'' in 1907
Uralsk period Beginning in his madrassah years, Tuqay was interested in folklore and popular poetry, and he asked shakirds, coming for different jobs all over
Idel-Ural during summer vacations, to collect local songs, examples of
bəyet, i.e.
epic poem and fairy-tales. In the madrassah itself he became familiar with Arabic, Persian and Turkish poetry, as well as poetry in the
Old Tatar language of the earlier centuries. In 1900
Motıyğiya graduate, a Tatar poet
Mirxəydər Çulpani visited the madrassah. Ğabdulla met him and Çulpaní became the first living poet to impress Tuqay. Çulpaní wrote in "elevated style", using
aruz, an Oriental poetic system, and mostly in
Old Tatar language, full of Arab, Persian and Turkish words, and rather distant from the
Tatar language itself. In 1902–1903 he met a Turkish poet
Abdülveli, concealed himself there from
Abdul Hamid II pursuits. Thus, Tuqay adopted Oriental poetic tradition. Young teacher, the son of headmaster,
Kamil "Motıyği" Töxfətullin, organized wallpaper
Məğarif (
The Education) and hand-written journals. The first odes of Tuqay were published there, and he was referred as "the first poet of the madrassah". In 1904 Motíğí founded his own publishing company, and Tuqay became clerk there. He combined this job with teaching younger shakirds in the madrassah. He introduced
new methods, typical for the Russian school. After the
October Manifesto of 1905 it became possible to publish newspapers in the Tatar language, which was strictly forbidden earlier. However, Motıyği wasn't enough solvent to open his own newspaper, so he bought the Russian language newspaper
Uralets with typography, to print also a Tatar newspaper there. Tuqay became a typesetter. The newspaper was named
Fiker (
The Thought). Then Motıyği started to issue
Əlğəsrəlcadid (
The New Century) magazine. Tuqay sent his first verses there to be published. At the same time he started writing for a newspaper and began participating in the publishing of several Tatar magazines. At day Tuqay worked in typography (he was already a proofreader), but by nights he wrote verses, so every issue of
Fiker,
Nur and
Əlğəsrəlcadid contains his writing. More over, he wrote articles, novels and feuilletons for those periodicals, he translated
Krylov fables for the magazine. It is also known that Tuqay spread social-democratic leaflets and translated social-democratic brochure to the Tatar language. Despite social-democrats' negative attitude towards the Manifesto, in his verses Tuqay admired with Manifesto, believing in the progressive changes of the Tatar lifestyle. During that period he shared his views with liberals, as the long-standing tradition of the Tatar enlightenment didn't distinguish national-liberation movement from the class struggle and negated the class struggle within Tatar nation. The most prominent writings of that period are
Millətə (
To the Nation) poem and
Bezneñ millət, ülgənme, əllə yoqlağan ğınamı? (
Has our nation dead, or just sleeps?) article. Since the satirical magazine
Uqlar (
The Arrows) appeared in Uralsk, Tuqay renowned himself as satirist. The main target of his jeers was Muslim clergy, who stayed opposed to progress and Europeanization. As for the language of the most of his verses, it still stayed the Old Tatar language and continued the Oriental traditions, such as in
Puşkinə (
To Pushkin). However, in some of them, directed to the Tatar peasantry a pure Tatar was used, what was newly for the Tatar poetry. In January 1906 police conducted a search of the typography, as rebellious articles were published in the newspaper. The
First State Duma was dismissed, the revolution came to naught. The ultra-right Russian nationalists from the
Black Hundred proposed that Tatars
emigrate to the
Ottoman Empire. That period his most prominent verses devoted to the social themes and patriotism were composed:
Gosudarstvennaya Dumağa (
To the State Duma),
Sorıqortlarğa (
To the Parasites) and
Kitmibez! (''We don't leave!
). Tuqay was disappointed in liberalism and sympathized with socialists, especially Esers. In Kitmibez!'' he answered to the
Black Hundred that the Tatars are a brother people of the Russians and immigration to Turkey is impossible. On 6 January 1907, Tuqay left madrassah, as his fee permitted him to live independently, and settled in a hotel room. He became an actual editor of
Uqlar, being the lead poet and publicist of all Motıyği's periodicals. That time liberal
Fiker and Tuqay himself was in confrontation with Qadimist, i.e. ultraconservative
Bayan al-Xaq, which even called for
pogrom of liberal press activists. However, that year he was surprisingly discharged, as the result of the conflict with Kamil Motıyği and instigation of the typography workers for a strike to raise a salary. On 22 February 1907, Motıyği was deprived of publishing rights and his publishers was sold to merchant, who attracted Tuqay to the work again, but sonly dismissed the periodicals. That time Tuqay departed from the social-democrats and politics generally, preferring to devote himself to poetry. Since mid-1906 to autumn 1907 more than 50 verses were written, as well as 40 articles and feuilletons. That time he turned to a pure Tatar, using a spoken language. Impressed by Pushkin's fairy-tale poem
Ruslan and Lyudmila, Tuqay wrote his first poem,
Şürəle. It is known, that Motıyği tried to establish another newspaper,
Yaña Tormış (
The New Life) in Uralsk, with Tuqay as one of constitutors, but that time Ğabdulla was already so popular in the Tatar society, that chief editors from Kazan, the Tatar cultural capital, offered him job. Moreover, Tuqay should be examined by a draft board in his native
uyezd, and he left Uralsk anyway. The admiration with the future trends of his life in Kazan is expressed in
Par at (
The Pair of Horses), which consequently became the most associated with Kazan Tatar verse.
Kazan period Just after the arrival to Kazan, Tuqay stayed at
Bolğar hotel and met Tatar literature intelligentsia, such as playwright and
Yoldız newspaper secretary
Ğəliəsğar Kamal and prominent Tatar poet and
Tañ yoldızı newspaper chief editor
Səğit Rəmiev. Several days after he left Kazan to be examined by a draft board, assembly point being in
Ətnə village. There he was discarded due his poor health and walleye and freed up of serving in the
Imperial Russian Army. He returned to Kazan and renowned his literature and publishing activity. He was adopted to the editorial staff of democratically oriented
Əl-İslax gazette, led by
Fatix Əmirxan and
Wafa Bəxtiyərev. However, the newspaper had a little budget. Tuqay had got fixed up as a
forwarding agent in
Kitap publishers, to provide guaranteed wage. Moreover, he refused offer from
Əxbar, an organ of
Ittifaq al-Muslimin, a political party, close to
Kadets, as well as other offers from rich, but right-wing newspapers. He also continued self-education: read Russian classics, critiques, and studied German language. He was interested in studying the life of common people by visiting bazaars and pubs. Tuqay's room in
Bolğar hotel was frequently visited by admirers from "
gilded youth". As he wrote, their boozing-up impeded him and his creation. Nevertheless, in the end of 1907–1908 he wrote nearby sixty verses and twenty articles in
Əl-İslax and satirical journal
Yäşen (
The Illumination), and also published two books of verses. The most prominent satire of that period was
Peçən Bazarı yaxud Yaña Kisekbaş (
The Hay Bazaar or New Kişekbaş), deriding problems of the Tatar society of the period, clergy and merchant class. As for Tuqay's personal life, there is known little about it. As usual he avoided women in his circle. It is known that he was enamored of Zəytünə Məwlüdova, his 15-year-old admirer. Several verses were devoted to Zəytünə and their feelings, such as
A Strange Love. However, later Tuqay did not develop their relations, and the possible reason was inferiority complex, attributed to his health and financial position. In May 1908 an article, comparing Tuqay's, Rəmiev's and
Majit Ghafuri's poetries was published in Russian-language
Volzhsko-Kamsky Vestnik. In August 1908 Kamal founded satirical journal
Yəşen under Tuqay's pressure. The most of published works were written by Tuqay, of course. In August 1908 Kamal and Tuqay visit the
Makaryev Fair, placed in
Nizhny Novgorod. There Tuqay temporarily joined the first Tatar theatre troupe,
Səyər, singing national songs and declaiming his verses from scene. On 14 October Ğabdulla Tuqay presented his new satirical poem
The Hay Bazaar or New Kisekbaş, based on classical Old Tatar poem
Kisekbaş. In own poem he derided nationalism among Tatars, as well as
Wəisi sect's fanatics, associating sect's leader,
Ğaynan Wəisev with
Diü, an evil spirit from
Kisekbaş.
1909–1910 crisis In 1909–1910 all freedoms, gained by 1905 revolution came to naught under
Stolypin's policy. As a result, leftist sympathized Ğabdulla Tuqay was nearly disappointed in his activity and was in depression. Another reason was in his friends, moved to rightist newspapers, like Kamal and Rəmiev. The most of his verses were depressive, however, Tuqay stayed productive, he published nearby hundred verses, two fairy tale poems, autobiography, and an article about Tatar folklore (
Xalıq ədəbiəte, i.e.
Folk Literature), wrote thirty feuilletons and printed twenty books, not only with own poems, but also compiled of folk songs. In those years Tuqay became staunch leftist, despite his staying with a bourgeois family for some time:
Əl-İslax became a leftist political newspaper only, Tuqay criticized all his former friends, turned to the right or liberal newspapers: Zarif Bəşiri from Oremburgean
Çükeç and Səğit Rəmiev from
Bəyənelxaq. He called them bourgeoisie's stooges, in response their stigmatized Tuqay
Russophile. The same time
Okhrana reported his poems as
Russophobic. Also Tuqay became closer to the first Tatar Marxist,
Xösəyen Yamaşev. In June 1909
Yəşen, was closed due to financial problems as well as censorship requirement, as well as
Əl-İslax. Being at the top of his crisis, he thinks about suicide, but since March 1910 a new satirical magazine,
Yal-Yolt (
The Lightning) was published in Kazan under Əxmət Urmançiev. Being interested in
Leo Tolstoy ideas and legacy, Tuqay felt keenly the death of the Russian genius. Pointing out a high role of children's education, he prepared two books for children, and two schoolbooks of Tatar literature. In total, he composed more than fifty verses and seven poems for children.
Ufa – Saint-Petersburg – Troitsk In 1911 Qadimist forces allied with Okhrana fulminated
İj-Bubí, the most progressive Tatar madrassah. This fact filled with indignation all Tatar intelligentsia. But it was only a beginning of campaign drive against Tatar democracy, which became Tuqay's tragedy again. However, as it known from Tuqay's letters to his friend
Səğit Sönçələy, he decided to write the Tatar
Eugene Onegin, but he had to recover his health. He planned a trip to the southern regions to receive
kumiss therapy there. In April he left Kazan and had a voyage by the
Volga to
Astrakhan. There he met Rämiev and became reconciled with him. Three weeks later he moved to Kalmyk Bazary village and stayed with schoolteacher Şahit Ğayfi there. As Ğayfi was interested in photography, they shot a series of cards, devoted to Tuqay's poems and the Tatar theatre. Returning to Kazan, he published,
Miyəwbikä (
Pussycat), his prominent poem for children. There he applied new poetic methods, and was criticized therefore. He also was interested to publish his prohibited verses in the newspaper of the Russian Muslims, published in Paris, but later he refused of this idea, as the newspaper propagated pan-Islamist ideas. In autumn 1911 a famine stroke
Idel-Ural.
The Autumn Wind was devoted to the famine and hard lot of peasantry. Tuqay felt ill with malaria and unfortunately moved to cold hotel number. So, he abandoned all and moved to
Öçile, to his relatives. There he passed winter, writing o recomposing his verses, sometimes sending new feuilletons to the editors. Possible, another reason of his departure was a trial of his book, published as early as in 1907. He returned in February 1912. In March 1912 his friend, Yamaşev dead of
infarction and Tuqay devoted a feeling poem (
Xörmətle Xösəyen yədkâre, i.e.
Of Blessed Memory of Xösəyen) to the first Tatar Marxist. In April Ğabdulla Tuqay went on a tour again. First he arrived to
Ufa, where he met
Məcit Ğafuri. Then he left Ufa and moved to
Saint-Petersburg. He stayed with
Musa Bigiev. In Saint Petersburg he met with local Tatar diaspora's youth, many of whom were students and leftist activists. The impression of them is expressed in
The Tatar Youth (
Tatar yəşläre) verse, full of optimism. However, he didn't know that he has the last stage of tuberculosis: a doctor, examined him in Saint Petersburg, preferred to keep diagnosis back. He was advised to take a course in Switzerland, but he refused and after farewell party moved to Ufa again, and then to
Troitsk. There he lived till July 1912 among the
Kazakh nomads in the steppe, receiving
kumiss therapy.
Death His last year he began full of optimism: the revolutionary tendencies rose, and social theme appeared in his poetry again. In
Añ (
The Consciousness) and
Dahigə (
To the Genius) he wrote that his struggle, as well as the 1905 revolution, was not vain. Many verses were devoted to the peasantry's problems, resembling
Nekrasov's poetry. More and more verses were banned; some of them were only published after the
October Revolution. However, Tuqay was criticized by
Ğəlimcan İbrahimov, that now his poetry worsened. In summer 1912 he published his last book,
The Mental Food, a collection of 43 verses and one poem. But then his health deteriorated. In spite of this, he found energy to write for the new literature magazine
Añ and the democratic newspaper
Qoyaş (
The Sun), edited by
Fatix Əmirxan. As Əmirxan was paralyzed, they stayed in neighboring rooms of the Amur Hotel, where the editorial board was situated. In the first days of 1913 he wrote
The Frost, a witty poem depicting how Kazaners of different social classes behave during frost. The next notable poem was devoted to the
300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. The poem was rather
panegyrical, as was the vulgar-sociological critique of the early 1920s, based on this poem, proclaimed Tuqay to be a pan-Islamist and Tsarist. However, the end of the verse is written not about Tsar's dynasty, but about internationalism within Russian and eternal friendship of Tatars and Russians. On 26 February 1913, Ğabdulla Tuqay was hospitalized due to a severe case of tuberculosis. Even in the Klyachkinskaya hospital he never stopped writing poems for Tatar newspapers and magazines. Those poems were both social and philosophical. In March he wrote his literary testament,
The First Deed after the Awakening. In hospital Tuqay became interested in Tolstoy's legacy again, devoting to him two verses. He read more about
Volga Bulgaria's history as well as all Kazan periods. On 15 April of the same year, Ğabdulla Tuqay died at the age of 26 and was buried in Tatar cemetery. ==Legacy==