Murod Muhammad Dost

Murod Muhammad Dost was born in 1948 in the village of Jom in the Nurobod district of the Samarkand region. In 1971 he graduated from the philosophy department of the history faculty of Tashkent State University, and in 1974–1979 he studied at the Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow.

He began writing in the 1970s: his first story collection, “Where Are You, Sound of Joy?”, appeared in 1976. It was followed by stories and novellas such as “Mustafo” (1977), “Bir toychoqning xuni” (1979) and “In Steppes and Fields” (1987). From 1979 to 1984 he worked as a screenwriter at the Uzbekfilm studio.

His novella “The Return to Galatepa” (1983) is regarded as a significant event in Uzbek prose on the eve of independence: it portrays the everyday life of ordinary people in remote villages, and the author draws freely on living folk speech and humour. For the novel “Lolazor” (1988), set in the years of Soviet stagnation, he received the Hamza State Prize in 1990. Feature films have been made from his works, and “Lolazor” was reissued in 2021 and 2023.

Alongside literature he held posts in state and media bodies: head of a department and deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine Sharq yulduzi in 1984–1989, a correspondent of Literaturnaya Gazeta in 1989–1990, and a staff member of the Presidential Office in 1990–1992. He was director general of the National News Agency of Uzbekistan in 1992–1993 and 2000–2002, and the President’s press secretary in 1993–1999.

In 1999–2004 he was a deputy of the Oliy Majlis for the Nurobod constituency of the Samarkand region; from 2002 he headed the state joint-stock company Uzbekkino, and since April 2005 he has been an adviser in the Presidential Office. He received the title Honoured Journalist of Uzbekistan in 1996 and the Order “Mehnat shuhrati” in 1999.