Chingiz Aitmatov: Life and Works By Professor Iraj Bashiri Department of History University of Minnesota © Iraj Bashiri, 2008 Published in: EurasiaCritic. August 2008, pp.26-30. Chingiz Torekulovich Aitmatov, non-Russian prose writer and diplomat, was born on December 12, 1928, to Torekul and Nagima Aitmatov in the village of Sheker (Talas Valley, Kirov district). 1 Aitmatov's father, Torekul Aitmatov (1903-1937), who was born into a middle class peasant family on the banks of the Kurkureu River, graduated from high school (gymnasium) in 1917 and was elected secretary of the Committee of the Poor in 1920. Between 1924, when he joined the Bolshevik Party, and 1935, when he was sent to Moscow to study at the Institute of Red Professorship, he worked in a number of positions in the Party apparatus. In 1937, Aitmatov senior, one of the first Kyrgyz communists, a well-versed literary figure and a politician, was liquidated on charges of "bourgeois nationalism." 2 Nine-year-old Chingiz, the eldest son, coped with the shame and held the family together. At the age of fourteen, he abandoned his studies and contributed to the war effort. Bai-feudal tyrants, unpredictable political turns, and bad luck prevented the family from rising above poverty. Aitmatov's mother, Nagima Hamzaevna Aitmatova (1904-1970), was a true product of the Soviet system. She joined the Komsomols in 1919 and served in various positions including the Head of the Department of the Karakol cantonal Komsomol Committee. After her marriage to Torekul Aitmatov in 1924, she continued her efforts at promoting women's rights, fighting illiteracy, rooting out vestiges of Islam, and working to put forth land and water reforms. From 1938 until she went on pension in 1954, she worked in the Kirov Region Financial Department. Aitmatov's paternal grandmother was also his closest friend. To teach him about Kyrgyz culture, she took the boy to traditional jailus (field festivities), 1 For Aitmatov's autobiography, see "Chingiz Aitmatov on Craftsmanship," in Vasilii Novikov's Chinghiz Aitmatov, Moscow: Raduga Publishers, 1987. Pp. 101-182. 2 For a biography of Torekul Aitmatov and a discussion of his political activities, see Joseph P. Mozur's "Doffing 'Mankurt's Cap': 'Chingiz Aitmatov's The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years,' as well as "The Turkic National Heritage," in The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, University of Pittsburgh Center for Russian and East European Studies, No. 605, 1987, pp. 6-12. 1