P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Tursunzoda, Mirzo

Tajik poet Mirzo Tursunzoda was born on May 2, 1911, into a fam-

ily of wood workers in the village of Qaradogh of Hissar. He received

his early education first from his father, and later by attending Soviet

schools. He joined the CPSU in 1941.

Tursunzoda graduated from the Tashkent Pedagogical Institute in

1930. For a while, he worked in Dushanbe at Javononi Tojikiston, and

in Khujand in the literary division of the theater of the region. Then,

between 1946 and 1977, when he died, he was the Director of the Union

of Writers of Tajikistan.

His first work, Parchami Zafar (The Banner of Victory), was pub-

lished in 1932. He was a regular participant of the literary gatherings

convened by Sadriddin Aini, in both Samarqand and Dushanbe.

Tursunzoda's language was simple; he made extensive use of the

language of the masses. His version of Shurishi Vose' (The Vose' Up-

rising)--the first opera of Tajikistan--was presented on stage in 1939.

His other works include Qessai Hinduston (The Story of India, 1947),

Man az Sharqi Surkh (I Am from Red East, 1951), and Sadoi Osio (The

Voice of Asia, 1956).

Tursunzoda was an innovative poet. His poems "Dar Kishvari Toji-

kiston" ("In the Country of Tajikistan," 1952) and "Hasani Aroba Kash"

("Hassan the Cartman," 1954), indicate his dedication to the develop-

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