Idris Murtuzovich Bazorkin ( – 31 May 1993) was a North Caucasian writer, playwright, poet and statesman who mainly wrote his works in Russian but also in Ingush to a lesser degree. He had been recognized a classic of the during his lifetime.
Having graduated from the North Caucasus Pedagogical Institute in Vladikavkaz (1933), Idris worked as a teacher. In the following year Idris participated in the First Congress of Soviet Writers and was accepted into the newly formed Union of Soviet Writers. In 1944 Idris entered the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Deported to Kyrgyz SSR in 1944, Idris worked there as an administrator of the . In 1957 Idris led a national movement of the Chechen and Ingush peoples. After the , one of whose leaders was Idris, accused of nationalism, was expelled from the Communist Party, his books were removed from libraries, and his name was deleted from textbooks and anthologies. During the East Prigorodny conflict of 1992, Idris was taken hostage by North Ossetian gangs, and his personal property was exported and never returned. In November 1992, immediately after the end of the armed phase of the conflict, Idris was taken to Ingushetia. He died in Grozny on 31 May 1993 and was buried in the family village of Egikal in Ingushetia.
Idris was acquaintanced for the first time with literature by writing poetry for the handwritten magazine Red Sprouts during his studies at the preparatory department of the Ingush Pedagogical College in Vladikavkaz. From 1928, his works began publishing. Bazorkin was a pioneer in many genres in the Ingush literature: he wrote the first multi-act play At Dawn (; 1934), modern literary fairy tale Kuni (; 1957), an adventure story Call (; 1958), a film script Labor and Roses (; 1963) and a historical novel/an epic novel (; 1968), his magnum opus, which became not only his main book, but also the main book of the entire Ingush literature. Although there were already novels in Ingush literature, Idris, however, gave this genre a large-scale epic character with From the Darkness of Ages.
Life Early life Born on 15 June 1910 in , Russian Empire, in the family of the tsarist officer Murtuz-Ali,; ; Idris was of Ingush background.; Murtuz-Ali, not wanting to come under Soviet rule, emigrated to Qajar Iran during the Russian Civil War and died there in 1924.; ; Idris' grandfather, , was one of the first Ingush generals of the tsarist army; his granduncle was the founder of Idris' native village of Bazorkino, . The Bazorkin branch of the Gazdiev family came from the village of Egikal in mountainous Ingushetia.; Idris' mother Gretta, a daughter of the Swiss engineer Louis de Ratzé, who worked in Vladikavkaz, instilled in Idris the foundations of Russian and Western European cultures.; Not wanting to emigrate with her husband to Iran, she remained in Vladikavkaz where she died in 1923.; ;
At first, Idris studied in the preparatory class of a gymnasium in Vladikavkaz, but being affected by the Russian Civil War he was forced to continue further studies in a madrasah of his native village, Bazorkino, the impressions from which later formed the basis of one of his first stories, Boang ( 'Trap'). In 1924, Bazorkin entered the preparatory department of the Ingush Pedagogical College in Vladikavkaz. While there, Idris for the first began acquaintanced with literature by writing poetry for the handwritten magazine Red Sprouts, organized by Victoria Abramova and . One of Idris' teachers was a professor and linguist Mikhail Nemirovsky who offered Idris to become his student and heir by becoming a linguist. Idris, not wanting to give up literary activity, refused the offer.
Post-graduation from the College In 1930, after graduating from the college, Bazorkin entered the Social and Literary Department of the North Caucasus Pedagogical Institute in Vladikavkaz. During his study years, Idris wrote stories, plays, poems and articles. In 1932, Bazorkin, in collaboration with Mukharbek Shadiev, published a textbook of the Ingush language for 1st grade in rural schools. The drawings for the publication were also made by Bazorkin. In 1933, in collaboration with A. Akhriev and Akhmet Oziev, he published a primer for rural schools.
In 1932–1934, Idris combined his studies in Vladikavkaz with work as a teacher in the villages of mountainous Ingushetia. A significant year for Bazorkin was 1934 as he participated in the First Congress of Soviet Writers as a delegate from Checheno-Ingushetia, where he met the writer Maxim Gorky and was accepted into the newly formed Union of Writers of the USSR.;
In 1934–1935, Bazorkin, together with the , underwent an internship at the Tbilisi State Theater named after Shota Rustaveli. In 1935–1938, he worked as the head teacher of the Pedagogical Workers' Faculty in Ordzhonikidze.
In 1934, with the merging of Ingush Autonomous Oblast and Chechen Autonomous Oblast into Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Oblast, Bazorkin, like most of the Ingush intelligentsia, was forced to move from Ordzhonikidze to Grozny in 1938. There he worked as the head of the Literary Department of the Checheno-Ingush State Drama Theater.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the main theme of Bazorkin's work became fight against the Nazis and victory over them. Being a full-time lecturer for the regional party committee and a correspondent for republican newspapers and radio, he, together with his colleagues, travelled to the cities and villages of Checheno-Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, where he spoke to soldiers and the population of front-line and rear settlements on the radio, and wrote essays and articles in the press and works with characteristic titles about the deeds of the Nazis on their native land like "We will not forgive!", "The face of the enemy", "At the open grave", "The anger of the people", "The honor of a mountain woman", "Son of the Motherland", "A word to the Chechen-Ingush intelligentsia" and "They will not pass". In 1943, due to the retreat of German troops from the territory of Checheno-Ingushetia, Idris decided to switch exclusively to literary work. In 1944 Idris joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
In exile On 23 February 1944, the Chechen and Ingush were deported to Kazakh SSR and Kyrgyz SSR. Idris was deported to Kyrgyz SSR where he began working as an administrator of the . It was forbidden for exiled writers to write and publish at that time, so Bazorkin resorted to collecting material for his works, hoping for further rehabilitation.
The deported peoples, especially after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, began to hope that justice would be restored to them. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, a national movement for returning to the homeland began, the informal leader of which was Idris, who at that time worked as the chief administrator of the State Kyrgyz Opera and Ballet Theater. On 9 June 1956, together with Chechen linguist Iunus Desheriev as a co-head of a group of Checheno-Ingush representatives, Idris arrived in Moscow to meet with the First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, Anastas Mikoyan. Mikoyan promised the delegation to multiply their letters and send them to all members of the Soviet Government and assist in the restoration of the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. On 24 November 1956, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union adopted a resolution "On the restoration of the national autonomy of the Kalmyk, Karachay, Balkar, Chechen and Ingush peoples". In September 1956, a group of Ingush writers and other representatives of the intelligentsia, among whom was Idris, sent an appeal to the Presidium of the Board of the Union of Soviet writers in which they petitioned for "the return of the Ingush people to the fraternal family of Soviet peoples and the restoration of the autonomy of the Ingush and Chechens". The appeal received a great response among the Communist Party's bureaucracy, since it was forwarded by the secretary of the Board A. Surkov to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Such initiatives of the Ingush intelligentsia had a certain positive impact on the country's leadership making the decision to restore the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
Return In 1957, Idris returned to Grozny. At the end of 1972, Bazorkin initiated a collective letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in which he raised the issue of returning the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia to the jurisdiction of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
Constant discrimination of the Ingush in the Prigorodny District forced them to organize , at which they demanded that the Soviet authorities solve the problem of the Prigorodny region and provide the Ingush with social equality with the Ossetians. One of the leaders of this movement was Bazorkin. Despite the fact that the rally was peaceful, held under the slogans of "friendship of peoples", "restoration of Leninist norms" with the Ingush themselves maintaining order, they did not receive any reaction from the authorities and the rally ended in clashes with the police and the condemnation of its most active participants. Thus, the organizers of the rally, including Bazorkin, were accused of nationalism. Bazorkin was expelled from the Communist Party, his books were removed from libraries, and his name was deleted from textbooks and anthologies.
According to Bazorkin himself, after the rally, conditions of Ingush in the Prigorodny District improved somewhat. Ingush language appeared in schools, literature in the Ingush language arrived in the region, broadcasts in the Ingush language began on radio and television, for the first time Ingush deputies appeared in the Ordzhonikidze City Executive Committee and the Prigorodny District Executive Committee. However, much remained the same: authorities continued to limit the registration of Ingush in the district, Ingush children couldn't receive a normal education, discrimination in employment continued and Ingush were negatively portrayed in historical and fiction literature.
Idris participated in the Second Congress of the Ingush people on 9–10 October 1989 as a delegate.
Last years During the East Prigorodny conflict in the Prigorodny region of North Ossetia and in Vladikavkaz in October–November 1992, Idris was taken hostage by North Ossetian gangs, and his personal property, which included the manuscript of the continuation of the epic novel, was exported by unidentified persons. According to neighbors, four people in civilian clothes, accompanied by a platoon of fully equipped armed soldiers, arrived to Idris' apartment in a passenger car and a UAZ military minibus, and stole from his apartment several large cardboard boxes full of papers. The fate of the manuscripts is still unknown. Part of Idris' family archive (two albums with photographs) was returned and handed over to Mukharbek Didigov, the then Chairman of the , in 1995.
In November 1992, immediately after the end of the armed phase of the conflict, Idris was taken to Ingushetia. He died in Grozny on 31 May 1993. He was buried in the family village of Egikal.
Works