Suleyman Rustam

Suleyman Rustam died on June 10, 1989 and was buried in the Alley of Honor in Baku.

Patriotic poems ("A day will come", "To the sons of Azerbaijan", "Old man's answer") written during the Great Patriotic War were dedicated to bravery and selflessness of the Soviet people, their unshakeable belief and victory over the enemy. Suleyman Rustam's "Mother and a postman" poem had a great fame (1942). Mother waiting for news from his front-line soldier son for four months says the postman: "If there is not any letter for me…don't come here again!" Disappointed postman goes away, but he is not offended, he is distressed by sufferings of the old mother. In her turn mother also regrets for her action. Finally, the postman brings a long-awaited letter and the postman and the whole neighborhood rejoices at the mother's happiness. This poem, written with a great emotional strength, deeply excites a reader and evokes his heartwarming feelings.

The main theme of his works, created in 1930s ("Romanticism of a night"), was the creation of romanticism of a collective work, attracting spiritual enrichment of people. "A good comrade" poem was dedicated to labor feats of cotton growers in Mugham steppes. In 1939-1940s, S.Rustam wrote "Qachaq Nebi" novel. The poet used folk proverbs about Qachaq Nebi, expanded and deepened them socially and historically, gave a social perception to the novel. Main heroes of the novel are Qachaq Nebi - a famous leader of the national movement of the 19th century and Hejer - his brave wife and fellow fighter.

In 1929, Suleyman Rustam continued his education at the faculty of literature and arts of Moscow State University. From 1937, he worked as a chairman of Azerbaijan State Academic Drama Theatre named after M.Azizbekov. He was the deputy of all convocations of the Soviet Parliament of Azerbaijan and from 1971 till 1989 he was the chairman of Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR. Suleyman Rustam was not only the poet, he also was a translator and a literary man. He translated works of I.A.Krylov, A.S.Griboyedov, A.S.Pushkin, M.Y.Lermontov, N.A.Nekrasov and others into his native language. Suleyman Rustam's works were translated into many languages of the world and also into Russian.

His first collection of poems, "From sadness to happiness", written in 1927, was dedicated to Komsomol, civil war, courage of soldiers struggling for the Soviet power, as other poems of the poet, written in the 1920s ("Partisan Ali", "Armless hero").

Suleyman Rustam (Azerbaijani: Süleyman Rüstəm; 12 March 1906 – 10 June 1989) was poet of Soviet Azerbaijan, playwright and a public figure. He was the poet of the Azerbaijan SSR (1960), laureate of the Stalin State Prize of the second degree (1950), Hero of Socialist Labour (1976) and a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1940.

Suleyman Rustam was born on March 12, 1906 in Novxanı village in family of a blacksmith.