Tashkent in 1929 was written the story “Kokserek”, “the best written thing in the lesser narration format” (N.Anastasyev). Behind the pernicious history of the hero- the untamed wolf – one can see the way of the artist himself and the way of the artists of the whole epoch. M.Auezov was appointed scientific secretary of the terminological commission, after one year after entering the post-graduate course of the Middle-Asiatic university he became a scientific worker and read courses on the history of Kazakh literature at the forestry technical school and also at the Alma-Ata pedagogical institute. There are published in Kzyl-Orda the study manuals, the Russian alphabet for Kazakh children, the book for reading in the Russian language. But on February 21, 1929 at the session of the communist fraction of the Kazakh institute of enlightenment M.Auezov was dismissed from teaching. The board of the People’s commissariat of enlightenment makes a proposal to reinstate M.Auezov at the former post. On October 1, 1930 – the arrest, the accusations in sabotage, bribery and nepotism in connection with the organization “Alka”. On September 28, 1931 the inquest is finished. Mukhtar Auezov is convicted to a suspended three-year term of imprisonment in a concentration camp. M. Auezov spent 2,5 years in prison. There was published in print “The declaration of Mukhtar Auezov”, after which he was freed from custody “as the one convicted conditionally for a term of imprisonment in the colony for three years beginning from 8.10.30”. M.Auezov received a job in the literary part of the Kazakh dramatic theatre where he worked till 1938 and also at the Alma-Ata zoo-veterinary institute at the post of assistant professor of Kazakh and Russian literature. Up to 1949 M.Auezov remained also a professor of the Kazakh pedagogical institute. In the 30-s M.Auezov creates the original plays “For October”, “Aiman-Sholpan” (1934), “The summer lightnings”, “The fight”, “The stone plumage”, “In the apple garden”, “The thunders in the night”, “The white birch-tree”, “At the frontier”, the historical play “Khan Kene”. Actually the first Abai-study specialist M.Auezov in 1933 publishes the first genuine collection of verses by Abai “Abai Kunanbaiuly tolyk zhinak” (the full collection of verses by Abai Kunanbayev) (Kzyl-Orda, Latin script), equipped with a sketch of the poet’s life. In 1936 he heads the preparation of the first scientific edition of Abai Kunanbayev’s works, doing a huge amount of work invaluable for its significance, restoring separate words, expressions and the whole stanzas of his works. By staging the musical comedy “Aiman Sholpan” by M.Auezov there starts its work the Kazakh musical theatre, which at the beginning of 1934 became separated from the drama theatre. In May, 1937 there took place the first plenum of the Writers’ Union of Kazakhstan, at which M.Auezov made a report about dramaturgy stunning the people by the width of his knowledge in the specific genre. It is indubitable that by the middle 30-s Mukhtar Auezov is the first figure in the literature of Kazakhstan. His renown spread throughout the whole country of the USSR. He became the most wanted playwright in the repertoire. In the middle of the 30-s Vyacheslav Ivanov, who was born in Northern Kazakhstan translates into Russian the verse in prose by M.Auezov “I, the Kazakh song, sing…” But on November 27, 1937 there from the library of the theatrical department are withdrawn the 16 copies of the play by M.Auezov “Alma bagynda” (In the apple garden) and 4 copies of “In the apple garden”. According to the act, the literature was demolished and burned. According to the Order #38 on affairs of art of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Kaz. SSR dated January 29, 1938 there was turned down the petition for staging the play “At the frontier” by M.Auezov. At the same time the Protocol of the council of artists dated June 29, 1934 recommended to hold a competition for the best depiction of Abai, the jury included M.Auezov. For the deeply thought-out work upon the play “The auditor” in the Kazakh state drama theatre comrade Auezov M. received gratitude from the Department on affairs of art of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Kaz. SSR. In 1937 he was dismissed from work.  On September 11, 1933 the secret-political department of the Plenipotentiary representation of the OGPU in Kazakhstan in the memorandum addressed to the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic Mirzoyan, disclosing the bourgeois-nationalist party “Alash”, names M.Auezov as one of its leaders. M.Auezov himself repeated many times that he had never been a member of the party but participated in the editions close to the Alsh-Orda activists. In the autumn of 1939 there in Peredelkino near Moscow together with L.Sobolev was finished the tragedy “Abai”. At the end of 1939 – beginning of 1940 the Moscow journal “The literary critic” publishes in two issues the scientific investigation of M.Auezov and L.Sobolev “The epic and folklore of the Kazakh people”. There in Moscow in 1940 is published a collection of specimens of Kazakh poetry named “The songs of Kazakh steppes”, the authors of the introductory article – M.Auezov and M.Sobolev. On October 18, 1940 the Kazakh repertoire committee issues the act of acceptance for the play “Abai” for the Kazakh academic drama theatre. Even before the war in 1938 Auezov writes the libretto to the opera “Bekket” by A.Zilber. A.Zhubanov and L.Khamidi create the score for the opera “Abai”. At the beginning of 1944 there in the Alma-Ata theatre of opera and ballet – the premiere which had great success. M.Auezov writes the script of the film which had to be shot by G.Roshal and E.Aron. On September 22, 1945 there in Moscow – the review of the Russian and Kazakh versions of the film. In 1942 (together with Abishev) M.Auezov finishes the play “The Guards of honour” dedicated to the military deeds of the Panfilov division. The opinion of the intrepid soldier and writer Baurdzhan Momysh-Uly was discouraging: “… the modern war is not the war of musketeers and pike-armed warriors, and the officer of the Great Patriotic war is not the knight of the XIV century…” But afterwards the relations between M.Auezov  and B.Momysh-uly became warm. Baurdzhan presented to Mukhtar Auezov whose mighty writer’s talent he always admired, his own personal front-line Browning. The play “The Guards of honour” dedicated to the 25-th anniversary of the Great October socialist revolution was acknowledged as a renowned work in Kazakh dramaturgy. The Department on affairs of art of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Kaz. SSR declared gratitude to the authors- dramatists Mukhtar Auezov and Alzhappar Abishev. In 1945, the centennial of Abai’s birth, M.Auezov wrote the libretto to the opera “Abai”, the script of the fiction cinema film “The songs of Abai”, also the new variant of Abai’s biography and several articles about him. There in Moscow is published the first book of “Abai”. In 1947 there was published the second volume of “Abai” in Kazakh, in 1948 – both books in Russian. In 1949 the novel was awarded the Stalin prize of the 1-st degree.  In 1946 there was born an idea to create the cinema script (in co-authorship with G.Musrepov) by the novel of A.Bek “The Volokolam highway”. In the first half of 1947 there comes out the Decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan “About the rude political mistakes in the work of the Institute of languages and literature of the Academy of sciences of the Kaz. SSR”, in which there was mentioned the manuscript of the first volume of “The history of Kazakh literature” (under the general editorship of M.Auezov). In 1947 he writes his last creation in the novelist genre – “The sturdy tribe”. In 1949 there on the theatrical stage – the premiere of the new version of “Abai” staged by Sh.Aimanov. The literary institute in Moscow invites Auezov to read a review course on the history of Kazakh literature. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Kazakhstan awards M.O.Auezov by the diploma. The All-Union award was “The Badge of Honour”.  For many years M.Auezov read lectures on the history of literature in the Kazakh state university after S.M.Kirov. From the very first year after the creation of the Academy of sciences of the Kaz. SSR in 1946 being its academician for the rest of his life he coordinated the work in literary criticism in the republic. He was the head of the department of Kazakh folklore of the then unified Institute of languages and literature of the Academy of sciences of the Kaz. SSR, he prepared the scientific cadres. Under his leadership and immediate participation there was created within the walls of the Academy the Institute of literature and art which is named after him. He determined the main trends of scientific activity, the main problems and the structural subdivisions of the new Institute. Under his leadership there were published the academic collections of works by Abai, Djambul, there was created the capital work “The history of Kazakh literature,” he was a member of the editorial board of “The history of the Kazakh SSR” (Alma-Ata, 1957, 1959), “The essay on the history of Kazakh Soviet literature” (Moscow, 1960), many folkloristic publications and scientific-research works. During the discussion on July 8, 1952 about the monumental epos “Manas” which he had started studying in the 30-s, M.Auezov passionately defended its national character.  The immersion into the world of “Manas” and the Kazakh folk creative activity was the kind of inner emigration for the writer. “Even though this exhilarating intellectual journey turned into great scientific discoveries, and the need turned into excitement and creative joy, - originally it was an exile, the search for a niche, the wheeze of the wolf escaping from a chase. As for the sudden departure for Moscow,- according to N.A.Anastasyev, - at the beginning of the 50-s and the subsequent stay in the capital, although this sounds pure absurdity, it was an emigration in the literal meaning of the word, because there was no possibility to live at home in Alma-Ata.”  In 1952 there saw the light the first volume of “The way of Abai” in the Kazakh language, and in 1954 – the biographical essay about Abai. On December 23, 1952 “The Kazakhstanskaya Pravda” newspaper publishes the article “Against the distortion of the image of Ch.Ualikhanov in the film-score “Ualikhanov”, in which M.Auezov is accused of the loss of political vigilance. On the pages of “Pravda” there was given the peer-review of the critical-biographical essay about the creative activity of M.Auezov by Z.Kedrina, and again there was put forward the accusation in the insufficiency of civil vigilance. The article in “Pravda” dated January 30, 1952 was reprinted the next day by “Kazakhstanskaya Pravda”. Professor, academician M.O.Auezov was sacked from the university for “the bourgeois-nationalistic mistakes”, and also from the collective of authors of the multi-volume “History of the Kazakh SSR.” In 1955 the Ministry of culture of Kazakhstan reports that while reviewing the folklore-historical plays in 1950, the play by M. Auezov “Koblandy” is taken off the repertoire and is not subject for restitution, “because so far it is not yet determined whether the epos “Koblandy-batyr” is progressive or reactionary and the same pertains also to the actions of the main hero Koblandy… The Ministry of culture asks you to give instructions to the Academy of sciences of the Kazakh SSR on the clarification of the character of the epos “Koblandy batyr” and the purpose of the actions of the main hero.” In the spring of 1953 there in the Moscow university was created the first-ever chair of the literatures of the peoples of the USSR in the Soviet Union. Professor M.O.Auezov by the request of the head of the chair Medine Iskanderovna Bogdanova read the lectures with enthusiasm and passion about Kazakh literature. In the article “The common cause of the Soviet writers” (Pravda, August 2, 1954) M.Auezov stresses the special role of the scientific institutes and higher educational establishments in the systematic studying of the literatures of the peoples of the USSR, the preparation of cadres of researchers, critics, translators and teachers. On February 10, 1954 there was finished the last volume of the tetra-book about Abai in Moscow. On the eve of the Second all-Union Сongress of writers in the article “Our common cause” (Literaturnaya gazeta, December 14, 1954) M.Auezov writes about the necessity of creation of “a single history of literature of all the peoples of the USSR”. He was one of the initiators and active participants in the discussion of the manuscript of “The history of the literatures of the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan”, which was published by the publishing house of the Moscow State University in 1960. At the XXV International congress of Orientalists in the Moscow State University in the summer of 1960 professor M.O.Auezov made the report “On the traditional and innovational” In 1954 the return back to Alma-Ata. The suggestion to enter the editing boards of the magazines “The foreign literature” and “The friendship of peoples”. On September 24, 1954 M.Auezov made the report about the creative activity of Abai at the solemn gathering in the Pillared Hall of the House of Soviets in Moscow.  In the second half of December, 1954 - the report (together with P.Antokolski and M.Rylski) on the artistic translation at the Second all-Union congress of writers. In December, 1954 M.Auezov is again included as the greatest specialist in literary criticism and philology into the commission for the acquaintance with the text of the manuscript of the first volume of “The history of the Kazakh SSR” and also the editorial board. In 1955 there was published the essay by M.Auezov “Thus was born Turkestan” about the virgin-land collective farms in Kazakhstan.There in 1955 started the foreign trips of the writer. At the beginning of 1955 there together with the Soviet cultural delegation with A.Surkov at the head he visited India. The delegation visited the five largest universities of India including those in Delhi, Madras and Benares and after that was cordially met by the president of the republic P.Prasad and prime-minister of India J. Nehru. Returning from the trip, professor M.O.Auezov met the students and teachers of the university and told them about the plans to start work upon the new book named “The Indian essays” (1958).  Mukhtar Omarkhanovich was the consultant of the scenario of the lantern-slide film “Abai” the script of which the Moscow studio “Diafilm” offered to write in 1955 to the literary critic, doctor of science (philology) Sergei Daronyan. The lantern-slide film with the corrections introduced by M.O.Auezov was shot in 1956 and demonstrated at the Moscow university to the students who attended the course of the history of literatures of the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. In 1956 M.Auezov writes the article “F.M.Dostoevski and Chokan Ualikhanov”.Mukhtar Omarkhanovich approved the suggestion of S.Daronyan who was the co-editor together with Yu.Svetlanov to term the genre of his two-volume edition “Abai” as the novel-epopee, the name of the first book being “Abai” (Parts 1 and 2), the second – “The way of Abai” (Parts 3 and 4). In the spring of 1958 “Abai” with the big introduction article by Z.S.Kedrina saw the light. While preparing for publication “The anthology of Kazakh poetry” Mukhtar Omarkhanovich as a member of the editorial board and one of the authors of the introductory article carried out the scientific surveillance upon the pre-revolutionary part of the Anthology. In the foreword he could laconically deliver a lot which testified to an exceptional precision of his creative thought. In the Days of the Kazakh decade in Moscow in 1958 at the centre of attention was the two-volume novel-epopee “Abai” by M.Auezov and the profound “Anthology of Kazakh poetry”. M.Auezov was a member of the Committee on Lenin’s prizes.  In January, 1956 there within the delegation of Soviet writers headed by K.Fedin he visits the IV congress of writers of the GDR in Berlin. He meets Anna Zegers who tells the writer from Kazakhstan that he is a prominent personality, the personal chronicle whose only biography alone is in itself a textbook on history.  Brilliant were the speeches of M.O.Auezov at the First conference of Oriental scientists in Tashkent in July, 1957, at the writers’ conference from Asia and Africa in Tashkent in 1958, at the first conference of solidarity of the peoples of Asia and Africa in November 1960 in Dushanbe and the XXV international congress on Oriental studies in August 1960 in Moscow. The speeches of Auezov always were at the centre of universal attention. The destiny of Kazakh literature was precisely placed by him within the context of the history of the whole world literary process and gave the possibility of original interpretation of its tendencies. In Moscow there were distributed beforehand the theses of his report named “About the traditional and innovational in the Kazakh Soviet literature.” The summary of the report was delivered by academician V.M.Zhirmunski in German.  August, 1957 – the visit to Japan as a delegate of the 3-rd International conference of the nuclear arms’ opponents.On September 28, 1957 there took place the 60-th birthday of M.O.Auezov. On May 18 1958 there was published in “Literaturnaya gazeta” newspaper the article by M.Auezov named “The meditations about the 7 year plan epic.” The nomination of “Abai” for Lenin’s pr .February, 1959 – the III congress of writers of Kirghizia. In his bright passionate speech Mukhtar Omarkhanovich stopped upon the problems of national form and socialist content in respect of which there took place lively discussions upon the pages of the literary press.  After the ending of the writers’ congress during the governmental reception there took place the touching conversation between Mukhtar Auezov and the renowned reciting master of the epic work “Manas” Sayakbai Karalayev as if the live folklore tradition met the live classics of written literature. In 1959 the two-volume novel “The way of Abai” by Mukhtar Auezov was awarded Lenin’s prize. There with the group of Soviet writers in 1960 he visited the USA. In the summer of 1960 he started work upon the cycles of essays named “The American impressions”. From mid-summer, 1960 there started work upon the novel named “The young tribe”.In March, 1961 the second visit to India and participation in the work of the III International congress for peace in Delhi together with the delegation headed by N.S.Tikhonov. In June that same year he planned to visit England, the Motherland of Shakespeare. In May 1961 he went on a trip to Southern Kazakhstan.On June 3 1961 departure for Moscow for medical examination. On June 27, 1961 – the stopping of the heart during the operation.
Svetlana Ananyeva