Chinghiz Aitmatov

Lore & Background

Chinghiz Aitmatov was born to a Kyrgyz father and Tatar mother, both civil servants in Sheker. Aitmatov lived during Kyrgyzstan's transformation from a remote part of the Russian Empire to a republic of the USSR. On 16 May 2008, Aitmatov was admitted with kidney failure to a hospital in Nuremberg, Germany, where he died of pneumonia on 10 June 2008 at age 79. His remains were flown to Kyrgyzstan and buried in the village Koy-Tash, on the Ata-Beyit cemetery, which he had helped to found and where his father most likely is buried.

Reader's Guide

Chinghiz Aitmatov's literary career began in the post-war generation. Aitmatov's writing drew on folklore, recreating oral tales in contemporary contexts; nearly every story refers to a myth, legend, or folktale. His work also touches on Kyrgyzstan's transformation from the Russian empire to a USSR republic, as in Farewell, Gyulsary!, which explores loss and grief under Soviet rule. Aitmatov was fluent in both Kyrgyz and Russian; most early works he wrote in Kyrgyz, some later translated into Russian by himself or others.

Did You Know?

• He worked as a tax collector, loader, and engineer's assistant before becoming a writer.
• His novel The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years includes a poetic legend about a 'mankurt' as a tragic allegory.
• He was a diplomat accredited by three countries: the Soviet Union, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan.