KHADIYA DAVLETSHINA (1905-1954)

Khadiya Davletshina is the name of a well-known Bashkir woman writer. She was born in 1905 in Samara region and died in 1954 in Birsk, Bashkiria.

Khadiya Davletshina’s creative heredity is not large but it is rather weighty, especially thanks to her main book, the novel “Irgiz”. Her first short stories, tragic and optimistic at the same time began to be published in the 1920s when she worked with a local newspaper in Baimak.

In the 1930s, Khadiya reached her prime in literary work. She sought to describe the life of common people at the crucial moments of history, such as the October revolution in Russia in 1917. She became popular after her novel “Aibika” and a collection of short stories “Waves of Ears” (ears – колосья) were published.

As far as Khadiya’s main novel “Irgiz” is concerned, it contains the description of the Bashkir people’s life during two decades of the first half of the 20th century.

Khadiya Davletshina’s life was full of hardships. She was born in a village. When her father died she was only 14. But she had to work ever since. She started as a village teacher and later on studied a lot. She went to a teachers’ training school and a teachers’ training institute. But life sent her one challenge after another: at first she lost her husband Gubai who was repressed, then she herself was called a people’s enemy in 1937. She spent her last years in Birsk. Here she managed to complete her novel “Irgiz”. Until her death she preserved optimism and belief in her nation.