Suleyman Stalsky

Suleiman Stalsky is a well-known poet of the 20th century in Dagestan. The founder of Dagestan poetry. People's poet, whom Gorky dubbed "Homer of the XX century."

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

The full true name of the famous writer is Suleiman Gasanbekov. He was born in 1869, on May 18, in the small settlement of Ashaga-Stal. It belonged to the Dagestan region, the Kyurinsky district. The boy's parents were ordinary Lezgi peasants.

The beginning of the biography of little Suleiman can be considered very tragic. The father, being angry, drove the pregnant mother out of the house. The boy was born in a barn, where the mother wandered completely exhausted. The weak and sickly child ended up in the care of a neighbor, where he lived until the age of seven. The mother did not accept her husband's attitude towards the child and after a while she died without returning the baby.

In the future, Suleiman, although he lived in his father's house, did not feel joy from this. The father did not forgive his wife, and therefore often took out his anger on the boy. At the same time, the son had to work out everything that fell to him, including food. After a while, the father brought a new wife to the house, and the future poet became a free slave in his father's house.

When Suleiman was eleven, his father died. And by the age of thirteen, he was forced to work to provide and feed himself. At first there was hard work on the railroad, then it was replaced by the oil industry. Later, the young man got a job as a worker in a rich house. All childhood and youthful years of Suleiman passed in a constant attempt to survive and find his place in this world.

Everything changed overnight when a Lezgin ashug or, as the people said, a wandering singer came to the village where the young man lived. Since that time, the young man began to look at the life around him with a completely different look.

CREATIVE WAY

When Suleiman first heard the poet read and sing poetry, he was amazed. Since that time, the young man decided for himself that he would certainly go along the creative path.

Already in 1900, the first poems were written in the Azerbaijani language. After a while, they were translated into Lezgian and, of course, Dagestan. Among the first known compositions is the song "Nightingale", which was recorded only a few years later. And all because Suleiman himself, as a child, did not attend school, and could not read and write. His first compositions, which he told to friends and neighbors, were simply memorized and passed on to each other. In the pre-revolutionary period, Suleiman's poems were filled with anger against the people's oppressors. In addition, the poet was well acquainted with the work of Etim Emin. His songs were part of folk life and were sung as often as any works from folk art. Social poems about the "poor" have become a kind of continuation of the work of the famous songwriter. At the same time, Suleiman did not have such despair in his works, but rather showed the irony and rebelliousness of the current situation.

Poet Suleiman Stalsky

Many years will pass before Stalsky has his own linguist. They will be Gadzhibek Gadzhibekov. It is this person who will collect together all the works of the poet and write them down on paper. To the same period, researchers of the work of the Dagestan poet attribute the popular works “Foreman”, “Judge”, “Mulla”. Natalya Kapiyeva wrote in one of her books “A Life Lived White”: “Gadzhibek Gadzhibekov, a well-known linguist, took down Suleiman from dictation. Sometimes recordings lasted for several hours, or even days. Stalsky did not forget any of the lines he wrote.

In 1909, the poet expressed a desire to take part in a literary competition, speaking out against the well-known ashugs. It is worth noting that the little-known poet showed himself in competitions with a very good side. Immediately, the public "glued" his pseudonym to him, since they did not know the true name of the poet. So Suleiman Gasanbekov turned into Ashaga-Stalsky. Over time, the pseudonym changed and Suleiman Stalsky turned out. A name that is known to many today and with which all the published books of the poet are signed.

Poems written by the poet have been translated into Russian more than once and published in Russia. At one time, they could be found in such popular periodicals as Izvestia and Pravda.

In post-revolutionary Russia, it was Stalsky's poems that acquired a certain truthfulness and sincerity, thanks to which the writer's popularity took a new turn. His works were about hard fate, ridiculing arrogance, sincerity and love for freedom.

Suleiman Stalsky and Maxim Gorky

The Soviet era "made" Stalsky a true poet for the people. In the same period, numerous publications wanted to print exactly the poems written by the Dagestanis. In 1927, the "Collection of Lezgi Poets" was published in Moscow, in which the works of Suleiman Stalsky took pride of place. The rave reviews from critics and the

Source: https://biographe.ru/znamenitosti/sulejman-stalskij