Chingiz Aitmatov

Mel Dadswell (University of Exeter)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.2.00: Post-1917 Writing and Culture in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, 1917-present.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Dates

Born c. 12 Dec 1928
Died c. 10 Jun 2008
Activity c. 1952-c. 2008

Places

Born in Russia
Active in Russia

Activities

Primary

Diplomat
Novelist
Story-writer

Other

Translator

Resources

Aitmatov's Works

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The Kirghiz Soviet author Chingiz Torekulovich Aitmatov was born on the 12th of December 1928 in the

ail

(village) of Sheker in the Talass valley of north-western Kirghizia. The Kirghiz, for all their pre-Soviet history a nomadic people, had had a very complex and still disputed ethnogenesis. Even in the mid-nineteenth century explorers and ethnographers were confabulating them with other nationalities. Many Kirghiz apparently migrated from South-Western Siberia, where they had inhabited the valleys of the upper Yenisey, Irtysh and Sayan, to the Altai mountains, where they mixed with local tribes, subsequently making their way south under Tatar pressure to the northern shore of lake Issyk Kul. This “history” is preserved in the

Manas

, the orally transmitted national epic of the…

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2933 words

Citation: Dadswell, Mel. "Chingiz Aitmatov". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 January 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11675, accessed 21 November 2024.]