Chinghiz Aitmatov

Who is Chinghiz Aitmatov?

Chinghiz Torekulovich Aitmatov was born on 12 December 1928 in the village of Sheker to a Kyrgyz father and Tatar mother. His father, a Soviet official, was arrested during Stalin's purges on charges of "bourgeois nationalism" and executed in 1938, a trauma that shadowed his early life. Aitmatov initially trained in veterinary science before turning to writing, publishing primarily in Russian while also writing in Kyrgyz. His 1958 novella "Jamila" brought him international acclaim after the French poet Louis Aragon translated it and praised it as "the world's most beautiful love story"; it has since been translated into more than 160 languages. In 1963 he received the Lenin Prize for the story collection "Tales of the Mountains and Steppes," which included "Jamila," "To Have and to Lose," "Camel's Eye," and "The First Teacher." His later novels, including "The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years" and "The White Ship," wove Kyrgyz folklore and Soviet-era life into universal moral questions and were translated into over 100 languages worldwide. Beyond literature, Aitmatov served as a diplomat, first as Soviet and then Russian ambassador to Luxembourg from 1990 to 1993, and later as Kyrgyzstan's ambassador to the European Union, NATO, UNESCO, and France from 2000 until his death in 2008. He remains the most internationally recognized Kyrgyz writer.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Chinghiz Aitmatov" · Britannica, "Chingiz Aytmatov" · Wikipedia, "Jamila (novel)"