Auezov was born in a nomadic
Muslim family from an area known today as
Abay District, in East Kazakhstan Province. His grandfather taught him how to read and write, using both the
Arabic and
Cyrillic script for the
Kazakh language. Auezov was educated at the
Semipalatinsk Teacher's Seminary and
Leningrad State University. Auezov is best known for the plays he wrote. The first play he authored was
Enlik-Kebek, a story of two young lovers that resembles the story of
Romeo and Juliet. He authored more than twenty plays that dealt with the issues relevant to socialism in Kazakhstan. After writing plays, Auezov changed his focus to writing novels. Two novels –
Abay and
The Path of Abay – dealing with the life of Kazakh poet
Abai Qunanbaiuly were the product of the last twenty years of his life. Auezov's other projects included drawing and translating literature into the
Kazakh language. Some translations made by him include
Nikolai Gogol's
The Government Inspector and
Shakespeare's
The Taming of the Shrew. Auezov first studied in Kaskabulak, then later a Muslim
madrasa in
Semipalatinsk. At age of eleven, he moved to a nearby, five-year grammar school. His father Omarkhan died in 1900, and his mother Nurzhamal in 1912. The young Auezov was raised by his uncle Kasymbek and his grandfather Auez and grandmother Dinas. In 1907, after a year of study in the
madrasa, he was sent to the large Russian school in
Semipalatinsk. Mukhtar Auezov attended the Semipalatinsk Pedagogical
Seminary after graduating from the City College. In the 1912–1913 academic year, Auezov finished the first seminary class with an award and went on to complete his studies at the Semipalatinsk Seminary in 1919. Around this time he began his acquaintance with Russian and other foreign classics of literature. At the same time, Auezov wrote short stories, poems and articles that began to be published. "The young Auezov, according to the testimonies of the pedagogues, was marked for his impeccable attention, extraordinary gifts, slim build and aristocratic self-belief. He was an extraordinary sportsman and represented "Yarysh F C", which at the time was the best football team in the city." Auezov joined the faculty of a large state school, and he also worked holding various positions in the local government in Semipalatinsk with the Kazakh Central Executive Committee and in
Orenburg. In the summer of 1917, Auezov married a 15-year-old girl named Raihan. They had a daughter together in 1918 who they named Mugamilya (she lived until 2009), and a year later, in 1919, a son (who died in infancy). They got divorced in 1920. In 1928 Mukhtar Auezov graduated from the Philological Faculty of Leningrad State University and completed his PhD at the University of
Tashkent. During the 1930s, his endeavors as a professional writer began to take off. Mukhtar Auezov died during an operation in Moscow on 27 June 1961. He was buried in the Central Cemetery,
Almaty. On his grave there stands a bust created by
Yevgeny Vuchetich. After his death in 1961, the Government of the Republic
Kazakhstan decided to perpetuate the name of the writer. The Institute of Literature and Art of the Academy of Sciences was renamed as the Auezov Institute of Literature and Art of the Academy of Sciences. The
Kazakh State Academic Drama Theatre, the
Auezov Home Museum, a school, a street and an urban area in
Almaty also bear his name. Also the
M. O. Auezov South Kazakhstan State University in
Shymkent was named after him. On 21 July 2022,
President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev unveiled a bust of Mukhtar Auezov in
Kyrgyzstan. A selection of his stories were translated by Simon Hollingsworth and Simon Geoghegan and collected in
Beauty in Mourning and Other Stories, published by Qazaq Pen Club. == Writings ==