Samad Vurghun

Samad Vurghun (Samad Vakilov) was born in the village of Yukhari Salahli in the Gazakh district.

He studied at the Gazakh Teachers' Seminary (1924) and the Literature Faculty of the Second Moscow University (1929).

After graduating from the seminary, he began teaching Azerbaijani language and literature in Gazakh, Guba and Ganja. He translated the works "Eugene Onegin" (Alexander Pushkin), "The Maiden and Death" (Maxim Gorky), "The Warrior in the Tiger's Skin" (Shota Rustaveli), "Leyli and Majnun" (Nizami Ganjavi) into Azerbaijani. He took the pseudonym "Vurgun". The political and lyrical poems he wrote in those years were collected in his first book "The Poet's Oath" (1930). His books "The Notebook of the Heart" (1934) and "Poems" (1935) were published. In 1935 alone, he wrote 7 poems and about 100 poems. The poem "Azerbaijan" written in 1933 is one of the pearls of Azerbaijani literature. The drama "Vagif" (1937) was awarded the "Stalin Prize" (1941). Starting from 1939, he wrote articles about Nizami and gave scientific lectures. He wrote a verse drama based on the motifs of the poem "Khosrov and Shirin" (1941). For this work, he was awarded the "Stalin Prize" for the second time (1942). During the war years, he wrote more than 60 poems and several poems, including the poem "Baku's Epic". The texts of the poem "To the Ukrainian Partisans" were scattered from an airplane to the Ukrainian forests and delivered to the partisans. In the competition of the most valuable works written against the war held in the USA, the poem "Mother's Prayer" was highly appreciated and was published in New York as one of the 20 most valuable works written on this subject in world literature and distributed among the military (1943). In the philosophical drama "Man", he tried to reflect the future with a romantic scope and showed the power of human intelligence in the fiery days of the war (1945). In 1945, he was elected an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR. In the same year, he was appointed head of the newly established Society of Cultural Relations in Baku. He was the chairman of the Union of Writers of Azerbaijan (1941-1948). One after another, he wrote the poems "Mugan" (1948), "Aygun" (1951) and "Zamanan bayragdarı" (1952). In 1954, he was appointed vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR (1954-1956). In 1955, while traveling to Vietnam as part of the USSR delegation, he fell ill and had to cut short his trip. In China, he was examined in one of the Beijing hospitals. After a few weeks, he returned home, his illness worsened. In 1956, as part of preparations for the 50th anniversary, the title of "People's Poet of Azerbaijan" was established, and Samad Vurghun was awarded this title for the first time. A solemn anniversary evening for the poet was held on May 12. On May 27, 1956, the poet's eyes closed forever. From May 28 to 30, the poet's funeral was held in the building of the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic. He was buried in the Alley of Honor on May 30.

Writer Samad Vurghun is the father of writer Yusif Samadoghlu and poet Vagif Samadoghlu.