Mirsaid Mirshakar

Mirsaid Mirshakar

Mirsiad Mirshakar or Mirsaid Mirshakarov (born 6 May 1912 – died 1993) was a Soviet administrator, author, playwright and poet.

Life and career

Mirsaid Mirshakar was the son of a farmer, born in the village of Sindev, Pamir, Russian Empire, now Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, Tajikistan. He graduated from the Central Soviet Party School in Dushanbe in 1930, and his works began to appear in print the same year. He became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1944 and was the People’s Poet of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic in 1962.

From 1932–33, Mirshakar served as the editor of the newspaper Sokhtmoni Vakhsh. He wrote narrative poems glorifying historic events in the life of the Tajik people after the 1917 October Revolution. Mirshakar was considered one of the founders of Tajik children’s literature. His writings for children were the subject of the doctoral thesis of literary critic Jonon Bobokalonova.

Mirshakar served as the executive secretary of the Writers’ Union in Tadzhik from 1940–1943 and from 1946–1959. He also served in a number of administrative positions including Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Tajik SSR. For his service as a poet, Mirshakar was awarded several state prizes for his works.

Honors and awards

• Order of Lenin
• Order of Red Banner of Labor
• Order of the Badge of Honour
• Order of the October Revolution
• Stalin Prize winner
• Winner of the USSR State Prize

Works

Selected works include:

• The Golden Kishlak, 1942, State Prize of the USSR, 1950
• She’rho va poëmaho, Dushanbe, 1945
• The Turbulent Piandzh, 1949, State Prize of the USSR, 1950
• She’rho va dostonho, Dushanbe, 1954
• Lenin in the Pamirs, 1955
• Kulliyot, parts 1–3, Dushanbe, 1970–73
• Stikhotvoreniia i poemy, Moscow, 1951
• Love and Duty, 1962
• Lenin’s Gaze, 1962
• Liubov’ i dolg. Poemy, Moscow, 1964
• Polovod’ia zhizni, Moscow, 1972

Plays

• Tashbek and Gul’kubran, 1946
• The Golden Kishlak, 1949
• My City, 1951