An Untimely Extinguished Star

Today, on the birthday of Karim Tinchurin, the Kazan Arkhangelsk Cemetery  laying flowers to the memorial stele with the names of victims of political repression shot in Kazan in 1929-1942  took place.  Among whom there is the name of the great artist, director and playwright.

First Deputy Minister of culture of the Republic of Tatarstan Elvira Kamalova, representatives of the theater and literary community of the republic took part in a ceremony.

Elvira Kamalova noted the great contribution of Karim Tinchurin to  development of Tatar theater art. "The tragic history of his life, his death - another confirmation that he was far ahead of his time, looked to the future. And today this future says to Karim Tinchurin thanks for his talent and endless love for the Tatar art, the Tatar culture, " First Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan emphasized.

Director of the Tinchurin Theater Fanis Musagitov compared Karim Tinchurin with a book that was only half read. "We still need to study and study Karim Tinchurin, stage and stage his works," he said, and recalled that tonight at the Tinchurin Theater there will be a performance of the play "The Last Play" based on the work by the great playwright.

Anamar hazrat Miftyakhov, Imam of the Al-Mardzhani Cathedral Mosque in Kazan, also took part in the event. He read   out  the verses from the Koran.

After the speeches, flowers were laid to the memorial stele with the names of victims of political repression.

We remind  that today, as part of the events timed to the 130th anniversary of the birth of the great playwright, actor and director, a solemn opening of the bust of Karim Tinchurin will take place at 6 pm in the foyer of the Tatar State Drama and Comedy Theater named after K. Tinchurin, and at 18.30 the premiere of the play is scheduled "The last play" on the autobiographical novel "Thirty-Three Days" - the last work by  Karim Tinchurin. The author of the dramatization of the drama was Ilgam Ghali.  Director of the performance is Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Honored Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan Rashid Zagidullin. The play will be staged for the first time in the history of the Tatar theater.

Reference: Karim Galeevich Tinchurin - actor, director, theatrical teacher and organizer - is a truly Renaissance figure in the history of the Tatar theater.

The classic of Tatar dramatic art K. Tinchurin was born on September 15, 1887 in the village of Tarakanovo, Penza province, in the family of a peasant. Having received primary education in the madrassah of the neighboring village, in 1900 he comes  to Kazan, where he works  as a dishwasher in the station dining room. He is accepted on a charitable basis in the madrasah "Muhammadiya", where he studies for 6 years and gets   self-educated. In 1906, expressing his dissatisfaction with the internal orders in the madrassas, he dropped his studies in protest, along with 87 comrades. Apparently on the basis of these events, in 1906 he wrote his first work - the comedy "Monazar" ("Discussion"). Then followed the service in the forestry, teaching in a rural school.

In 1910, K. Tinchurin was accepted as an actor in the "Sayar" troupe. From that time he devotes himself entirely to the stage, becoming one of the organizers of the Tatar theater. In this large and complex matter, his versatile talent is clearly revealed. In the theater, he manifests himself as an artist, director, playwright, theoretician and  head of the troupe. Caring for the theatrical repertoire, K. Tinchurin wrote plays "Honest Work" (1910), "The Fatal Step" (1910-1912), "The First Flowers" (1913), etc.

In actors practice, K. Tinchurin had to deal with roles that require maximum concentration of efforts, referring to additional sources of information that go beyond the role and the play that was put in the theater. Tinchurin gained fame as a performer of the roles of young intellectuals in advanced plays and roles of young heroes in dramatic works

In 1918 K.Tinchurin was appointed  head of the Sayyar troupe. In 1919, he was recalled to Moscow, to the Central Muslim Military College, where he is in charge of the department of culture. Then, on the orders of the Political Department of the Eastern Front, he works in one of the front companies. During the Civil War, K. Tinchurin - the main director of the 13th troupe under the Political Administration of the Red Army; in 1920 -  teacher of the theater studio and  chief director in Samara; in 1921 -  head of the Orenburg theater commune; In 1922 he worked in the theater department of the Academic Council in Tashkent. November 8, 1922 K. Tinchurin returned to Kazan and appointed artistic director and director of the Tatar State Theater. It is from this period that the flourishing of the dramatic talent of Tinchurin begins.

During these years K.Tinchurin actively develops journalistic, acting and creative activity. The most important part of the creative heritage of the playwright is satirical plays. A special pride among them is "Yusuf-Zuleikha", "Beware, explosion", "American" and "Without the sails."

Since the mid-1920's In the creative activity of K. Tinchurin the main place is occupied by musical dramas, in the genre of which he achieves great success. Works created together with the composer S.Saidashev - "Blue Shawl", "Motherland", "On the Kandra Bank", "Kazan Towel" are pearls of Tatar music.

K. Tinchurin is a master of short stories. He owns nine novels, an autobiographical novel "Coral Beads" and a large number of stories.

But more in the history of national culture K. Tinchurin is known as an innovative director. In this period, he fruitfully puts his plays, sometimes he plays them. In his stage creations he always remains a person, striving for self-expression in the created images. He seeks to express the spirit of his era.

In 1926 K. Tinchurin was awarded  Honorary title "Honored Artist of Tatarstan". In 1934 he was accepted as a member of the Writers' Union. He engages in active public and literary activity.

September 17, 1937, the day after the jubilee dedicated to his 50th birthday, K. Tinchurin was arrested. For a long year he was tortured in the NKVD investigative isolation ward. From an old man, beating him physically and mocking him morally, demanded self-incrimination, and writing denunciations against other innocent people. K. Tinchurin was not broken, he refused to sign all the charges, and did not stipulate a single person. Therefore, like many unhappy people of that time, he was routinely accused of active nationalist and anti-Soviet activities, he was called an agent of the Japanese special services and shot by the NKVD's "troika" on November 15, 1938. In 1956 he was fully rehabilitated. His books were published again, the plays of his plays were resumed.

In 1988, the theater of drama and comedy was named after K. Tinchurin.

K. Tinchurin is an outstanding figure of the Tatar theater, one of the organizers of the national stage, a man who  invested the whole soul, all the hot energy in the construction of the theatrical work. Tinchurin's plays were perfected by the wonderful actors of the first and second generations who came to the theater shortly after the October Revolution. After the return of K. Tinchurin's dramaturgy to the stage, from the mid-1950s, each generation of Tatar artists again undergoes a serious professional check on the basis of his plays, which is an excellent school in the creative development of the actors of the Tatar theater.