A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

240 A history of Inner Asia
disapproved of the novel’s tragic conclusion and ordered Aitmatov to
rewrite it with the obligatory Soviet requirement of an Optimistic End.
He did, and neither he nor his readers took that cosmetic change seriously
– with the possible exception of the Party vigilantes still willing to
fool themselves.Their discomfort was less readily removed when a whole
novel turned out to be based on a theme that made them uncomfortable.
An example of this was the Uzbek writer Pirimqul Qodirov’s Yulduzli
tunlar (“Starry Nights”), a historical novel about the great native of
Andijan, Emperor Babur.Like Aitmatov’s White Steamship, Starry Nights
too was first hailed as a masterpiece by critics and readers, until “Party
watchdogs” attacked it for its implicit nationalism.There is thus an
analogy between the two writers, but there are also interesting
differences.Both men, born in the same year (1928), received the critical
part of their literary training at the Gorkiy Institute in Moscow, an
example of the bright side of the system; Aitmatov was censored after
the publication of the White Ship not for nationalism, but for pessimism
– an example of where the system could be evenhanded (a Russian
writer or artist would have run into the same trouble – as Shostakovich
did for his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District), whereas Qodirov was
censored for nationalism (here, the system was Russo-centric; the great
historical novels of Alexey Tolstoy glorifying Peter the Great met with
acclaim from the highest quarters).
While discussing the activities and tragic fate of people like Fitrat, we
could have also mentioned their important contemporary Sadriddin
Ayni (1878–1954).Ayni initially belonged to the circle of Bukharan
jadids and displayed other analogies with them, especially with Fitrat.His
later fate could not, however, have been more different.Ayni not only
survived the terror of the 1930s but had a smooth sailing throughout the
rest of his life, ever more honored by the official establishment as represented
by the local and all-Union Unions of Soviet writers.His career
reached its apogee with the presidency of the newly created Academy
of Sciences of the Tajik SSR in 1951, a post he held until his death.A
glance at his early life in the emirate of Bukhara, at the years of his prime
in Samarkand, and at the closing period in Dushanbe may help us gain
an idea of the secret of his success and importance.
Ayni was born in Saktare, an agricultural village near Gijduvan, 5 a
district town some forty kilometers to the northeast of Bukhara on the
5 This was also the hometown of Abd al-Khaliq Ghijduvani, the important khwaja, in the “uwaysi”
form, of Baha al-Din Naqshband (see p.138).