Musa Jalil: biography, photo, creativity, personal life

Wikipedia has articles about other people with the last name Jalilov.

Musa Jalil

(Tat. Musa Kəlil, Musa Cəlil, موسى ﺟليل‎), full name -
Musa Mustafovich Zalilov
(
Dzhalilov
; Tat. Musa Mostafa ulı Cəlil, Musa Mostafa ulı Cəlil; February 2 (15), 1906, Mustafino village, Orenburg province[3 ] (now Sharlyk district, Orenburg region) - August 25, 1944, Berlin) - Soviet Tatar poet and journalist, war correspondent. Hero of the Soviet Union (1956), Lenin Prize laureate (posthumously, 1957). Member of the CPSU(b) since 1929.

Biography[ | ]

The house where the hero of the Soviet Union Musa Jalil lived: Karl Marx Street, 19, Orsk, Orenburg Region
Musa was born the sixth child in the family. Father - Mustafa Zalilov, mother - Rakhima Zalilova (nee Sayfullina).

At the age of 10-11 he began to write poetry, but they were lost. The first surviving poem (“Bәhet”) was written by him at the age of 13. In 1919, he joined the Komsomol and continued his studies at the Tatar Institute of Public Education (Orenburg). Participant in the Civil War.

In 1927 he entered the literary department of the ethnological faculty of Moscow State University. After its reorganization, he graduated from the literary department of Moscow State University in 1931[4]. He lived in the same room with law student Varlam Shalamov. Shalamov described him in the story “Student Musa Zalilov” (published in 1972)[5].

In 1931-1932 he was the editor of Tatar children's magazines published under the Central Committee of the Komsomol. Since 1933 - head of the literature and art department of the Tatar newspaper "Communist", published in Moscow. There he met Soviet poets A. Zharov, A. Bezymensky, M. Svetlov.

In 1932 he lived and worked in the city of Nadezhdinsk, Sverdlovsk region (modern name - Serov). In 1934, two of his collections were published: “Ordered Millions” on a Komsomol theme and “Poems and Poems”. Worked with youth; on his recommendations A. Alish and G. Absalyamov came to Tatar literature. In 1939-1941 he was the executive secretary of the Writers' Union of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and worked as the head of the literary department of the Tatar Opera House.

In 1941 he was drafted into the Red Army. With the rank of senior political instructor, he fought on the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, and was a correspondent for the newspaper “Courage”.

On June 26, 1942, during the Lyuban offensive operation near the village of Myasnoy Bor, Musa Jalil was seriously wounded in the chest and captured[6][7][8][9]. He joined the Idel-Ural legion created by the Germans[10]. In Jedlinsk near Radom (Poland), where the Idel-Ural legion was formed, Musa Jalil joined an underground group created among the legionnaires and organized escapes of prisoners of war.

Taking advantage of the fact that he was assigned to conduct cultural and educational work, Jalil, traveling around prisoner of war camps, established secret connections and, under the guise of selecting amateur artists for the choir chapel created in the legion, recruited new members of the underground organization. He was associated with an underground organization called the “Berlin Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks),” which was headed by N. S. Bushmanov [11] [12].

The first formed 825th battalion of the Idel-Ural legion, sent to Vitebsk, raised an uprising on February 21, 1943, during which some of the fighters (about 500-600 people) left the unit’s location and joined the Belarusian partisans with weapons in their hands . The personnel of the remaining 6 battalions of the legion, when trying to use them in combat operations, also often went over to the side of the Red Army and the partisans.

The Nazi command was forced to send regular troops to suppress the rebels. With the help of a traitor, the Gestapo picked up the trail of the anti-fascist organization. In August 1943, the Gestapo arrested several hundred people from the underground group, and Musa Jalil was among the arrested underground patriots. He was thrown into the death prison of Moabit. The torture continued for several months.[4] Musa Jalil was executed by guillotine on August 25, 1944 at Plötzensee prison in Berlin[13]. Shortly before his execution, Musa handed over his poems to his cellmate A. Timmermans. Jalil's poems have been translated into many languages: “If I die, the song will not die”

.[4]

The beginning of a creative journey

The poet's real name is Musa Mustafovich Jalilov. It is known to few people, since he called himself Musa Jalil. The biography of every person begins at birth. Musa was born on February 2 (15), 1906. The life path of the great poet began in the remote village of Mustafino, which is located in the Orenburg region. The boy was born into a poor family as the sixth child. Mustafa Zalilov (father) and Rakhima Zalilova (mother) did everything possible and impossible to raise their children as people worthy of respect.

To call childhood difficult is to say nothing. As in any large family, all children began to take an early part in maintaining the household and fulfilling the strict demands of adults. The elders helped the younger ones and were responsible for them. The younger ones learned from the elders and respected them.

Musa Jalil showed an early interest in learning. A brief biography of his training can be summarized in a few sentences. He tried to study and could express his thoughts clearly and beautifully. His parents send him to Khusainiya, a madrasah in Orenburg. Divine sciences were mixed with the study of secular subjects. The boy's favorite disciplines were literature, drawing and singing.

A thirteen-year-old teenager joins the Komsomol. After the end of the bloody civil war, Musa began creating pioneer units. To attract attention and provide an accessible explanation of the ideas of the Pioneers, she writes poems for children.

Posthumous recognition[ | ]

USSR postage stamp, 1966.
In 1946, the USSR MGB opened a search case against Musa Jalil. He was accused of treason and aiding the enemy. In April 1947, the name of Musa Jalil was included in the list of especially dangerous criminals.

In 1946, former prisoner of war Nigmat Teregulov brought a notebook with sixty poems by Jalil to the Union of Writers of Tatarstan. A year later, a second notebook arrived from the Soviet consulate in Brussels. She was carried out of the Moabit prison by the Belgian resistance member Andre Timmermans. He sat in the same cell with Jalil. At their last meeting, Musa said that he and a group of his comrades would soon be executed, and gave the notebook to Timmermans, asking him to transfer it to his homeland.

There was another collection of poems from Moabit, brought by former prisoner of war Gabbas Sharipov.

In January 1946, a Turkish Tatar citizen, Kazim Mirshan, brought another notebook to the Soviet embassy in Rome. The collection was sent to Moscow, transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then to the MGB, then to SMERSH.

The “Moabit notebook” fell into the hands of the poet Konstantin Simonov, who organized the translation of Jalil’s poems into Russian, removed the slanderous slander against the poet and proved the patriotic activities of his underground group[14]. An article by K. Simonov about Musa Jalil was published in one of the central newspapers in 1953, after which the triumphant “procession” of the feat of the poet and his comrades into the national consciousness began. His friend, writer Ghazi Kashshaf, also played a significant role in the rehabilitation of Musa Jalil.

In 1956 he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and in 1957 he became a laureate of the Lenin Prize. In 1966, the poet’s first anniversary was celebrated, organized on a collective farm named after him, in his homeland, in the village of Mustafino, where many famous writers and relatives from different countries were present.

A hero is always a hero

Hard trials either break a person or strengthen his character. No matter how much Musa Jalil worries about the shame of captivity, the biography, a brief summary of which is available to readers, speaks of the immutability of his life principles. In conditions of constant control, exhausting work and humiliating bullying, he tries to resist the enemy. He is looking for comrades-in-arms and opening his “second front” to fight fascism.

Initially, the writer ended up in a camp. There he gave a false name, Musa Gumerov. He managed to deceive the Germans, but not his fans. He was recognized even in fascist dungeons. Moabit, Spandau, Plötzensee - these are the places where Musa was imprisoned. Everywhere he resists the invaders of his homeland.

In Poland, Jalil ended up in a camp near the city of Radom. Here he organized an underground organization. He distributed leaflets, his poems about victory, and supported others morally and physically. The group organized escapes of prisoners of war from the camp.

Creativity[ | ]

A delegation of scientists and cultural figures headed by prof.
G. Kh. Akhatov (left) at a meeting with Musa Jalil’s family on the day of the 70th anniversary of his birth (in the center is the poet’s widow Amina Khanum with her daughter Chulpan and other family members). Kazan, M. Jalil Apartment Museum, 02/15/1976. The first work was published in 1919 in the military newspaper “Kyzyl Yoldyz” (“Red Star”). In 1925, his first collection of poems and poems “Barabyz” (“We are coming”) was published in Kazan. He wrote 4 librettos for the operas “Altyn chәch” (“Golden-haired”, 1941, music by composer N. Zhiganov) and “Ildar” (1941).

In the 1920s, he wrote on the topics of revolution and civil war (the poem “Traveled Paths”, 1924-1929), the construction of socialism (“Ordered Millions”, 1934; “The Letter Bearer”, 1938)

The popular poem “The Letter Bearer” (“Khat Tashuchy”, 1938, published 1940) shows the working life of the owls. youth, their joys and experiences[16].

In the concentration camp he continued to write poetry, in total he wrote at least 125 poems, which after the war were transferred to his homeland by his cellmate. For the cycle of poems “The Moabit Notebook” in 1957, Jalil was posthumously awarded the Lenin Prize by the Committee for Lenin and State Prizes in Literature and Art. In 1968, the film “The Moabit Notebook” was made about Musa Jalil.

“Accomplice” of the Nazis in the service of the Fatherland

The Nazis tried to lure captured soldiers to their side. The promises were tempting, but most importantly, there was hope of staying alive. Therefore, Musa Jalil decides to take advantage of the chance. The biography makes adjustments to the poet’s life. He decides to join the committee for organizing units of traitors.

The Nazis hoped that the peoples of the Volga region would rebel against Bolshevism. The Tatars and Bashkirs, Mordovians and Chuvashs were, according to their plan, to form a nationalist detachment. The corresponding name was also chosen - “Idel-Ural” (Volga-Ural). This name was given to the state that was to be organized after the victory of this legion.

The Nazis' plans failed to come true. They were opposed by a small underground detachment created by Jalil. The first detachment of Tatars and Bashkirs, sent to the front near Gomel, turned their weapons against their new masters. All other attempts by the Nazis to use detachments of prisoners of war against Soviet troops ended in the same way. The Nazis abandoned this idea.

Memory[ | ]

Monument in Kazan Monument to Musa Jalil on the street of the same name in Moscow.
Monument to Musa Jalil. Installed on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg In the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk, Republic of Kazakhstan, a bust of Musa Jalil was installed on Protozanov Street.

The following are named after Musa Jalil:

• village in Tatarstan;
• avenues and streets in many cities of the former USSR;
• Tatar Academic State Opera and Ballet Theater in Kazan;
• school No. 1186 with an ethnocultural Tatar bias in education in Moscow, where a monument to the poet was erected[17], and school No. 81 in Chelyabinsk, school No. 2 in Kirishi, Leningrad region, also bears his name, on the second floor there is his bust;
• library in Izhevsk;
• cinema in Nizhnekamsk;
• minor planet (in 1972);
• Fund to support the project “Tribute to Memory” named after Musa Jalil.

Museums of Musa Jalil are located in Kazan (M. Gorky St., 17, apt. 28 - the poet lived here in 1940-1941) and in his homeland in Mustafino (Sharlyksky district, Orenburg region)[18].

Monuments to Musa Jalil were erected in Kazan (complex on May 1 Square in front of the Kremlin), Almetyevsk, Menzelinsk, Moscow (opened on October 25, 2008 on Belorechenskaya Street and on August 24, 2012 on the street of the same name (illustrated)

), Nizhnekamsk (opened on August 30, 2012), Nizhnevartovsk (opened on September 25, 2007), Naberezhnye Chelny, Orenburg, St. Petersburg (opened on May 19, 2011), Tosno (opened on November 9, 2012)[19], Chelyabinsk ( opened on October 16, 2015)[20], Astrakhan (opened on May 13, 2021 in Student Square near Astrakhan State University[21], Ust-Kamenogorsk (opened on June 22, 2015 on the Ulba embankment)[22]

On the wall of the arched gate of the broken 7th counterguard in front of the Mikhailovsky Gate of the Daugavpils Fortress (Daugavpils, Latvia), where from September 2 to October 15, 1942, Musa was kept in the camp for Soviet prisoners of war "Stalag-340" Jalil, a memorial plaque has been installed. The text is provided in Russian and Latvian. Also engraved on the board are the words of the poet: “I have always dedicated songs to the Fatherland, now I give my life to the Fatherland...”.

The opera “Jalil” by composer Nazib Zhiganov (libretto by A. Faizi, 1957), the story “Countrymen” by Sagit Agish (1964), and the book “Through Forty Deaths” (1960) by Yu. M. Korolkov are dedicated to the poet.

In 1968, the Komsomol Prize of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic named after Musa Jalil was established, awarded for the best works to young authors. In 1991, the awarding of the prize was suspended. In 1997, the prize was restored by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan “On approval of the Republican Prize named after Musa Jalil” dated February 14, 1997[23].

Perpetuating the name

Today the name of the poet is known in Tatarstan and throughout Russia. He is remembered, read, praised in Europe and Asia, America and Australia. Moscow and Kazan, Tobolsk and Astrakhan, Nizhnevartovsk and Novgorod the Great - these and many other Russian cities have contributed a great name to the names of their streets. In Tatarstan, the village received the proud name Jalil.

Books and films about the poet allow us to understand the meaning of the poems, the author of which is the Tatar master of words Musa Jalil. The biography, briefly outlined for children and adults, is reflected in the animated images of the feature film. The film has the same name as the collection of his heroic poems - “The Moabit Notebook”.

Bibliography[ | ]

• Musa Jalil.
  Works in three volumes / G. Kashshaf. - Kaz., 1955-1956. (Tatar.)
• Musa Jalil.
  Essays. - Kaz., 1962.
• Musa Jalil.
  Favorites / V. Ganiev. - M.: Fiction, 1966.
• Musa Jalil.
  Favorites. - M., 1976.
• Musa Jalil.
  Selected works / R. Mustafin. — Publishing house “Soviet Writer”. Leningrad branch, 1979.
• Musa Jalil. A fire over a cliff. - M.: Pravda, 1987. - 576 p. — 500,000 copies.
• Musa Jalil. Moabit notebooks = Moabit dәftәrlәre. — Kazan: Tatarstan Kitap Nashriyati, 2000. — 215 p. — ISBN 5-298-00656-6.
• Musa Jalil. Last song. - Kaz.: Taglimat, 2006. - 209 p. — ISBN 5-8399-0135-0.

Last months of life

The Spandau concentration camp turned out to be fatal in the life of the poet. An agent provocateur was found who reported that the prisoners were preparing to escape. Among those arrested was Musa Jalil. The biography again takes a sharp turn. The traitor pointed to him as the organizer. The poems of his own composition and leaflets he distributed called not to lose heart, to unite for the fight and to believe in victory.

The solitary confinement of Moabit prison became the poet's final refuge. Torture and sweet promises, death row and dark thoughts did not break the core of life. He was sentenced to death. On August 25, 1944, the sentence was carried out in Plötzensee prison. The guillotine built in Berlin ended the life of a great man.

Notes[ | ]

1. ↑ 12
   Archive of Fine Arts - 2003.
2. Musa Djälil // Brockhaus Encyclopedia (German)
3. Electronic exhibition of archival documents and printed publications “My life is for the people, all strength to them...” - State Archives of the Orenburg Region
4. ↑ 123
   Moscow University in the Great Patriotic War, 2021, p. 166.
5. Shalamov V. Student Musa Zalilov (story).
6. Gerodnik Gennady Iosifovich.
   My front ski track. - Sverdlovsk: Middle-Ural, 1987.
7. Musa Jalil is 108 years old (unspecified)
   .
8. Defying the guillotine (undefined)
   (inaccessible link). Access date: December 21, 2014. Archived December 21, 2014.
9. The life and work of Musa Jalil (undefined)
   .
10. Ibatullin T.
    Military captivity: causes, consequences. - St. Petersburg, 1997.
11. Numerov N.V. Golden Star of the Gulag.
12. Masks of General Vlasov. Interview with candidate of historical sciences, priest Vasily Sekachev
13. Andrey Sidorchik, “Arguments and Facts” newspaper.
    Notebook from Moabit.
    The last feat of Musa Jalil (unspecified)
    . aif.ru (02/15/2016). Date accessed: October 8, 2021. Archived February 15, 2021.
14. Vyacheslav Avanesov, Newspaper “Kurgan and Kurgan” No. 146.
    Musa Jalil: “Live, brother!”
    (unspecified)
    (inaccessible link). kikonline.ru (December 28, 2015). Date accessed: September 23, 2021. Archived October 11, 2021.
15. The beginning of the poem “Spring”, 1937.
16. G. Kh. Akhatov. Phraseological phrases in Musa Jalil’s poem “The Scribe.” / Zh. “Soviet school”. - Kazan, 1977, No. 5 (in Tatar)
17. GOU secondary school No. 1186 Archival copy dated November 14, 2012 on the Wayback Machine.
18. Newspaper “Book Review” 2013, No. 9.
19. The grand opening of the monument to the hero of the Soviet Union Musa Jalil took place in Tosno. Archival copy dated September 26, 2021 on the Wayback Machine.
20. A monument to Musa Jalil was unveiled near the Pushkin cinema in Chelyabinsk
21. Opening of the monument to Musa Jalil in Astrakhan
22. INFORM.KZ.
    A monument to the poet and warrior Musa Jalil (Russian) was unveiled in Ust-Kamenogorsk.
    www.inform.kz
    (June 22, 2015). Access date: November 13, 2021.
23. Musa Jalil Prize (undefined)
    . millattashlar.ru. Access date: February 15, 2015.

Literature[ | ]

• Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium I. N. Shkadov. - M.: Voenizdat, 1987. - T. 1 /Abaev - Lyubichev/. — 911 p. — 100,000 copies. — ISBN ex., Reg. No. in RKP 87-95382.
• Orenburgers - Heroes of the Soviet Union: bibliographic index / Bibliography. department; comp. N. A. Kuznetsova. - 1. - Orenburg: Regional Scientific Library named after N.K. Krupskaya, 1987. - P. 39-40. — 155 s.
• Bikmukhamedov R.
  Musa Jalil. Critical-biographical essay. - M., 1957.
• Gosman H.
  Tatar poetry of the twenties. - Kaz., 1964. (Tatar.)
• Vozdvizhensky V.
  History of Tatar Soviet literature. - M., 1965.
• Fayzi A.
  Memories of Musa Jalil. - Kaz., 1966.
• Barskaya K. A.
  Musa Jalil. - L.: Education, 1968.
• Akhatov G. Kh.
  About the language of Musa Jalil / “Socialist Tatarstan”. - Kaz., 1976, No. 38 (16727), February 15.
• Akhatov G. Kh.
  Phraseological phrases in Musa Jalil’s poem “The Letter Bearer”. / Zh. “Soviet school”. - Kaz., 1977, No. 5 (in Tatar).
• Mustafin R. A.
  In the footsteps of the poet-hero. Search book. - M.: Soviet writer, 1976.
• Korolkov Yu. M.
  Through forty deaths. - M.: Young Guard, 1960.
• Korolkov Yu. M.
  Life is a song. The life and struggle of the poet Musa Jalil. - M.: Gospolitizdat, 1959.
• Mustafin R. A.
  Musa Jalil: Life and creativity: The pre-war period. - Kaz.: Tatar Book Publishing House, 1986.
• Moscow University in the Great Patriotic War. — 4th, revised and expanded. - M.: Moscow University Publishing House, 2021. - P. 165-166, 193, 443. - 632 p. — 1000 copies. — ISBN 978-5-19-011499-7.
• A. Barsova (A. Barseghyan) Pages of the life of Musa Jalil. A word about the Great Victory. Anthology. Ekaterinburg. AsPUR. 2015.