The Modern Novel

Biography

Chinghiz Aitmatov was born in 1928 in Sheker. He was brought up bilingually in Kirghiz and Russian. His father was shot in 1937 during the Stalinist purges. During the war he worked for the local soviet and then studied veterinary medicine after the war, graduating in 1953. By his time, he had started writing stories. He initially wrote in Kirghiz but then translated them into Russian and then wrote in Russian, to gain a wider audience. His stories helped him gain admission to the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow. After graduating, he returned home and worked as a journalist but continued to write fiction. He achieved success with is first novel, Джамиля (Jamila; Jamilia). After that success, he became involved in the Soviet literary establishment, writing for and working on key journals. He continued to write novels, stories and plays. He was appointed Soviet ambassador to the European institutions in Luxembourg and remained as Russian ambassador after the fall of the Soviet Union. He died in 2008.

Other links

Chinghiz Aitmatov
Chinghiz Aitmatov
Chinghiz Aitmatov
Chinghiz Aitmatov
The National Writer
How a Russian-Kyrgyz bilingual writer opened Central Asia to the world
Çıňğız Aytmatov, Kyrgyz pearl of world literature
Obituary
Obituary