Komil Yashin

Komil Yashin (born Komil No'monov; known in Russian as Kamil Yashen) was born on 25 December 1909 in Andijan. He attended a Russian school and in 1925 entered the Leningrad Forestry Institute, but illness brought him back to Andijan in 1928, where he taught literature and physics until 1930.

From 1930 to 1936 he headed the literary department of the Andijan regional theatre and then of the Uzbek State Musical Theatre. In those years he wrote the plays «O'rtoqlar», «Yondiramiz» and «Nomus va muhabbat» and the musical drama «Gulsara» (with Muzaffar Muhamedov); he also wrote the libretti of the operas «Bo'ron» (1939) and «Ulug' kanal» (1940). For «Gulsara» he received the Stalin Prize, third class, in 1951.

During the war he wrote «O'lim bosqinchilarga», «Davron ota», «Oftobxon» and «Farhod va Shirin», and later «General Rahimov» (1949), «Ravshan va Zulxumor» and «Inqilob tongi». Hamza Hakimzade Niyazi held a special place in his work: the musical «Hamza» (1960), the two-volume novel «Hamza» (1979–1980) and stage versions of Hamza's own plays are devoted to him.

For the cinema he wrote screenplays including «Asal», «Hamza» and «General Rahimov»; the television series «Roads of Fire» is based on his novel «Hamza».

He headed the General Directorate of Arts under the Council of Ministers in 1946–1949 and the Writers' Union of Uzbekistan in 1958–1980, and edited the journal «O'zbek tili va adabiyoti» in 1969–1980. He was a deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet in 1966–1984 and an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR from 1969 (1968 in some sources).

He was People's Writer of the Uzbek SSR (1972), Hero of Socialist Labour (1974), a laureate of the Hamza State Prize of the Uzbek SSR (1967) and a three-time holder of the Order of Lenin. He died in Tashkent on 25 September 1997. Streets in Tashkent and Andijan bear his name.