Hakim Karim (1905–1942) was a

Tajik Tajik, Tadjik, Tadzhik or Tajikistani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Tajikistan * Tajiks, an ethnic group in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan * Tajik language, the official language of Tajikistan * Tajik (surname) * Tajik cu ...

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

writer. He was born in

Khujand Khujand ( tg, Хуҷанд, Khujand; Uzbek: Хўжанд, romanized: Хo'jand; fa, خجند‌, Khojand), sometimes spelled Khodjent and known as Leninabad (russian: Ленинабад, Leninabad; tg, Ленинобод, Leninobod; fa, لن� ...

and was educated in a

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n school. He lived in

Aktyubinsk Aktobe ( kz, Ақтөбе, Aqtöbe; russian: Актобе, Aktobe) is a city on the Ilek River in Kazakhstan. It is the administrative center of Aktobe Region. In 2020, it had a population of 500,757 people. Aktobe is located in the west of Ka ...

for a while, before moving to the capital

Dushanbe Dushanbe ( tg, Душанбе, ; ; russian: Душанбе) is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 863,400 and that population was largely Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe (r ...

in 1925 to head the

agitprop Agitprop (; from rus, агитпроп, r=agitpróp, portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in Soviet Russia where it referred to ...

department of the Tajik

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (russian: link=no, Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), ), usually known as Komsomol (; russian: Комсомол, links=n ...

. In 1926, he became a member of the Communist Party. He worked in and Kuliab in the south of the country, and served as a politruk in the

authorities' battle against Basmachi rebels. He lived for a while in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, and worked as an editor of the Tajik-language party organ '' Proletari Khujandi''. Returning to

, he lived in a Writers' Union housing block, where the writer Jalol Ikrami was his neighbour. Karim and his wife Bonukhon were arrested and imprisoned as part of

Stalin's purges The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...

, but they were later released in 1938. While they were in prison, their eldest son died in an orphanage, prompting the return of the bereaved parents to Khujand (then known as

Leninobod tg, Чорбоғ Ленинобод (formerly) , settlement_type=Village and Jamoat , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_seal = , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Tajikistan , p ...

). When the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

began, Karim joined the army. He is thought to have died in the battle for

Staraya Russa Staraya Russa ( rus, Старая Русса, p=ˈstarəjə ˈrusːə) is a town in Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Polist River, south of Veliky Novgorod, the administrative center of the oblast. Its population has steadily decreased ov ...

. Also known as Karim-zoda, Hakim Karim was principally a prose writer, best known for his novels, short stories and plays. His most significant work is a play called ''1916'', portraying the Tajik uprising against the late

Tsarist empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...

."Soviet Tajik Literature" by Ibrahim V. Pourhadi in ''Middle East Journal'', Vol. 20, No. 1 (Winter, 1966)

References

{{authority control 1905 births 1942 deaths People from Khujand People from Samarkand Oblast Tajikistani writers Tajikistani dramatists and playwrights Soviet dramatists and playwrights Soviet male writers Soviet military personnel killed in World War II