Samad Vurgun

Biography

Samad Vurgun (Azerbaijani: Səməd Vurğun [sæˈmæd vuɾˈɣun]; born Samad Yusif oghlu Vekilov; March 21, 1906 – May 27, 1956) was an Azerbaijani and Soviet poet, dramatist, public figure, first People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR (1943), academician of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (1945), laureate of two Stalin Prizes of second degree (1941, 1942), and member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1940. The Azerbaijan State Academic Russian Drama Theatre and streets in Baku and Moscow, and formerly the city of Hovk in Armenia, are named after him. Samad Vurgun is the first poet in the literature history of Azerbaijan who was given the title “The Poet of Public”. Samad Vurgun was born on March 21, 1906, in Salahly village of Kazakh Uyezd, present day Qazax District of Azerbaijan Republic. Samad's mother died when he was six years old, and he was in the charge of his father and Ayshe khanim, his maternal grandmother. After graduating from school, his family moved to Qazax and Samad entered the teacher's seminary of Qazax with his elder brother Mekhdikhan Vekilov (1902–1975). In 1922, their father and a year later their grandmother died and concern for the future poet and his brother passed to their cousin Khangizi Vekilova. He taught literature at village schools in Qazax, Ganja and Quba. He studied at Moscow State University for two years (1929–1930) and then continued his education at Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute. In 1945, the poet was elected the full member of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan SSR. Furthermore, the republican Society of Cultural Relations with Iran was founded in Baku in that year and S.Vurghun was assigned as the chairman of this society. The establishment of the spiritual bridge between Azerbaijan and Iran was achieved through the works of the poet. Samad Vurghun was assigned the Vice President of Academy of Sciences of the Republic in 1953 in regard with the changes in the life of the country and Republic. He introduced important issues to the social sciences by discussing urgent problems and the project of scientific publication. In October 1955, the poet fell ill on his visit to Vietnam as a member of the soviet delegation. As a result, he was hospitalized in Beijing, China. He wrote short poems when he was in hospital. He returned to Azerbaijan after a few weeks, but his health got worse. In 1945, he was chosen as a full member of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan SSR and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union of the 2nd and 4th convocations (1946–1956). Samad Vurgun's "Ananın öyüdü" poem (Farewell speech of mother) received the highest mark in the contest of the best antiwar poem in the US, in 1943. In New York, the poem was chosen as one of the 20 best poems in world literature with a war theme and distributed among soldiers. In the same year, "House of Intellectuals named after Fuzuli" for holding events and meetings with fighting soldiers was opened on his initiative in Baku. Samad Vurgun died on May 27, 1956, and was buried in Baku, in the Alley of Honor.