Shifting Artistic Paradigms in Kumyk Literature of the Post-Soviet Period
- Authors
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Abusup’yan Tatarkhanovich Akamov
Literature and Arts Dagestan Federal Research Center Russian Academy of Sciences
Author
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Sultanmuradov Agaragim Magomedovich
Literature and Arts Dagestan Federal Research Center Russian Academy of Sciences
Author
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- Keywords:
- Kumyk literature, Soviet, post-Soviet, change, freedom, lyricism, satire, traditions, national identity
- Abstract
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This article analyzes the key features of Kumyk national literature of the post-Soviet period, contrasting them with the Soviet era, where the artistic method of socialist realism imposed ideological themes of class struggle, revolution, collectivization, etc., suppressing creative freedom and humanistic values. The shift to universal, humanistic values reflects the collapse of the USSR and the abandonment of censorship. Socialist realism lost its hegemony, giving way to themes of national identity and the historical past. National awakening is evident in the civic poetry of poets Akay Akayev, Magomed Atabayev, Akhmed Dzhachayev, Badrutdin Magomedov, Sheyit-Khanum Alisheva, Jaminat Kerimova, and other Kumyk authors. Through their works, they use the power of artistic language to expose the apathy of their compatriots, contrasting the dignity of their people with the threat of losing their small homeland and calling for self-preservation. Particular emphasis is placed on preserving the native language, emphasizing its importance as the foundation of spirituality and culture. Researcher G.M.-R. Orazaev collected poems by post-Soviet authors, “A Gift to My Native Language” while A. Dzhachaev’s poem “Native Language – a Golden Treasury” with its rhetorical questions (“If language dies out, will the people’s memory and spirit also die out?”) and metaphors (“light emanating from both eyes”), affirms language as the repository of national memory, contrasting it with the threats of globalization.
The artistic interpretation of the people’s historical past goes beyond the Soviet era. Post-Soviet works are free from the ideology of vulgar sociologism. The issue of Stalinist political repression is addressed directly and poignantly: writers ironically denounce the omnipotence of the repressors, symbolizing the loss of the cultural elite. The collapse of militant atheism restores religious and moral traditions. The flourishing of uncensored satire touches on the tragedy, devastation, and chaos of the 1990s.
Despite shortcomings such as commercialization and the devaluation of aesthetics in favor of profit, Kumyk national literature of the post-Soviet period retains an ethnocultural layer, the best oral poetic traditions, and the search for identity in the era of globalization, defining its positive essence.
- Author Biographies
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- Published
- 2026-06-22
- Issue
- No. 1 (2026)
- Section
- Philology
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