Musa Jalil: poetry of courage

Musa Jalil was born on 15 February 1906 in a Tatar family in what is now the Orenburg region. He wrote his first poem in 1919 and studied at the Husayniya madrasa and then at Moscow State University (1931). His works include “Biz boramiz!”, “Ordenli millionerlar” (1934), the collection “Xat tashuvchi” (1940), the libretto of the opera “Oltin soch” and “Okopdan xatlar”. In June 1942 he was wounded in the Volkhov battle and taken prisoner, and was held in Berlin’s Moabit prison. The notebooks of poems he wrote there were saved through the Belgian fighter André Timmermans; the testament mentions 115 poems, of which 60 were copied. The “Moabit notebook” was translated into Uzbek by Mamarasul Boboyev. The poet was executed by the Nazis: the textbook says in January 1944, but current sources say the execution took place on 25 August 1944 in Berlin’s Plötzensee prison.