Mustay Karim (1919–2005), Writer, National Poet of Bashkortostan, K.S. Stanislavsky RSFSR State, Salawat Yulayev BASSR Republic, USSR State and Lenin Prizes laureate (1967, 1967, 1972, 1984), Honourable Member of Bashkortostan Academy of Sciences (1992):
Pushkin plained that Russia is so little known by the Russians. The country was likely to wait for his own genius who would tap the nation’s spiritual resources, first of all, for the Russians, and thereby for all others. Russia got it at last. Pushkin himself became that genius.
Nations of the world share a common trend, all having their own True Poet born by the history who comes into this world to bring about the enlightenment and awakening of mind, reproaching and purifying when most needed. He does not pontificate, “I love and suffer”. For he is a love and suffering himself. Each nation has only one Sun in its Firmament, all the rest are smaller stars of various magnitude. Let’s imagine such a fantastic event. Once a letter addressed to Earth, Russia, Poet would come from the Eternity. Of course, Alexander Pushkin would get it. His name represents the word “Poet” in the best way. The name of Gabdulla Tukay became the same thing for his nation.
A twenty-year-old Tukay, fighting for the enlightenment and social insight of his fellow countrymen, dreamed of creation of the nation’s portrait not only for the further idle viewing, but for self-affirmation, as well as for revelation of flaws in its temper and for drawing the lessons. The Tatars knew about themselves very little. The poet so exactly understood his mission. And having written five volumes of brilliant, often great works for the short seven-year period of his work, he achieved the aim of creating not highly coloured, but a stately real image of the nation, putting in it its social aspirations, spiritual achievements, moral values, everlasting grief and living hope to live in “the free country &ndndash; in free Russia”. The fact that he never melted, curried flavour with his people, thereby did not abase neither himself, nor his nation, deserved a real admiration. Besides, he was not only a singer, but also a stirrer-up of trouble, a performer of judgment over lie and injustice.
It has been written a lot that the poet underwent persecution on the part of his ideological, social enemies. However, the word “persecution” is not absolutely right used towards him. During all his life he fought openly. He angrily pelted the society’s vices, extortioners, traitors, and the traders of the high name of “nation”; often he did it personally and by name. They answered him with the same anger. Tukay took it with dignity and never thought himself to be underwent persecution. It would be too abjectly and simply for him. He was merciless himself and did not expect mercy from his enemies. He understood very well that it was fight, and it was impossible to escape attacks. Just once, at the very end, he gave a groan, “I did not allay my thirst for vengeance, and my power has given out, the sword has broken – that is the end: and being dirty myself, I could not clean the world…” (word-for-word translation)
He did himself an injustice by such a bitter judgement. The Tatar was rather different before the appearance of Tukay, and without Tukay; but with Tukay he became more elevated, freewheeling, and thanks to him he understood his essence better. Now there is the one who can defend, advice, and with whom honour can be compared. That’s why in the day of his funeral Tukay was named as a People’s Poet, thus he became immortal.
I have recently read a wonderful and at the same time very capacious quotation of Yevgeny Yevtushenko: “A great poet is not an author of some great poems, but a co-author of his nation’s history”. It seemed to me that he also meant Gabdulla Tukay by those words. As if destiny prepared for him, a son of the nation, who was an always reproached stepson of the autocratic Empire, such a life to make him feel all the bitterness of the existence, meanwhile making him not lose belief in the rising Sun, running water, and vivid word. Being cold, miserable, little boy, he was taken to Kazan market-place and was offered people, “Who needs a boy? Keep this boy!” Later, he said sadly, “Was I shown in this world as a stranger by the God” (word-for-word translation). And he was wrong again. Can a stranger become a prophet? It is difficult to find another name to the one who has possessed the minds and the hearts of his contemporaries for so many years.
He was born not as Tukay, but certainly to become Tukay. And he became Tukay thanks to the shocks that happened at the beginning of our century, beneficial powers of progress of the Tatar society, thanks to desire for knowledge, and, of course, to titanic efforts of his powerful talent, that made him force. How much he knew, thought, and did! What a range of thinking and horizons of vision! He knew a lot of heights of human culture. He had a presentiment that his soul would fly here not very long time, that’s why he hurried to express his opinion.
The Greats belong to everybody, no matter on what kind of national ground they grew up. The word and fame of Gabdulla Tukay has widely spread. First of all, they reached Turkic-speaking lands and corners from the Karaites in the West to the Uigurs in the East. Of course, it was done not without the help of intermediaries. The XXth century gave a birth just to Nazym Hikmet, who could be compared with the poets of such a scale and wrote in the Turkic language. Naturally, Tukay’s works were included in the first Bashkir textbooks as national patrimony, native expression, and native word. Nobody asked, “Where is he from?” He was only Tukay for everybody. He became one of our nation’s enlighteners, leader of several generations of poets who experienced not only his creative influence on themselves, but also a personal one. I also reckon myself in the number of his devoted followers, though it is a throw: would he accept me? Maybe he would. However, I would wait for neither indulgences, nor privileges from it. Of course, it is impossible to learn all his lessons. However, there is no sense putting ink on paper, not heeding such his precepts as combative passion, love for the nation, pain, and contrition.