Gumer Bashirov (1901-1999), Writer, public figure, National Writer of the TASSR (1986), State Prize of the Republic of Tatarstan named after Gabdulla Tukay laureate (1958):
Great talents usually have their own wonderful peculiarities. Philosophical sense of their oeuvres, all the richness of the poetry, and their historical significance become clearer only with the course of time. The representatives of young generation endlessly find new kinds of intellectual food in their works. The oeuvre of the Tatar national poet Gabdulla Tukay was fated to have the same good fortune. Being alive, he was well-known just among the Tatars. However, by the 100th anniversary of his birthday Tukay was already popular far away from his native country and became the favourite poet of the Turkic and many other nations. In spite of the death at the age of twenty-seven, he managed to achieve the level of teacher for a lot of young talents and joined the ranks of the great East poets. Tukay’s oeuvre had significant influence on the cultivation of the nation’s mind and development of its culture that was dictated by time. We are gradually convinced of it with the course of time. The poet has become much closer than he was earlier. We consider him to be our contemporary. It can be certainly claimed that the nation will take its great son in the future with itself.
Nowadays Gabdulla Tukay is a deep thinker of his time for us. He is a great poet with unique talent, who struggled for the nation’s happiness by his sharp tongue for years, and is a brave hearted public figure. All his life Gabdulla Tukay sorrowed over nation’s sorrows and was glad for its gladness. He whole-heartedly wrote about the Tatar nation as a hard-working, diligent nation, as a nation which pinned its hopes on the future. The national spirit, modern humanistic ideas, grim struggle against society ills, that characterized Tukay’s oeuvre, has become an emulation model for the modern literature. Writers and poets of other nations tell about Tukay’s work as spiritual food for their cultures which encourages friendship between these nations. Being the poet’s countrymen and successors, we take a pride in the way Gabdulla Tukay is honoured and praised by other nations. We try to appreciate it and keep Tukay’s traditions. It is proved by the fact of celebration of Gabdulla Tukay’s anniversaries as national holidays.