Cho‘lpon

Abdulhamid Sulaymon o‘g‘li Yunusov, known by the pen name Cho‘lpon, was born in 1897 in Andijan. He studied first at a madrasa (1908–1912) and then at a Russian-native school (1912–1914), and broadened his education by reading the classical poets of the East and following the Jadid press.

In 1914 he moved to Tashkent and began working with the newspaper “Sadoi Turkiston”. That year it published his poem “To Our Turkestani Brothers”, the stories “Qurboni jaholat” and “Doktor Muhammadyor”, and the articles “What Is Literature?” and “To Our Esteemed Writers”. Meeting Munavvar Qori Abdurashidxonov and Ubaydulla Xo‘jayev in Tashkent was an important factor in his growth as a figure of the national awakening.

After the February Revolution of 1917 he took an active part in forming the government of the Turkestan Autonomy; his poem “Ozod turk bayrami”, written in honour of the autonomy, is regarded as the first anthem in the history of Uzbek statehood. Together with Zeki Velidi Togan he travelled to Orenburg and took part in setting up the government of the Bashkir autonomy.

After the autonomy was abolished he worked in the Scientific Council, the Chigʻatoy gurungi society, the Nashri maorif publishing body and the “Turon” theatre. In 1919–1923 he was a literary staff member of the newspapers “Yangi Sharq” and “Ishtirokiyun” (later “Qizil bayroq”, then “Turkiston”); in 1920–1923 he chaired the Scientific Council under the People’s Commissariat of Education; in 1921–1922 he edited the newspaper “Buxoro axbori” and directed the “Turon” theatre; in 1922–1923 he was technical editor and literary staff member of the magazine “Mushtum” and the newspaper “Darxon”.

In 1924–1927 he was a literary staff member of the Uzbek Drama Studio in Moscow, and in 1927–1931 of the Uzbek State Drama Theatre. In 1931–1934 he worked in Moscow as a translator at the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the Central Publishing House of the Peoples of the East; in 1935–1937 he worked voluntarily for the magazines “Mushtum” and “Guliston” and the newspaper “Teatru”. A campaign against him that began after 1927 forced him to live in Moscow in 1931–1935.

His poems appeared in the collections “Uyg‘onish” (“Awakening”, 1922), “Buloqlar” (“Springs”, 1923), “Tong sirlari” (“Secrets of the Dawn”, 1926) and “Soz” (1935). His poetry falls into pure lyric and socio-political verse; with poems such as “Go‘zal”, “Sezgi”, “Sirlardan” and “Men shoirmi?” he raised new Uzbek syllabic verse to a high level. The stories “Oydin kechalarda”, “Qor qo‘ynida lola” and “Novvoy qiz” are among the first examples of lyrical prose in Uzbek literature. His novel “Kecha va kunduz” (“Night and Day”, 1936) is regarded as the peak of his work and had a great influence on the traditions of the Uzbek novel.

Cho‘lpon was also a playwright and translator: he wrote the plays “Yorqinoy”, “Mushtumzo‘r”, “Hujum” and “O‘rtoq Qarshiboyev”, and translated into Uzbek Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov” and “Dubrovsky”, Gorky’s “Mother”, Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and Gogol’s “The Inspector General”.

He was arrested on 14 July 1937 and shot in Tashkent in October 1938, on the bank of the Bozsu. Many of his manuscripts were lost; about ten volumes of his original and translated works have survived. He was rehabilitated posthumously in 1956, and from the late 1980s his works began to be republished.

In 1991 he was posthumously awarded the Alisher Navoi State Prize, and in 1999 the Order of Independence (Mustaqillik). In 1997 his centenary was widely marked by a presidential decree: a house museum opened in Andijan, a memorial museum and a monument (by the sculptor Jalaliddin Mirtojiyev) in Tashkent, and one of the country’s largest publishing houses bears his name. A “Complete Works” was published in 1997–2000; selected works came out in Russian in Moscow (2009) and the novel “Night and Day” in French in France (2009).