Amirkhan Kamizovich Shomakhov


Amirkhan Kamizovich Shomakhov was a Soviet Kabardian lyrics, prose, and play writer, primarily known as one of the founders of the Kabardian children's literature. People's Poet of the Kabarda-Balkar ASSR. Member of the Union of Soviet Writers since 1949. Member of the CPSU since 1938.

Biography

Amirkhan Shomakhov was born in the village of Kanshuei of the Terskaya oblast of the Russian Empire.

Education

In his early childhood Shomakhov studied at a madrasa in his native village. After the October Revolution he finished a primary school and entered a secondary educational institution called The Lenin's Campus in the city of Nalchik. In 1933 he graduated from the Northern Caucasus Pedagogical Institute in Ordzhonikidze. In 1955 he also finished the Higher Party School of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

Employment

During his lifetime Amirkhan Shomakhov worked as lecturer, editor, and official in governmental and civic institutions.

Trial of the pen

For the first time Shomakhov's lyrics saw the light of the day in 1933.

Prose

Shomakhov is the author of novels Kolkhoz Under Fire and Dawn Over the Terek. The former tells about the events of the war years, and the latter concerns the Civil War and the first years of Soviet power in the Kabardian Republic. He also wrote a novel titled Horsemen on the Peaks, about formation of the working class in Kabardino-Balkaria.

Poetry for Children

Amirkhan Shomakhov was truly a dedicated kids writer. A Moscow publishing house «Detskaya Literatura» in 1969 highly appraised his poem «Scouts». In 1970 he was nominated for the State award named after N. Krupskaya. His books have been translated into many of the languages of the peoples of the Soviet Union. Here is an abstract from his poemette translated to English by Margaret Wettlin:
POOR LITTLE MUKHADINМУХЬЭДИН КЪЫЩЫЩIАР
Always something bad befalls me,
I'm always on the outs with luck,
Every day the teacher calls me
To the board, and there I'm stuck.
Yesterday I couldn't tell her
Where our country gets its tea,
I lost my pen, I lost my speller —
What a life for such as me!

Family

Щомахуэ Къамызэ.
Махъсыд Гуащэнэ Тепсорыкъуэ и пхъур.
Куп Лёлэ Мац и пхъур
− 26 January 1999.

Titles of honor