Kavi Najmi is a famous Tatar writer, poet and translator. In the late 30s, he became a victim of political repression. For three years he was in camps, where he was subjected to torture and humiliation. Gained wide popularity after the release of the historical novel "Spring Winds".
Biography: early years
Kavi Gibatovich Najmi (real name - Nezhmetdinov) was born on December 2, 1901 in the village of Krasny Ostrov, which is near Nizhny Novgorod. He grew up in a poor peasant family. At the age of 12, he went to work on a farm, where he performed "black work": he cleaned cattle pens, and drove manure to carts on carts. At the same time, he began to write poetry.
Three years later, Kavi got a job at a soap factory, which was located in Aktyubinsk. There he packed the finished goods. At the same time he studied at the Russian-Tatar school, which he graduated in 1917.
In the same year, Kavi lost his parents. The family also had another son - Rashid. He is 11 years younger than Kavi. After the death of his parents, he was brought up by distant relatives, and Kavi was already independent at that time. In 1917, he got a job as a teacher in a local elementary school.
Two years later, Kavi joined the ranks of the Red Army. In 1920, he took part in the battles to destroy the remnants of Makhno’s gangs in Ukraine. Two years later, Kavi graduated from the Higher Military Pedagogical School. At the same time, he took to his younger brother Rashid, whom relatives in a hungry 1921 year identified in a boarding school.
Career
Kavi took up writing activities in 1919. His first works did not have much success. In 1928, Kavi personally met Maxim Gorky. After this meeting, he published a number of books, among which: "Coastal Bonfires", "First Spring", "Farida". The works were successful with readers and critics.
In parallel, Kavi was engaged in translations. So, he translated a number of works by Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Ivan Krylov into the Tatar language.
In 1934, Najmi became one of the youngest chairmen of the Union of Writers of the TASSR, thereby he gained a lot of envious people. Soon, Kavi received a new apartment, which soon began to resemble a “writing club”: famous Tatar writers often visited it.
In 1937, the writer was arrested on a denunciation as a nationalist. Six months later, his wife was taken away. They had to survive three years of torture.
During the war years, Kavi worked on the radio. He also did not abandon writing. So, Najmi published the book "Tatars - Heroes of War."
In 1948, Kavi wrote the historical novel Spring Winds, which was awarded the Stalin Prize. Soon, envious people fabricated another denunciation of Najmi. Proceedings began. Kavi did not live to see the verdict.
