Samad Vurgun

Samad Vurgun (Azerbaijani: Səməd Vurğun [sæˈmæd vuɾˈɣun]; born Samad Yusif oghlu Vekilov; March 21, 1906 – May 27, 1956) was an Azerbaijani and Soviet poet, dramatist, public figure, first People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR (1943), academician of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (1945), laureate of two Stalin Prizes of second degree (1941, 1942), and member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1940. The Azerbaijan State Academic Russian Drama Theatre and streets in Baku and Moscow, and formerly the city of Hovk in Armenia, are named after him. Samad Vurgun is the first poet in the literature history of Azerbaijan who was given the title “The Poet of Public”. Samad Vurgun was born on March 21, 1906, in Salahly village of Kazakh Uyezd, present day Qazax District of Azerbaijan Republic. Samad's mother died when he was six years old, and he was in the charge of his father and Ayshe khanim, his maternal grandmother. After graduating from school, his family moved to Qazax and Samad entered the teacher's seminary of Qazax with his elder brother Mekhdikhan Vekilov (1902–1975). In 1922, their father and a year later their grandmother died and concern for the future poet and his brother passed to their cousin Khangizi Vekilova. He taught literature at village schools in Qazax, Ganja and Quba. He studied at Moscow State University for two years (1929–1930) and then continued his education at Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute. In 1945, the poet was elected the ful…