Saken Seifullin (15 оctober 1894 – 25 аpril 1938) – the founder of socialist realism in Kazakh literature of the twentieth century, poet and writer, statesman, member of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks (CPSU b). Founder of the Union of Writers of Kazakhstan. Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. One of the main implementers of cultural construction in Kazakhstan of the XX century.
Biography
Saken (Sadvakas) Seifullin was born on October 15, 1894 in the nomadic aul of Akmola district (modern Karaganda region).
Education and intellectual growth became the main leitmotifs of his life. From 1905 to 1908 he studied at the Russian-Kazakh school at the Spassky smelter. Then he studied at the Akmola elementary parish school and in a three-year city school. In addition, in 1912, his thirst for knowledge was already directed outside: Saken teaches the Russian language to students of Muslim madrassas. On August 21, 1913, Seifullin began his studies at the Omsk teacher’s seminary, where he met with the outstanding Kazakh poet Magzhan Zhumabayev.
Madrasah, in which the poet begins his teaching activities
Omsk Teacher Seminary in which Saken Seifullin studied from 1913 to 1916.
In the November issue (No. 21, 1913) of “Aikap” magazine, he published its first article.
Since 1914, Seifullin began an active work in the field of cultural construction aimed at constructing a national identity and modernizing the symbolic heritage of Kazakh culture, becoming one of the leaders of the first educational society of Kazakh youth “Birlik” in Omsk. His associates in this matter were Zhanaydar Saduakassov, Nygymet Nurmakov, Abylkhayir Dossov and Shaimerden Alzhanov.
In 1914, a collection of his poems, “Otken kinder” (Past Days) was published. In this edition the poet lyrically reinterprets changes in the sociocultural space and the new time, the trends of which are felt by everyone.
In 1916 he worked in the commission on correspondence of property of Akmola district’s 12 volosts. Then he wrote the poem ‘Excitement’, dedicated to the tragic events of 1916.
From September 1, 1916, Saken Seifullin took part in the establishment of the Bugulin school, in which he continued to work for another year, embodying the ideas of “education to the masses”. The specifics of the activities of the Kazakh national intelligentsia of the early twentieth century, unlike their predecessors of the nineteenth century, was access to power resources, which allowed them to establish conditions for a wider coverage of the masses with a new type of education.
On March 9, 1917, Seifullin began active political activity in Akmolinsk, where he wrote a politically engaged poem, greeting the February Revolution, “We Hastily Gathered on a Campaign”. From this moment on, his poetry clearly shows political motives that inspire the young poet with the promise of change. In April 1917, he established the socio-political and cultural society “Zhas Qazaq” (“Young Kazakh”), in July 1917, Seifullin participated in the publication of the “Tirshilik” (“Life”) newspaper.
In 1917-1918, Seifullin took an active part in the establishment of the Council of Workers’ and Peasants’ Deputies in Akmola, was elected a member of its Presidium and Commissioner of Education. He headed the youth organization “Zhas Qazaq” and, at the request of its members, wrote the first revolutionary Kazakh song – “The Marseillaise of Kazakh Youth”.
Continuing to spread “culture to the masses,” Seifullin simultaneously taught at the new Russian-Kazakh school of Akmolinsk.
Immediately after the October Revolution, S. Seyfullin wrote the poem “Come on, Dzhigits!”, which became the first work of Kazakh Soviet literature, from which the introduction of Kazakh literature to the genre of socialist realism begins. On December 27, 1917, with the establishment of Soviet power in Akmola, Seifullin was elected a member of the Presidium of the Akmola Council of Deputies and was appointed People’s Commissar of Education. In February, he was admitted to the RCP (b). On May 1, 1918, the premiere of the performance based on the play by S. Seifullin “Baqyt Zholynda” (“On the Way to Happiness”), celebrating the “triumphal march” of the new government in the country, took place.
However, further events showed that the enthusiasm for the success of the new regime was premature. On June 4, 1918, a White Guard coup took place in Akmolinsk, Seifullin was arrested, and on January 5, 1919 he was transferred from Akmola prison to Petropavlovsk. He was placed in the “death car” of Ataman Annenkov, where he spent 47 days (January 24-March 12). Prisoners were brought to Petropavlovsk in forty degrees below zero, from there they were taken to Omsk for 47 days. In Omsk the prisoners endured all the hardships of imprisonment, torture of Ataman Annenkov’s White Guards, they were kept for months in cold “death cars”, which were later described by the writer on “The Thorny Road”. In the “death cars” many of Seifullin’s comrades died, unable to bear the torture and suffering.
But Seifullin continued to write poetry in prison. In March 1919, Saken Seifullin managed to escape from captivity. Hiding in the distant villages of the southern regions of Kazakhstan, he makes a long journey through the Semirechye, where he faced many trials. However, the proud spirit of the poet was not broken, an ardent faith in his mission warmed Seifullin in those cold days. Through the sands of the Moyunkum the poet returns to his native land in order to join the revolutionary struggle again.
Upon arrival in Akmolinsk, he was actively involved in the process of restoring the Soviet regime. He not only clarified the decrees of the Bolsheviks, who hardly reached the nomadic Kazakh villages, but also actively defended the interests of the Kazakh population. For example, Seifullin managed to reverse the previous decision of the Steppe Governor-General Schmidt, according to which, in case of loss or theft of livestock from the peasants, it was immediately replenished at the expense of a neighboring Kazakh village, regardless of whether they were guilty or not. The poet actively helped poor urban Kazakhs get land and hayfields outside the city, which they did not have in the past. Seifullin actively acquainted his fellow countrymen with the electoral system. And in this regard, there was a certain incident: the Kazakhs paid all taxes and other mandatory fees on a par with the peasants and citizens, but they were limited or completely deprived in the electoral law due to the lack of a permanent and formal residence permit in strictly defined places. Seifullin was the first to initiate a policy of “korenizatsiya” (indigenization) of Soviet authorities and involvement of the Kazakhs in elected bodies, using his authority, literacy and accumulated experience of political struggle.
In Omsk, he managed to escape from Kolchak prison (April 3) and by July reached his native village. Two months later, he was again forced to flee to Auliye-Ata.
On May 7, 1920, he returned to Akmolinsk conquered by the Red Army and was appointed assistant head of the Administrative Department of the Revolutionary Committee. At this congress, the establishment of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was declared. And also the historical Declaration of the Rights of Workers of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted. As one of the most respected figures, S. Seifullin was elected to the government and the Presidium of the Kazakh Central Executive Committee. He took an active part in the development of the first state decrees. In particular, in 1921 he was a member of the Government Commission for the inclusion of the Akmola and Semipalatinsk regions territory in the autonomous republic. Siberian Bolsheviks refused to transfer these areas to Kazakhstan. But perseverance, erudition, the arguments of S. Seifullin and his associates forced their Russian colleagues to listen to the voice of justice and reason. Originally Kazakh lands began to be returned to Kazakhstan. In 1924, he took part in the process of accession of the Semirechye and Syrdarya regions to Kazakhstan. After the last two regions joined the KASSR, its population increased from 4.8 to 6.5 million people.
At the congress of Soviets on July 26, Seifullin was elected a member of the Executive Committee and appointed Deputy Chairman of the Akmola Executive Committee of the Council of People’s Deputies, and on October 12 he was elected a member of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
In November, he attended the VIII Congress of Soviets and listened to the report of V.I. Lenin on the GOELRO plan. In 1921 he was a member of the emergency commission for the accession of the Akmola and Semipalatinsk regions to the Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
On June 13, 1922 he was appointed Deputy People’s Commissar of Education of the Republic and editor of the republican newspaper “Enbekshi Qazaq” (later renamed “Socialist Kazakhstan”). And in December 1922, by decision of the III Congress of the Kirghiz (Kazakh) ASSR of the RSFSR S. Seifullin was elected chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the republic (i.e., headed the government of Kazakhstan).
Despite active social and political activity, Seifullin continued to be a poet and to write poetry. In 1922, a collection of his poems “Asau Tulpar” (“The Indomitable Horse”), the drama “Qyzyl Sunqarlar” (“Red Falcons”) were released. The figurative symbolism of the “Qyzyl Sunkarlar” (“Red Falcons”) drama had a tremendous impact on the aesthetics of new Kazakh literature and, in particular, on its social-realistic canon.
On December 23-30, 1922, Saken Seifullin took part in the X Congress of the Soviets of the RSFSR and the All-Union Constituent Congress of Soviets of the USSR, which proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, he was elected a member of the CEC, and in April 1923 he was a delegate to the XII Congress of the RCP (B).
In his leading posts, Seifullin continued to serve the cause of the formation of socialist nations. Indeed, it was during this period that the active process of the formation of “national cultures in form, socialist in content” began. On November 22, the Presidium of the Kirghiz (Kazakh) Central Executive Committee, on the basis of the decision of the XII Congress of the RCP (b), adopted a resolution on conducting paperwork in the Kazakh language. In addition, Seifullin continues to engage in creativity, publishing parts of his historical and memoir novel “The Thorny Path” in the journal “Qyzyl Qazaqstan” (“Red Kazakhstan”) and the poem “Lenin”.
After V.I. Lenin’s death, S. Seifullin went to Moscow and led the Kazakh delegation at the funeral, after which his article “V.I. Lenin and the Awakening East” was published. 1924 was a turning point in the life of Saken Seiyfullin. After the death of Lenin, the struggle for power sharply escalates among the Bolsheviks. At the same time, the struggle for symbolic capital aggravated among the Kazakh intelligentsia. Already in November 1924, Seifulin was removed from the chairmanship of the Council of People’s Commissars, his writings “On the Way to Happiness”, “The Indomitable Horse” and “Red Falcons” were condemned. The magazines “Temir kazyk” and “Sholpan”, and newspaper “Ak Zhol” sharply criticized his poetic collections, appealing to the ideological line of the party. This begins his decline in his career. An attempt to compensate for this was his original poem “Sovetstan”, performed in the genre epic social realism with a distinctive futuristic details.
At the beginning of 1925, Seifullin wrote a letter to Stalin, in which, with his inherent emotionality, he warned the leader about “a split in the ranks of the Kirghiz Bolsheviks”. He claims that the former Alashordinians, who fought against the Soviet regime with Kolchakites, entered the party only after the 1920 and now they cannot forgive the old tied and trusted Bolsheviks for their negative attitude at the beginning of the revolution. The Alashordinians’ growing influence in the party led to the division of the Communists into right and the left, pursuing a policy that is contradictory in an ideological sense. Seifullin cites in his letter some statements by the rights, which, in his opinion, prove the deviation of the former Alashordinians from the “right path”. One of the main topics of the debate between the rights and lefts was the topic of class stratification in the Kazakh steppe. Alashordinians claimed the absence of such a thing in Kazakh society, using the rhetoric of ethnic mobilization, denying class antagonism in the context of “a unified national culture”. By writing this message criticizing the former Alashordinians, Saken Seifullin hoped to receive support at the highest echelons of power. It should be pointed out that he was not the only loyal member of the Communist Party who was worried about the situation in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. A year earlier, Turar Ryskulov wrote to Stalin, where he accused Sultanbek Kozhanov and the “Birlik Tuy” newspaper of nationalist views.
Being engaged in cultural construction and shaping the views of the creative intelligentsia in the traditions of socialist realism, Seifullin, with the support of his comrades-in-arms, decides to establish an organization that would unite the writers of Kazakhstan devoted to the revolution. So in 1925, the Kazakh Association of Proletarian Writers appeared, which did not accept the Alashordinians. On the pages of various publications, a heated debate erupted over the confrontation among the creative people. For example, Magzhan Zhumabayev calls proletarian writers and Seifulin himself representatives of “class poetry.”
However, Saken Seifullin continues to stand firm on his position. In 1927, the collection “Zhyl Qusy” was published. This collection consisted only of the writings of those authors who were members of the proletarian association, at that time renamed the Organization of Proletarian Peasant Writers of Kazakhstan.
“The Circle of Seifullin”. In the photograph of 1930, the poet, surrounded by his associates
In 1922, Saken Seifullin wrote the story “Aisha”. Continuing the traditional topic of female lawlessness for Kazakh literature, the writer re-portrays the character anew. Aisha is distinguished by her personal courage, stamina and determination in the fight, she is not a humble victim of social injustice, but a fighter and winner The topic of women’s freedom and emancipation in the conflict between traditional and modern sounds today as relevant as a century ago.
Of vital importance was the novel by Seifullin “Diggers” in which for the first time in Kazakh prose the topic of the working class was raised. In the 1930s, Seifullin wrote one of the first adventure stories in Kazakh prose “Hamit, pursuing the bandits”. The Seifullin’s novel “Fruits” is close to the screenplay in its dynamism and excitement.
The development of Kazakh literature in the 1920-1930s took place in the most difficult conditions. On the one hand, the Soviet government and the CPSU with its domestic policy tried to level the national identity of the Kazakh and other national literature, instill a uniform social orientation. On the other hand, it was social gains that were a powerful impetus for the development of Kazakh literature and culture.
In the XXI century, in the conditions of the era of independence and the revaluation of many values of the bygone era, the figure of Saken Seifullin seems quite ambiguous. The samples of journalistic and agitational poetry such as “Socialistan”, “Albatross”, “Sovetstan”, the poems about Lenin, revolution, working class are not represented today as the peak of the poet’s creativity. But any outstanding person (especially a poet and public figure) is reflected voluminously and ambiguously in the mirror of time. The poet’s tragedy is that he was a sincere herald of the new system, that system, whose victims were millions of Kazakhs during the years of famine and repression. In the end, the poet himself, zealously defending the truth of revolutionary ideas in the poem “Qyzyl At”, was destroyed by this system. His tragedy was that he was an ardent Bolshevik, a dreamer, a poet who believed in the ideals of communism and the bright future of his people, but he did not know that this “bright future” would never come under a totalitarian regime.
In May 1926, Seifullin was appointed head of the Eastpart Kazkraikom VKP (b).
In December 1926, he married Gulbaram Batyrbekova.
Saken Seifullin was an example of a multifaceted poet. Even in his first collection, “Past Days,” we may see idyllic landscape lyrics, loud patriotic keynotes, subtle love poems, and verses with pronounced enlightening didactics. Following the precepts of new literature, the young poet considered the great Abai his teacher. He learned the art of versification and love poetry from him. “Unforgettable”, “Where we said goodbye”, “Beloved” and a number of other verses were written under the influence of Abai’s lyrics. Abai’s romantic and somewhat sensual attitude towards a woman is akin to a passionate, full of dashing, temperamental impulse of Saken Seifullin’s lyrical hero. With all the music of feelings, direction of thoughts, the lyrical methods of their expression, the “poetics of excitement”, the poem “Beloved” was the poet’s appeal to love. The poet sought to share his image of the world and woman with the reader. And most importantly, it was an expression of dreams, a mediated recreation of the image of the beloved.
In the poems “Beloved”, “On a Midsummer Night”, the poet masterfully recreates the nightly summer landscape, the river caught the high mountains, with the rustle of a dormant willow, the timid whisper of his beloved, freezing in the silence of the night. Against the background of this silence, the image of a lover arises, who is “the merge of the earthly and the unearthly beauty”.
The physical appearance of the beauty is traditional for Kazakh and generally eastern poetry. The motives of the nightingale and the rose, Paradise houri, comparisons with precious stones are traditional. In all this completely canonical set of poetic devices, a vibrant feeling pulsates, sincere and responsive one.
With bold courage, the poet captures the white neck and chest, and the radiant look, and the clarity of the eyes, checks, waist, and the white shoulders, from which the carelessly abandoned black shawl falls, and the heart that is “caught in flames”. The confessions of Seifullin’s lyric hero from “Unforgettable”, “My Love, Do Not Be Cruel”, “My Tender Friend, Will I Forget Separation” resemble the love lines of Abai’s famous poem “You are the pupil of my eyes …”, in which the poet, like Saken Seifullin, finds “the pearl of the precious words” for the image of his beloved.
In 1927, Seifullin was appointed Rector of the Kyzyl-Orda Institute of Public Education. Since May 1928 he was lecturer at the Tashkent Kazakh Pedagogical Institute, Head of the Literary Association of Kazakh Youth, Head of the Kazakh Institute of Education. While in the post of Rector of the Tashkent Higher Pedagogical Institute, he communicates with prominent scholars M. Tynyshpayev, S. Asfendiyarov, S. Malov, V. Bartold and others. Moreover, he continues to collect folklore works of the Kazakh people. In particular, he manages to publish such collections as “Samples of Ancient Kazakh Literature”, “Leili and Majnun” and others. In contrast to A. Baitursynov, Seyfullin was a supporter of the Latinization of the alphabet. In 1929, answering the question “How do you think of a five-year cultural shift, in particular in the Latin alphabet?”, he confidently said: “The usefulness of the Latin alphabet is proved by life itself.”
Since August 1929 he was an Assistant Professor at the Kazakh Literature Department of the Kazakh Pedagogical Institute. Continuing the collection of samples of Kazakh oral creativity and literature, in 1932 he published the first part of the history of Kazakh literature as a textbook for university students. In 1931, the excerpts from his satirical novel “Our Everyday Life” was published.
At the beginning of 1934, Saken Seifullin, together with other representatives of the Kazakh intelligentsia, began working at the Kazakh Research Institute of National Culture. At that time, within the walls of the institute there was integration and coordination of all research work in the field of national cultural construction, generalization and consolidation of the results of research into a single database, building the foundation of the cultural policy of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Currently, the Institute has been reorganized as the Kazakh Research Institute of Culture. Under the leadership of Saken Seifullin, the following sectors began to be established in the structure of the Institute: historical and archaeological; literature and folklore; linguistics (for the study of Kazakh, Uighur and Dungan languages); fine arts; music and choreography; theater and cinema. Other prominent scholars worked at the Institute: a prominent Kazakh orientalist and statesman Sanzhar Asfendiyarov; one of the founders of Kazakh linguistics, Turkologist, teacher, professor Khudaibergen Zhubanov; enlightener Konyrkhozha Khodzhikov; great writer, classic of Kazakh literature Mukhtar Auezov; Turkologist Ismet Kenesbayev; one of the founders of Kazakh linguistics, researcher of Kazakh philology Sarsen Amanzholov. During this period, the first generalizing works on the issues of Kazakh linguistics and literary criticism were made, and Saken Seifullin, Akhmet Baitursynov and Khudaibergen Zhubanov were at the beginning of this work.
On June 12, 1934, three months before the opening of the first congress of writers of the USSR, the First congress of writers of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (which was part of the Russian Federation at that time) was held, which brought together all trustworthy writers into the Union of Soviet Writers of Kazakhstan. Saken Seifullin made opening remarks as the founder of the Union. Ilyas Dzhansugurov was elected the first chairman. In August-September 1934, Seifullin participated in the work of the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers. In September 1934, he became Professor at the Kazakh Communist Institute of Journalism.
Saken Seifullin’s wife and son.
Seifullin participated in the decade of Kazakh literature and art in Moscow. The famous Russian writer Galina Serebryakova, after meeting with Saken Seifullin in Moscow in 1936, wrote: “Saken Seifullin, who was then a little over forty, struck me with his courageous, beautiful appearance. He was very tall and handsome. His swarthy strong face changed expression often.
The sparkling, clever black eyes are especially remembered, he looked directly, honestly and boldly, and looked like warriors from ancient Persian frescoes personifying courage and the will”. In 1936, Seifullin was the first Kazakh writer to be awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.
Saken Seifullin in 1936.
He was arrested on September 24, 1937, and on February 25, 1938, on charges of Articles 58-2, 58-7, 58-8, 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, he was sentenced to capital punishment. Shot on April 25, 1938 at 16:40 as an “enemy of the people” in one of the NKVD prisons in Alma-Ata. On March 21, 1957 he was rehabilitated by the Military College of the Supreme Court of the USSR for the lack of corpus delicti.
Merits
Working at the responsible posts of the deputy commissar of education and the chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the KASSR, Saken Seifullin continued his tireless and versatile activities. He founded the Union of Writers of Kazakhstan, participated in the literary life of the republic: he edited a literary newspaper called “Adebiet Maidany”, the party newspaper “Enbekshi Kazakh”, wrote critical and theoretical literary articles.
In many respects, thanks to the activities of Saken Seifullin, the true self-name “Kazakh” was returned to the Kazakh people. It was under him that Kazakhstan reset the watches to the international standard of time. Indeed, up to this point a cyclical account of time according to traditional culture continued to operate in the Kazakh steppe.
With the inclusion of the territory of Kazakhstan in the legal and sociocultural space of the informational influence of international standards, time has become linear and was brought into line with the world standard. S. Seifullin was one of the advocates of this influence in Kazakhstan.
Saken Seifullin played chess well. This game became widespread in the steppe in pre-revolutionary times. In his spare time he attended the “Society of Chess Lovers”. There is some evidence that in 1920 in Moscow, as part of the cultural program of the VIII Congress of Soviets, Seifullin took part in a simultaneous game with the future world champion A. Alekhin himself. Then the latter won all the opponents, with the exception of Seifullin (they tied a draw). In 1925, in Orenburg, at the initiative of Seifullin, a chess tournament was organized in honor of the reunification of Kazakh lands.
Thanks to the direct support of S. Seifullin, 1000 songs of A. Zataevich were published. Literally in the Cabinet of the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars A. Zataevich writes in notes the horse march of Abylaykhan, performed by the head of government himself.
Saken Seifullin was very careful about the religion of the population of the region, allowing at the discretion of the heads of institutions and enterprises to provide weekends for Muslims on the holidays of Kurban and Uraza, while preserving the wages of employees. It was S. Seifullin who organized the fundraising for restoration work of the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmet Yassaui, the treasury of world culture.
Exhibition of S. Seifullin’s books S. Seifullin’s private office room 1964 г.
Memory
Saken Seifullin will remain in the historical memory of our people as a bright representative of the Kazakh intelligentsia of the last century. The famous Kazakh writer S. Mukanov wrote the play “Saken Seifullin”, and his colleague G. Musrepov published the story “Once and for Life”. Avenues and streets were named in honor of the writer in Omsk, Almaty and Nur-Sultan, a monument was erected in the capital of the country in good memory of him. S. Seifullin’s museum operates in Nur- Sultan, and the capital Kazakh Agrotechnical University bears his name. Academic conferences are held annually in his honor. In 2005, a postage stamp was issued. A number of schools of the republic also bears the name of Saken Seifullin
S, Seifullin’s Museum in Nur-Sultan
References:
1 Dzhuanyshbekov Nurbolat Saken Sejfullin: Ocherk zhizni i tvorchestva – Almaty: Ғylym, 2000. – 48 s.
2 Kazahstan. Nacional’naya enciklopediya. T. 4. / Gl. red. B. Ayagan. — Almaty: Glavnaya redakciya: «Қazaқ enciklopediyasy», 2006 — 560 s.
3 Kirabaev S. Saken Sejfullin. – A.-A., 1964: Kәkishev T. Қyzyl sұңқar – A.-A., 1968;
4 Satpaeva Sh.K., Adibaev H.A. Kazahskaya literatura. – A., 1993. – S. 140 – 147; Dzhuanyshbekov N.Saken Sejfullin. Ocherk zhizni i tvorchestva. – A., 2000.
5 Sochineniya S.Sejfullina: Ternistyj put’. – A.-A., 1964. Stihotvoreniya i poemy. – M., 1959; Povesti i rasskazy. – A.-A., 1959.