Literature in Tatarstan.
information about writers, poets and folk-tails.

Cultural and Educational center

Writers

Folk-tales

Cultural and Educational center

Tatar writers and educators made Kazan a cradle of unprecedented cultural progress for the Muslim east in the fields of education, theatre and music. Tatarstan is one of the former Soviet Union's major cultural and educational centers. Famous sons include the mathematician Lobachevsky, the writer Lev Tolstoy, the politician Lenin, opera star Shaliapin and ballet dancer Nuriev. Lobachevsky, founder of non-Euclidean geometry, was Rector of Kazan University for twelve years (1827-1846). In addition to Lobachevsky, the "Copernicus of geometry", University boasts many other world-renowned scientists, among them the chemist Butlerov who made a major contribution to the theory of chemical structure of organic substances.

Students sometime joke, that "to become famous, you must be expelled from Kazan State University" - because that was the fate of such notables as Lev Tolstoy and Lenin. Lev Tolstoy spend almost six years of his youth in Kazan, residing in various houses that now carry memorial plaques. Echoes of his life in Kazan found in his stories "After the Ball", "Morning of a Landowner" and in the novel "Childhood, Boyhood, Youth". Vladimir Ulianov (Lenin) was expelled in 1887 for participating in a student gathering.

The most important facilities of higher education include Kazan State University, Kazan State Medical University, Kazan State Technical University and Russian Islam University, all located in the capital Kazan.

Writers

Gabdulla Tukay (1886 -1913)
The greatest Tatar poet of all times. His poem "Shurale" belongs to the golden treasure trove of the Tatar literature. "In the sky of poetry, there is a galaxy of poets whose names can not be sponged out of the people's memory by neither flames of wars nor dust of ages. In the Orient, these are Rudaki, Hayam, Hafiz, Nizami, Rustaveli, Navoi and Kul Gali (Kashani)... In the Occident - Dante, Goethe, Heine, Byron, Pushkin. Their names are shining even brighter with time. There also is a galaxy of democratic poets: Shevchenko, Burns, Peto fi, Nekrasov, Abai, among whom glows the luminous star of our young Tukay".

Gabdulla Tukay is a poet, publicist, literary critic. For the Tatar poetry and the culture he means as much, as Pushkin in the history of the Russian poetry and culture.

Kul Gali
In 1983, the world celebrated the 800th anniversary of the founder of Bolgar-Tatar literature, poet Kul Gali. His poem Kyssa-i Yusuf (Saga about Yusuf), descending from one generation to another, has come to the contemporary readers as one of the best pieces of art of the 13th century forming the golden fund of the world's epic poetry.

Kul Sharif
Kul Sharif is a great poet of the 16th century, diplomat, religious and cultural personality. Once he was a seid, i.e. a chief priest of Kazan Khanate. In the last khanate's period he conducted diplomatic negotiations between Kazan and Moscow. It was he who handed in 1551 the petition to Ivan IV the Terrible in Moscow and a deed on peaceful resolution of the conflict in the Sviyazhsk Island in 1552.

Muhammedyar
Poet and humanist, whose 500th anniversary was celebrated by the public during the Second World Congress of Tatars as a prominent representative of Tatar literature of the 15th-16th centuries.

Kayum Nasyri (1825-1902)
Distinguished enlightener of the 19th century, Kayum Nasyri is rightfully spoken of as an artist, illustrator, book art master. He was a philosopher, historian, writer (author of the books "Tale of Forty Viziers", 1868, "Abugalisina", 1872), a theorist in the field of ethics, aesthetics and a folklore researcher. He was a practising teacher, and the first school for teaching Muslim children the Russian language which he opened in Kazan in 1871 was a significant progressive step.

Mousa Jalil (1906-1944)
Mousa Jalil is the world famous Tatar poet and a hero of the anti-fascist underground.

Folk-tales

In Tatar folklore the name of Shurale is well-known. This bogeyman is described as a human-like creature with a body completely covered by fur and a horn growing from the middle of his forehead. Shurale (Shoo - rah - leh , pronounced to rhyme with "sure, I lay") has long, bony pointy fingers with which he likes to tickle humans who are unlucky enough to have lost their way in the middle of the black forest (kara urman). Shurale patiently waits behind the trees for his victims. Once the abominable forest creature catches them, he usually tickles them to death.

One of the stories about Shurale sounds like this: "In one village the local residents noticed that one of their horses regularly disappears every night and returns home early in the morning completely exhausted and lathered. They were totally flabbergasted by its mysterious disappearances. One day they decided to ask a local elder for help. The elder recommended covering the saddle of the horse with tar and letting it go. The next morning the people of the village were awakened up by ear-splitting screams. They looked out of their windows and couldn’t believe their eyes: On top of the horse, glued to the saddle there was a scary-looking dark creature that looked like a human being. The creature screamed at the top of its lungs. The village men caught the creature, who turned out, of course, to be Shurale, and killed him."

But the most famous story about Shurale was told by Gabdullah Tukai (Too - kai, pronounced to rhyme with "too high"). Probably, it is the most well-known Tatar poem in the entire 1000 year old history of the Tatar literature. Only Tukai’s other poetic masterpiece, "Oh, My Native Tongue!" can challenge that assumption. All attempts to translate "Shurale" are fruitless and will never succeed. People who are lucky enough to be able to read it in the original are truly blessed. The heart of any Tatar fills with warmth when he reads the magic words:"Nek Kazan artenda bar der Ber avel - Kerlai diler..." (Near Kazan there’s a village, Known to people as Kerlai)

In Tukai’s poem, a young handsome woodcutter decides to go to the forest to get some wood. He prepares his horse-drawn cart and leaves the village of Kerlai late in the evening. Once in the forest, he fells a few trees and puts the timber on the cart. One of the pieces appears to be too big. In order to split it in half, the man puts a wedge into a slit in the log and starts hitting it with his ax. Suddenly he sees a horrible-looking furry creature with long fingers and a horn in his forehead. It is Shurale!

"Hey, young man," says Shurale, "why don’t you put your instruments down and play a tickling game with me?" The boy politely refuses but after Shurale’s demands become more insistent, he finally agrees. But he agrees to it under one condition: that at first Shurale will help him split the log. "Put your fingers into the slit in the log and pull it apart while I drive the wedge in," says the young man cunningly.

When Shurale reluctantly agrees, the young woodcutter, instead of driving the wedge in, suddenly drives it out with a few strokes of the ax. Shurale’s fingers get stuck in the log. The creature begins to scream and yell, threatening the boy with all kinds of punishments and then imploring him - all to no avail.

The young man, without paying the slightest attention to Shurale begins to leisurely prepare his terrified horse for the ride home. When he is finally ready to leave the forest, Shurale asks him desperately: "Oh you, cruel man, tell me at least what your name is, so that I know who to take revenge on!" The young man, before striking his horse with a whip, finally turns to Shurale and tells him with a wink: "My name is Belter!" (literally, "Last year")The next morning, the forest kin of the Shurale gather around him and ask him why he is screaming so loud. The poor creature responds to them: "Oh! My fingers! Last year! (belter)" The other shurales start laughing at the hapless relative and scolding him: "You fool! Why are you screaming now if the accident happened last year?"