AITMATOV, Chingiz (Torekulovich)

Nationality: Kirghizstani. Born: Sheker, Kirghizstan, 12 December 1928. Education: Kirghiz Agricultural Institute, degree in animal husbandry 1953; Gorky Literary Institute, Moscow, 1956-58. Family: Married 1) Keres Aitmatova, two sons; 2) Maria Urmatova in 1974, one son and one daughter. Career: Assistant to secretary of Sheker Village Soviet, from 1943; editor, Literaturnyi Kyrghyzstan magazine, late 1950s; correspondent, Pravda, for five years; deputy to Supreme Soviet, 1966-89; People's Writer of Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, 1968; vice chair, Committee of Solidarity with Peoples of Asian and African Countries, 1974-89; editor-in-chief, Inostrannaia literatura, 1988-90; Ambassador to Luxembourg, since 1990. Member of the editorial board, Novyi mir and Literaturnaia gazeta literary journals; editor, Druzhba narodov. First secretary, 1964-69, and chair, 1969-86, Cinema Union of Kirghiz S.S.R.; since 1986 chair, Union of Writers of Kirghizstan, and Issyk-Kul Forum. Lives in Luxembourg. Awards: Lenin prize, 1963; Order of the Red Banner of Labor (twice); State prize, 1968, 1977, 1983; Hero of Socialist Labour, 1978. Member: Member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1959-91; candidate member, 1969-71, and member, 1971-90, Central Committee, Kirghiz S.S.R.; Kirghiz Academy of Science, 1974; European Academy of Arts, Science, and Humanities, 1983; World Academy of Art and Science, 1987; member, Congress of People's Deputies of the U.S.S.R., 1989-91; member of Mikhail Gorbachev's Presidential Council, 1990-91.

Publications

Short Stories

Rasskazy [Stories]. 1958.

Dzhamilia. 1959; as Jamilá, 1960.

Povesti gor i stepei. 1962; as Tales of the Mountains and Steppes, 1969.

Korotkie novelly [Short Novels]. 1964.

Tri povesti [Three Short Stories]. 1965; as Short Novels: To Have and to Lose; Duishen; Mother-Earth, 1965.

Povesti [Novellas]. 1965.

Povesti i rasskazy [Novellas and Stories]. 1970.

Izbrannoe [Collection]. 1973.

Povesti [Short Stories]. 1976.

Pegii pes, begushchii kraem moria. 1977; as Piebald Dog Running Along the Shore and Other Stories, 1989.

Izbrannoe. 1981.

Povesti [Short Stories]. 1982.

Povesti [Short Stories]. 1983.

Rasskazy [Stories]. 1983.

Povesti, rasskazy [Novellas, Stories]. 1985.

Ekho mira: povesti, rasskazy, publitsistika [Echo of the World:Novellas, Stories, Publications]. 1985.

Povesti [Short Stories]. 1987.

Mother Earth and Other Stories. 1989.

Novels

Melodiia [Melody]. 1959.

Verbliuzhii glaz [The Camel's Eye]. 1962.

Materinskoe pole. 1963; as Mother-Earth, in Novels, 1965; inMother Earth and Other Stories, 1989.

Samanchy zholu. 1963.

Mlechnyi put' [Milky Way]. 1963.

Pervyi uchitel' [The First Master]. 1963.

Ballada o pervom uchitele [Ballad About the First Teacher]. 1964.

Topolek moi v krasnoi kosynke [My Little Poplar in a RedHeadscarf]. 1964.

Proschai, Gul'sary! In Novyi mir vol. 3, 1966; 1967; as Farewell, Gul'sary!, 1970.

Syn soldata [The Son of a Soldier]. 1970.

Belyi parokhod. In Novyi mir vol. 1, 1970; as The White Ship, 1972; as The White Steamship, 1972.

Posle skazki [After the Fairytale]. 1971.

The Lament of a Migrating Bird. 1973; as Rannie zhuravli, 1976; asThe Cranes Fly Early, 1983.

Posle skazki (Belyi parokhod); Materninskoe pole; Proshchai,

Gul'sary!; Pervyi uchitel'; Litsom k litsu; Dzhamilia; Topolek moi v krasnoi kosynke; Verbliuzhii glaz; Svidanie s synom; Soldatenok. 1974.

Soldatenok [The Soldier]. 1974.

Nochnoi poliv [Night Dew]. 1975.

Lebedi nad Issyk-Kulem [Swans Above Issyk-Kulem]. 1976.

Izbrannye proizvedeniia [Collected Works]. 2 vols., 1978.

Legenda o rogatoi materi-olenizhe [The Legend of the HornedMother Deer]. 1979.

I dol'she veka dlitsia den'. 1981; as The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years, 1983.

Burannyi polustanok (I dol'she veka dlitsia den') [The SnowstormHalt]. 1981.

Sobranie sochinenii v 3-kh tomakh [Collected Works in 3 Volumes]. 3 vols., 1982-84.

Mat'-olenikha: legenda (iz povesti "Belyi parokhod"). [MotherDeer: Legend (from the novel White Steamship)]. 1983.

Krasnoe iabloko [The Red Apple]. 1985.

Mal'chik s pal'chik. 1985.

Plakha. 1986; as The Place of the Skull, 1989.

Bogoroditsa v snegakh [Madonna in the Snows]. 1987.

Legenda o ptitse Donenbai: iz romana "I dol'she veka dlitsia den"' [The Legend of the Donenbay Bird: From the Novel The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years ]. 1987.

Svidania s synom [An Appointment with the Son]. 1987.

Sineglazaia volchitsa: Otr. iz romana "Plakha" [Blue-Eyed She-Wolf: From the Novel The Block ]. 1987.

Shestevo i sed'moi: Otr. iz romana "Plakha" [Sixth and Seventh:From the Novel The Block ]. 1987.

Chas slova. 1988; as The Time to Speak Out, 1988; as Time to

Speak, 1989.

Play

Voskhozhdenie na Fudzhiiamu, with Kaltai Mukhamedzhanov (produced 1973). As The Ascent of Mount Fuji (produced 1975), 1975.

Other

Atadan kalgan tuiak. 1970.

V soavtorstve s zemleiu i vodoiu [In Co-Authorship with the Earth and Water] (essays and lectures). 1978.

Rasskazy, ocherki, publitsistika [Stories, Essays, Publications]. 1984.

Do the Russians Want War? 1985.

My izmeniaem mir, mir izmeniaet nas [We Change the World, the World Changes Us] (essays, articles, interviews). 1985.

On Craftsmanship, with Aitmatov by V. Novikov. 1987.

Biz duinonu zhangyrtabyz, duino bizdi zhangyrtat. 1988.

Stat'i, vystupleniia, dialogi, interv'iu [Articles, Statements, Dialogues, Interviews]. 1988.

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Critical Studies:

"Am I Not in My Own Home?" by Boris Pankin, in Soviet Studies in Literature 18(3), 1981; "The Child Narrator in the Novels of Aitmatov" by Nina Kolesnikoff, and "A Poetic Vision in Conflict: Aitmatov's Fiction" by Constantin V. Ponomareff, both in Russian Literature and Criticism, edited by Evelyn Bristol, 1982; "Aitmatov: A Feeling for the Times" by Nikolai Khokhlov, in Soviet Literature 4(421), 1983; "Both Are Primary: An 'Author's Translation' Is a Creative Re-Creation" by Munavvarkhon Dadazhanova, in Soviet Studies in Literature 20(4), 1984; "Time to Speak Out" (interview) by Vladimir Korkin, in Soviet Literature 5(434), 1984; "Aitmatov's First Novel: A New Departure?" by Stewart Paton, in Slavonic and East European Review, October 1984; "Prose Has Two Wings" by Keneshbek Asanaliyev, in Soviet Literature 2(443), 1985; "Aitmatov's Proshchay, Gul'sary " by Shellagh Duffin Graham, in Journal of Russian Studies 49, 1985; "India Has Become Near" by Miriam Salganik, in Soviet Literature 12(453), 1985; "Aitmatov's The Execution Block: Religion, Opium and the People," in Scottish Slavonic Review 8, 1987, and "The Provincial International," in Four Contemporary Russian Writers, 1989, both by Robert Porter; "On Aitmatov and His Characters: For the Author's 60th Birthday" by Evgenii Sidorov, in Soviet Literature 11(488), 1988; Parables from the Past: The Prose Fiction of Chingiz Aitmatov by Joseph P. Mozur, 1995.

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Since Chingiz Aitmatov's schooling was in Kirghiz and Russian, he is completely fluent and writes in both languages, though he wrote his first story in Kirghiz. In Russia his works are regularly published and reprinted in large editions.

Aitmatov's creativity traces its origins to two diverging dynamics in the life of the Soviet republic—traditional ethnic roots and modernity. Aitmatov closely links ethnic roots with nature in the traditional life of Kirghizstan. He counterbalances this with a modernity characterized by an enthusiastic acceptance of the Soviet industrial, collectivized way of life. His main characters are unfailingly Kirghiz; his stories are set in the mountains or on the Kirghiz steppes. The spirit of his works is born either from that of Kirghiz national folklore, from the spirit and themes of nineteenth-century Russian literature, or from social realist themes typical of the Soviet literature of his time. He often describes the clash between the traditional Kirghiz generation of fathers and mothers and their young sons and daughters who have been molded by Soviet ideology. In his stories the young generation is typically presented as successful, while their parents are forced to accept this success while at the same time confronting their own "outmoded" ways of thinking. Aitmatov develops this theme in "Sypaichi" ("Dambuilders"), between the young Alembic and his father, both of whom have acquired their knowledge from their fathers. While Alembic's father trudges dutifully in his father's footsteps, showing little ingenuity, Alembic exploits his knowledge and promotes Soviet industrial progress to subdue nature, in the form of the river. Aitmatov applauds his courage in rejecting the outdated ideas of his father and the Soviet ideology that inspired Alembic to do so.

Aitmatov also affirms a modern view of women that liberates them from the patriarchal, Muslim household and arranged marriages. In "Jamila" the character of the title exemplifies this model—an attractive young woman who, like the story itself, owes a debt to Turgenev's novella First Love. Jamila abandons the husband of a loveless marriage and his family to follow a man who has nothing more to recommend him than the beauty of his soul. Aitmatov also places a woman in a professional world supporting the development of a new Soviet State. Assa, a character in "On Baidamal River," exemplifies Aitmatov's view of the new Kirghiz woman, qualified and ready to take her new place along with the male comrade engineers designing the infrastructure of the modern Soviet state.

In Aitmatov's works animals often function to symbolize his conflicting attitudes toward industrial progress and the impact of Soviet civilization on the older Kirghiz culture. Aitmatov associates animals with the restoration of balance in the inner struggle of the primary characters that the authorial voice views positively. In the story "Camel's Eye" Aitmatov uses the appearance of two beautiful deer, living in harmony with themselves and nature, as an example of how humanity should live, contrasting this harmony with the troubled world of human struggle. From the point of view of deer, human "achievement," in the form of a ploughed field, represents a breach in the natural order. This breach is linked to a breach in the inner peace of the protagonist. After their appearance, the protagonist resolves his inner conflict between earthly and spiritual life, placing increasing importance on the aspirations of his dreams. In the story "The Meeting with the Son" swallows play a similar symbolic role. The main protagonist, the father, encounters swallows on the way to the village where his son, killed during the war, lived 20 years ago. The swallows appear as the father finally accepts the physical death of his son, realizing that his son's existence in his memory is more substantial than the mutability of the flesh.

Aitmatov's language is very simple. He uses accessible words and has an abrupt style alternated with lyrical sections describing nature and its relationship with humanity. With the incorporation of Kirghizia into the Russian states, Aitmatov struggles in his works to bridge two very different literary traditions through alternating elements of contrast and similarity. Through the development of specific characters he dramatizes the effects of cultural integration on the larger society and, in character development and plotting, interweaves this with universal problems of human existence, such as the confrontation between generations and the search for beauty and love. Recognizing the social advances that might flow from the more modern outlook of Soviet ideology, he attempts to develop fiction that incorporates these ideals, such as equality for women and professionalism, into the fabric of traditional Kirghiz values deeply rooted in nature.

—Rosina Neginsky

See the essay on "Jamila."