Ishaqi, Gayaz

Born in the village of Yaushirma (now the village of Kutlushkino, Chistopolsky district of Tatarstan). It came from the Tatars-Mishars .

He studied at the madrasah of Chistopol and Kazan. In 1899 he entered the Russian teacher's school in Kazan. Gayaz Iskhaki began his literary work at the end of the 19th century. His first work, Joy of Knowledge, was published in 1896 and was a huge success among readers. In subsequent years, he wrote such works as “The Girl from the Hat Shop”, “The Beggar's Daughter”, “The Son of the Rich Man”, “Two Loves” and other novels and dramas.

After the revolution of 1905 , that is, after gaining freedom of the press and speech, his literary activity especially intensified. He wrote most of his works in this period - from 1905 to 1917. Over the years, he wrote about 30 novels, dramas, and short stories. His most famous works of this period are “Hell”, “Is this Life?”, “Mullah Babai”, “Soldier”, “Bullshit”, “Zuleiha”, “Teacher” and others. The classical dramas Zuleikha and Teacher were staged on the stages of the Tatar theaters until 1923 , when the Soviet leadership learned of his emigration and anti-Bolshevik activities. Subsequently, the publication of his works was banned. In his works of the pre-Soviet and Soviet periods, he described the life, customs and customs of the Tatar people and the struggle against national oppression by the tsarist government. He called on the people to culture, freedom, to fight against oppression and injustice.

During one of his arrests and the subsequent exile to the Arkhangelsk province, Gayaz Iskhaki had to spend some time in the same prison cell where Jozef Pilsudski , the future Prime Minister of Poland, was detained. Having made friends, Ishaqi and Pilsudski vigorously discussed their political struggle against tsarism. There is some reason to believe that Ishaqi had a definite influence on the final formation of Pilsudski’s political views. .

In Russia

In May 1917, the first All-Russian Congress of Muslims was held in Moscow. Gayaz Iskhaki took an active part in the preparation and conduct of this congress. At this congress, a resolution was adopted by the Azerbaijani leader Rasul-Zade on territorial autonomy for Turkic-Muslim peoples as part of federal democratic Russia. At the suggestion of Gayaz Ishaqi, the Central National Council was established at the congress. This Council was entrusted with resolving the cultural, national, religious and political tasks of the Turkic-Muslim peoples of the former empire.

From July 21 to July 31, 1917, three congresses were held simultaneously in Kazan: the Military Council of Muslims of Russia, the congress of clergy and the Second General Muslim Congress. At the joint kurultai of these three congresses, in the organization and conduct of which Sadri Maksudi and Gayaz Iskhaki played an important role, the creation of the national-cultural autonomy of the Tatars of the Volga and Urals was announced on July 23, 1917 .

November 20, 1917 in the city of Ufa, a national assembly convened for the final establishment of the national statehood of the Tatars. A national administration was created here, which consisted of six commissions. Gayaz Iskhaki was entrusted with the leadership of the foreign political commission. After the occupation by the Bolshevik troops in April 1918 of the cities and villages of Tatar-Bashkiria, the National Administration was liquidated. The Bolsheviks confiscated the printing house and editorial property of the newspaper Gayaz Iskhaki “Il” (Country). Ishaqi was forced to go underground.

During the Civil War

In the summer of 1918, parts of the Czechoslovak corps expelled the Bolsheviks from the Volga and Urals. The National Administration, with the active participation of Gayaz Iskhaki in its leadership, resumed its work in Ufa. In Kazan in August 1918, the Tatar People's Army was organized. However, the Tatar-Bashkirs, who took a position against the Bolsheviks, were in a tragic situation due to the hostile attitude towards them from Admiral Kolchak. Kolchak banned the activities of members of the National Office.

After the secondary occupation of the Volga region and the Urals by the Bolsheviks, the activities of the National Administration are transferred under the leadership of Iskhaki to Siberia , to the city of Petropavlovsk , where the Tatars made up a significant part of the population. In Petropavlovsk, Gayaz Iskhaki begins to publish the Mayak newspaper. In 1920 , after the Bolsheviks finally established power in the Volga region and in the Urals , Gayaz Iskhaki was forced to leave his country.

In exile

In exile, Gayaz Iskhaki was mainly engaged in political work, but did not stop his literary work. The most famous works written in exile are the drama “Between Two Lights” and “On the Waves”, novels and short stories “On the Way Home”, “Autumn”, “Great Holiday” and the comedy “Jean Baywich”. In these works, the main leitmotif is the oppression of the Tatar people by the tsarist government, the oppressed state of the Tatars and their tragic fate in Russia. Bolsheviks hid Gayaz Iskhaki's socio-political and literary activities and in Soviet times his name was not known to the vast majority of Tatars.

In 1928, he began to publish the magazine Milli Yule (National Way) in Berlin. This magazine, based on very rich materials, analyzed the policy of the Bolsheviks in the Tatar and Bashkir republics.

In the years 1934-1938, Gayaz Iskhaki traveled to Manchuria , Korea , Japan , the Arabian Peninsula and Finland . In these countries, he worked on the organization of Tatar emigrants. During his stay in the Far East , where then a significant part of the Tatar emigrants lived, Iskhaki organized the publication of the newspaper Milli Bairak (National Banner). Convened at that time in the Far East, the National Kurultai elected Gayaz Iskhaki as chairman of the National Council.

In the city of Mukden in February 1935, on his initiative, the Mukden Congress was convened.

During a trip to Poland, Gayaz Iskhaki actively participated in the activities of the Warsaw organization Prometheus , whose motto was the famous slogan “For your and our freedom!”. Before the start of World War II, Prometheus was the focal point of the anti-Bolshevik liberation movement of a number of peoples. The Soviet-German Mutual Non-Aggression Pact, as well as the ensuing dismemberment of Poland, temporarily suspended Ishaki's political activities. Members of the Prometheus organization were forced to leave Warsaw. Milli Yule magazine in Berlin was closed in September 1939 by order of the German government.

In Turkey

Gayaz Iskhaki later moved to Turkey , where he continued his political and literary activities. During the fifty years of political, journalistic and literary activity, Gayaz Iskhaki initiated the publication of over ten Tatar newspapers and magazines and wrote about fifty literary and journalistic works that still do not lose their significance.

Gayaz Iskhaki died in Ankara , and was buried in the cemetery of Edernekapi ( Istanbul , Turkey ).

Memory

The tragedy of Gayaz Iskhaki “Zuleikha” after a long break was re-staged by the G. Kamal Tatar Academic Theater in 1992 with the music of Sultan Gabyashi based on a partially preserved clavier (the score was lost).

In 2005, the film “Zuleikha” (director Ramil Tukhvatullin) was shot at the Ramay film studio in Kazan based on the tragedy.

Streets in Aznakaevo, Sarmanovo and Kazan are named after G. Iskhaki ^[1] .

• Gayaz Iskhaki “TURKEY-TATAR STATUS OF EMIGRANTS IN EUROPE”
• Gayaz Iskhaki “Who is he? Who is he, who has nurtured our nation? ”
• Gayaz Iskhaki “The situation of the Turkic-Tatars in the USSR, their movement, views and hopes for the future. Turkestan, Caucasus, Crimea, Idel-Ural and Siberia ”
• Famous Kazanians "Gayaz Iskhaki (1878-1954)
• Photo of the grave of Gayaz Ishaqi in Istanbul
• The historical-memorial and ethnographic complex of Gayaz Iskhaki
• Exhibition dedicated to the 130th birthday of Gayaz Iskhaki from the National Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan
• “Tatar-Turkish relations in the field of culture, socio-political and spiritual life in the first half of the XX century”