Director Andrei Konchalovsky, writers Fazil Iskander and Viktor Erofeev spoke about the author of the famous novels The White Steamboat, The Scaffold, And The Day Lasts Longer Than A Century.
Fazil Iskander, writer
Aitmatov is a great humanist writer: this definition fits him very well. He believed that now is a crisis of humanistic values, and I agree with him. I believe this crisis has also come because the most talented, most intelligent writers of the older generation have either died or are already out of order. And the next generations, unfortunately, could not maintain the depth and conflict in our literature. Therefore, it is now rather superficial. Chingiz Aitmatov was one of the brightest representatives of irreconcilable literature, irreconcilable to all social evil that existed and exists in our country.
He devoted himself entirely to works that were read with great pleasure in our country and throughout the world. It seems to me that no one has revealed the life of Central Asia as deeply and widely as Aitmatov in the works “Farewell, Gulsary!”, “And the day lasts longer than a century”, “The First Teacher”, “White Ship”. The peculiarity of his work lies in the fact that he deeply knew the situation he wrote about. Not just heard from someone, but he delved into the essence of what was happening. That is why Aitmatov has always been very convincing. What he wrote will remain for a long time not only in our, but also in world literature.
Viktor Erofeev, writer
It seems to me that Aitmatov was the Kirghiz Tolstoy or the Kirghiz Marquez. It has two beginnings: on the one hand, it is a folk epic, moreover, it is alive, and not invented, not socialist, and on the other hand, high culture. I believe that a writer of one culture is already a dying nature, in the world creativity that at least feeds on two cultures can find energy. And in this sense, Aitmatov was very attractive. State respect and literary fame did not spoil him. He had an honesty that gave some light in the 60s and 70s. One could orient oneself to this light, realizing that one had to survive and write the way one wanted.
I looked now at his photographs of different periods of his life. At first, this is such a Kyrgyz youth with tousled hair, with piercing eyes, who wants to enter literature, who has many desires and a big dream - this is one image. And in recent years, this is a sleek European ambassador who does not look like a Kyrgyz at all, who signs some kind of treaties. And this, of course, is a different image. Thus, he lives parallel, perpendicular lives, and according to Camus' definition, a person who lives many parallel lives is a happy person. So a happy man died in Germany.
Andrey Konchalovsky, director
I remember Chingiz Aitmatov as very shy. This shyness spoke of him as a truly pure person. Already very young, Aitmatov was considered a classic. He was favored by the authorities, had many awards... But this did not prevent him from always being a very modest, exceptionally devoted and faithful person who helped everyone as much as possible. Aitmatov never interfered with my work 1 only helped. Even when I knew that it was contrary to his intentions, contrary to his aesthetic, he still helped early. He was a man of endless bestowal. Chingiz Aitmatov is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, who was born on the territory of the USSR and became the pride of not only national culture, but also the pride of Russian culture. His literature combined both modernity and classical examples. He was both a classic and an innovator, like Marquez. Aitmatov was a religious person in a certain sense, and even a mystic. He saw beyond time. All his works are turned to infinity.
Chingiz Aitmatov was born on December 12, 1928 in the village of Sheker, Talas region of Kyrgyzstan. His father Torekul Aitmatov was a prominent statesman of the Kirghiz SSR, but in 1937 he was arrested and shot. Mother, Nagima Khazievna, a Tatar, was an actress in a local theater. In 1948, Aitmatov entered the Agricultural Institute in Frunze. In 1952, he began to publish stories in the Kyrgyz language in periodicals. After graduating from the institute, he worked for three years at the Research Institute of Cattle Breeding, continuing to write and publish stories. In 1956 he entered the Higher Literary Courses in Moscow. In 1958, his story "Face to Face" was published in the October magazine. In the same year, his stories and the story "Jamilya" were published, which brought Aitmatov world fame.
Among the most famous works are The First Teacher (1962), The White Steamboat (1970), And the Day Lasts Longer than a Century (1980), Scaffold (1986), When the Mountains Fall (Eternal Bride) (2006 ). In 1990-1994 he worked as the ambassador of the USSR and Russia in the Benelux countries. Until March 2008, he was Kyrgyzstan's ambassador to France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. He was the editor-in-chief of the Foreign Literature magazine (1988–1990) and a member of the international board of the publication, which included such famous writers as Maurice Druon, Milorad Pavic, Kenzaburo Oe, Umberto Eco.
