Qaysin Quli - Biography

Biography

Kaisyn Kuliev (Quli) was born on November 1, 1917, in Balkar aul Upper Chegem to a family headed by a stock-breeder and hunter. He spent his childhood in the mountains, but became an orphan and started to work at an early age. In 1926 a school was established in his aul, and he started to read and study Russian. By age of ten he wrote his first poems. After Kaisyn Kuliev graduated from school, he entered a technical college in Nalchik. He saw his first publications in Nalchik, he was 17 at that time. In 1935 Kaisyn Kuliev arrived in Moscow and entered GITIS Theater Institute. In the same period he attended lectures at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute and wrote poems. In 1939 he returned to Nalchik, where he taught literature at the local teachers' training college. In 1940, he published his first book of poetry, Hello, Morning!.

In 1940 he was drafted to the Red Army, where he served in the paratrooper brigade. In the summer of 1941, his brigade was transferred to Latvian SSR, where Kaisyn Kuliev fought in the Second World War. Later he was wounded in a battle near Orel . In the hospital Kaisyn Kuliev wrote many poems that were published in Pravda, and Krasnaya Zvezda and later he participated in the battle of Stalingrad as a military correspondent of Syny Otechestva newspaper. Participating in the operation to liberate the Southern cities, Kaisyn Kuliev was wounded again. During the period between 1942 and 1944, he wrote In an hour of Trouble, About Someone Who Didn't Return, and Perekop.

In 1944, Joseph Stalin ordered deportation of the Balkar ethnic group to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Although Boris Pasternak managed to secure a permission for Kuliev to live in Moscow, in 1945, Kuliev despite of Stalin's permission chose to live in Kyrgyzstan, where he worked in the local Writers' Union. In Frunze, he met an Ingush girl, Maka, whom he married. The Ingush ethnic group was also deported by Stalin to Central Asia. Kaisyn Kuliev had three sons with her, Eldar, Alim and Azamat. Kaisyn Kuliev's own poetry could not be published, because he belonged to a deported people. In that period he translated a lot of poetry. Boris Pasternak in his letters was encouraging younger poet to have a faith on better future no matter what.

In May 1956, Kouliev went to Moscow, and in 1957 he published Mountains and The Bread and the Rose (1957) with the help of Russian poet Nikolai Tikhonov. In 1956, Balkars were allowed to return to their native places and Kaisyn Kuliev returned to Nalchik. There he published his collections The Wounded Stone (1964), The Book of the Land (1972), The Evening (1974), The Evening Light (1979), A Beauty of the Earth (1980), and others. Kouliev's poetry was finally recognized by Soviet officials when Stalin's era ended, and he was honored with State Prizes of the Soviet Republics (1966), USSR State Prize (1974) and also Lenin Prize but only after his death (1990 post-mortem). His Russian translators included Naum Grebnev, Bella Akhmadulina, Naum Korzhavin and Oleg Chukhontsev.

Kaisyn Kuliev died in 1985 and buried in the garden of his house by poet's own will and where Kaisyn Kuliev Memorial Museum was opened few years later. One of the major streets of Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, named after the poet. Balkar Theater of Drama in Nalchik also named after Kaisyn Kuliev. His poetry is the "lessons of courage, nobleness and honour".

Children. His son Eldar Kuliev is a film director and screenwriter living in Moscow. Alim Kouliev is an actor and stage director living in the United States. Azamat Kuliev is an artist living in Istanbul, Turkey.