Chamanzaminli Yusif Vazir (September 12, 1887, Shusha — January 3, 1943, Sukhobezvodnaya Station, Gorky Region) was an Azerbaijani writer, prose author, publicist, playwright, historian, folklorist, and political figure; the first diplomatic representative of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in the Ottoman Empire.[1] He died in Unzhlag, a corrective labor camp on the territory of what is now Kostroma Region, which was then part of Gorky Region.[2]
Life and Work
He was born in Shusha into the family of Meshedi Mirbaba bey Vazirov and Seyid Aziza khanum, and came from a noble family (the beys).[2] He received his early education at the school of Molla Mehdi (known under the pseudonym "Kar Khalifa"), then studied at the Russian school in Aghdam and at the Shusha Realschule. Even in his school years he became passionate about drawing and caricature; he wrote his first poem, "The Complaint," in Russian. Reading Chekhov, recommended by a teacher, determined his inclination toward the genre of the short satirical story. Together with his cousin Mir-Hasan Vazirov — later one of the "26 Baku Commissars" — he published the humorous magazine "The Conjurer."[2]
The writer took the pseudonym "Chamanzaminli" in honor of the village of his neighbors from Southern Azerbaijan, whose family had supported him during a severe illness after his father's death — fulfilling a promise he had made in his youth.[2] Over the course of a literary career that began in 1904, he used no fewer than 15 pseudonyms, among them "Sersem," "Zarasb," "Chamanzaminli Aligulukhan," and "Chamanzaminli Ali Khan"; some scholars also attribute the pseudonym "Gurban Said" to him.[2][1]
Yusif Vazir has the right to be called the founder of the historical novel genre in the Azerbaijani literature of the Soviet period.[2] After the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan, he left the republic for a time and went to Paris to join his younger brother Mirabdulla, a student at the Paris Institute of Political Studies.[2]
Arrest and Imprisonment
In June 1937, Chamanzaminli was stripped of his membership in the Azerbaijan Writers' Union and effectively removed from professional activity. After unsuccessful attempts to find work in various regions and a period in hiding in Baku, he took a position as a Russian-language instructor at the Khorezm Pedagogical Institute (Uzbekistan).[2] On January 27, 1940, he was arrested in Urgench by NKVD officers and taken to Baku for investigation. On June 11, 1940, he was convicted under Article 58-10 of the RSFSR Criminal Code and sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment in a corrective labor camp.[2]
Unzhlag
On July 11, 1940, Chamanzaminli arrived at the Unzha Corrective Labor Camp (Unzhlag), located in Gorky Region. For some time he worked as a foreman in logging operations.[2] He died on January 3, 1943, at Sukhobezvodnaya station.[1] In February 1956 he was officially rehabilitated; his family was notified in the middle of that same month.[2]
Sources
- litres.ru — Books by Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli in order — download and read the author's books online on Litres
- unzhlag58.ru — Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli — Unzhlag.58