Mahmud Murodov

Mahmud Murodov was born in Tashkent in 1916. By his own recollection, as a schoolboy he read newspapers aloud to people in the teahouse of the Olmazor neighbourhood, and together with Bahrom Rahmonov he set up a circle called “Red Fire” that staged performances at the club named after A. Ikramov.

Before finishing his studies at an institute he worked as a tutor in Tashkent children’s homes no. 9 and no. 17. During those years he began to work with the magazine “Vojatiy” (“The Pioneer Leader”) and published short stories and sketches in periodicals; from then on his career was closely tied to publishing and the press.

Murodov was also a translator: he rendered novellas, stories and tales into Uzbek, among them “Stepan Razin” (1941), “O‘rtoqlaring sen bilan” (1951), “Kapitan xonimi” (1959) and “Tutqunlikdagi jangchilar” (1964). He regarded this work as a school of literary craft.

From 1955 he was executive secretary of the magazine Gulxan, and from 1958 until the end of his life executive secretary of the magazine G‘uncha, taking part in the development of children’s literature.

His books are few and are addressed mainly to preschoolers: “The Good Uncle” (1965), “The Best Place” (1969), “The Kindergarten Boy” (1971), “The Bridge” (1973), “Who Is the Strongest” (1976), “Counting” (1980), “The Mysterious Grain” (1987) and others. Stories and tales such as “The Helmet”, “Bahriniso Who Found Her Happiness”, “Who Is the Best?”, “Hello, Grandfather Sun!” and “The Living Picture” draw on situations familiar to children, and some of them were included in primary-school textbooks. Mahmud Murodov died in 1996.