Abdizhamil Karimuly Nurpeisov (; 22 October 1924 – 5 February 2022) was a Soviet and Kazakh writer and translator.
Life
Origin His ancestors anciently lived in the area of the Aral Sea. His grandfather in the seventh generation Taykozha Batyr had a son Kaldan; in his turn he had a son Arghynbay Bi, who had a son Sylanbay famous in his time for untold wealth. Nurpeis born after him was a district hakim. Nurpeis had three sons Karim, Nazhim and Kali. All the three and Abdizhamil born of Karim participated in the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945). Among them all Abdizhamil was the only one returned alive from the front. His father Karim was engaged in hunting and worked in the village Soviet. Just before the war he worked at a fishery collective farm. In 1944, on April 21 he died in the war thereabouts Ternopol.
Career In 1942, after leaving a secondary school, he joined the Army and participated in the Great Patriotic War. After graduating from the preliminary courses he became a political worker at the South and the Baltic fronts, in an artillery mortar company thereabouts Luhansk, later he was a staff officer and saw action in the Baltic at the Kurland bridgehead.
In December 1946, demobilized from the army Abdizhamil entered upon writing the novel "Kurland", which he started being in the army. After completion and publishing the novel, he had been studying for a year in the Kazakh State University.
In 1954 he entered Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow and graduated from it in 1956. For his first book he was given the Zhambyl Republican Award. Along with the fact that he worked continuously in the field of prose, he stood out with his keen criticism, and journalistic articles. In 1962–1964 he worked as a head editor of the magazine Zhuldyz, which was the body of the Writers' Union of Kazakhstan, besides that he was a delegate of the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh SSR.
Since 1964, for many years he had been engaged in creative activities only, during the market time he organized an international Kazakh PEN Club and was appointed to its presidency. In 2000, he started publishing the magazine "Tan Sholpan" under the auspices of the PEN club. For many years he had been a chairman of the board of editors of one and the same literary and social magazine.
The trilogy The Blood and Sweat and the other writings of Abdizhamil Nurpeisov one of the word-painters made great contributions to the Kazakh literature of the past twentieth century, were translated into about thirty foreign languages, due to this the world has learned about the national Kazakh literature and they were prized by the world's outstanding writers. A Frenchman Louis Aragon, Russians Yury Kazakov, Sergei Baruzdin, Anatoli Kim, Nikolay Afanasiev, Lev Anninsky, Leonid Terakopyan, Valentin Oskotsky, a Spaniard August Vidal, a Kyrgyz Chingiz Aitmatov, a Bashkir Mustai Karim, Germans Leo Kossuth, Ralph Schroeder, Kazakhstanis Mukhtar Auezov, Sabit Mukanov, Gabit Musirepov, Mukhamedzhan Karataev, Takhauy Ahtanov, Serik Kirabaev, Zeynolla Kabdolov, Gerold Belger, Akseleu Seydimbek, and the others wrote about him with excitement.
"... Everything written by Abdizhamil can be called as an entire epic. The epic could be also called "The twentieth century and the Kazakh world". Ordeals in the beginning of the century (The Blood and Sweat), inhumanity in its middle ("Kurland"), and persecution at the end of the century ("The last duty") constitute a single artistic canvas."
Memories written by a talented artist in words brought new ideas into the artistic memoir. The writer was so self-critical, that before each edition he criticized strictly, honed, polished and decried even his world-famous writings. It was bowing his head to the power of the artistic expression. Love for literature, devotion to the art is equating to "related business" as the great Abay said. To resign to "humiliation", "ridicules", torments, and understand in depth the responsibility of literature is a great work.
The trilogy The Blood and Sweat, the dilogy "The last duty" is not only Nurpeisov's success, but also a success of all Kazakh literature. The outstanding writer was praised for his extraordinary work by the people and by the State.
A. Nurpeisov was the laureate of the USSR State Prize. In Kazakhstan only three writers Mukhtar Auezov, Abdizhamil Nurpeisov, Zhuban Moldagaliev have such an award.
Personal life and death He died on 5 February 2022, at the age of 97.
Awards Order of the second degree of the Second World War, "Red Star";
Order of the "Red Banner of Labor";
Order "Mark of Honor";
Kazakhstan Order "Homeland";
In 1985 he was given the honorary title "People's Writer of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic".
USSR State Prize
People's Writer of the Kazakh SSR. For his active participation in the printing of the World 200 volume library also for writing the preface to Mukhtar Auezov's two-volume of the same library the certificate of honour of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.
Literature
Oeuvre Abdizhamil started his literary way with a novel, his favorite genre. A soldier, who just was back from World War II, took a pen into hands and under the pressure of the flushing inspiration presented on the paper the impressions received in a bloody battle, in the struggle between life and death. The impressions were so great that on returning from the army, working tirelessly for four to five years, gave birth to the extensional novel "Kurland" (1950). Although the artistry was not at the quite proper level, this work was included into the literature because of its wealth of ideas and new images. A Kazakh reader could find out all the truth of the trench life, the depth and breath of warrior's life, could see directly the military frontier. "Kurland" afterwards was complemented and reduced, published again under the title "The long-awaited day" (1958).
The writing has been edited in order to improve the artistic quality of the work. Some people suppose "Kurland" to be "bad and beneath criticism". The author seemed to agree with the critics: "... In 1947, being back from the front I wrote the novel in a half-literate state. Of course it's known a half-literate writer will write a half-literate novel." Takhauy Ahtanov noticed that the novelist is a critic himself. In the novel "Kurland", he wrote, a young writer first of all showed his talent and skills of the word-painter. He could show life of the war to the reader in the artistic way.
He created characters that reflected the appearance, personality, and internal perspective of contemporaries. The writer demonstrated knowledge of the Kazakh language and used it within the work.
The Blood and Sweat
The young officer Abdizhamil returned from the front as warmly met his native land, as much he desired to sing from the depth of his heart of love to his Motherland on the pages of the novel. It is clearly seen in his writing.
"... Until now, the soul belongs to rural life. It doesn't matter how far you are from your native land, you always will be related with your motherland. Some days you remember a lonely home of an old fisherman, your poor abode, the lamp flashing inside. Though you have a better house, you miss badly your ancestral, smelling of fish home. Your father, probably tired of his work is inside. His shiny dark face burnt by the sun is full of its own beauty. And his voice is barely audible. His wrinkled face covers with rays of joy if all of a sudden a swarthy pug boy runs into the house, "- says the writer.
These words of the writer explain why the novel The Blood and Sweat was written. The trilogy The Blood and Sweat consists of the novels Twilight (1961), Ordeals (1964), Crash (1970). As it follows from the titles there are not much sweets of life in the novels. If the characters have some, then they fall into another hell. The protagonist of the trilogy Elaman is always gloomy. But the sense of love for his native land always takes a special place in his heart.
The writer's love to his people, to vast steppes can be seen in his long story stretching endlessly as endless motions across the steppes, in songs, in good-natured characters, described on the epic level.
The trilogy The Blood and Sweat is written about the people and the country, about his social destiny. Even if great changes take place in the present life this writing is epoch-making. Some neo-nihilists try to name the gold literature of the seventieth as a copper one; they suppose the novel to be obsolete because it describes the social struggle.
If one reads the trilogy The Blood and Sweat from the present independent and democratic point of view he wouldn't find a word conflicting with the reality of the past Kazakh life. On the contrary there are thoughts and ideas contradicting the communist ideology views and there is a reason to ask "how the vigilant censorship allowed them to be".
In the last book of the novel Crash, Elaman has some doubts if the principles of the future communist society agitated by Commissioner Diakov are faithful.
"Well, we will defeat the enemies, everything will become as we wish, and our life will change to the best, and all people will be equal, but will they be able to curb the insatiable desires, their greed? Is it possible? More than once in his life he had to break unbridled horses. The most stubborn, restive horse being under the iron twisters used to become silky in a day or two. Moreover, it predicted and fulfilled the slightest desire of the rider and obediently followed him. And what will we do with an obstinate capricious man? Should he be bridled like a horse? A? What do you Say?The Blood and Sweat. Vol. 3. Collapse. Part Three. IX
No, I don't understand that. While there is human's greed some of these tomboys in the future will be respected, some will be at the door. "
In comparison with the first work of the novelist The Blood and Sweat broadly covers life of that period and its genre is quite different from the other writings. If "Kurland" is a narrative novel, The Blood and Sweat is a writing of the social and psychological type. The emphasis is put upon the character. The entire writer's creativity was used to disclose the ancestors' nature. Personal identity of the characters is the driving-force of the Nurpeisov's novel. The character created by the people, in its turn, affects the national heart rate, the tone and mood of the people. It seems to be the cause of the events in the novel. Besides of that it is the focus of the plot.
Elaman's personality consists of the unity of his general and specific personal features. Throughout the narration his character is complemented and enriched by nature. In the initial book of the trilogy Twilight Elaman is an ordinary fisherman. His main innate characteristics are impetuosity and firmness. From the very beginning is clear that he is class conscious and educated. His disadvantage is it is no matter to him what happens in the outside world. The writer thus gradually lets the social beam into shady characters of the patriarchal circumstances.
An accidental event brought Elaman to a social shock. Fedorov, the owner of the Aral industrial settlement called by people as "bully Shodyr" forced the fishermen to go to the not yet frozen sea. While the hired fishermen were being beaten Elaman was internally indignant but when they wanted to beat him too, he raised a crowbar in his hand and killed his moneymaker... It was a random event. Elaman had never thought to kill a man. He has been a quiet, kind man by nature. There is a reason to believe this accident to be a must. The death of innocent fishermen Andrew and Zhalmurat, evaluation of merchant's assets above their life, lack of humanity fired up the fire of revenge in his chest.