Songs, in my soul I nurtured your shoots,
Now bloom warmly in my homeland.
As much fire and freedom as you were given,
So much life you were given on this earth.

Dear friends,

On February 15, 1906, in the village of Mustafino in the Orenburg Province, a boy was born into a peasant Tatar family. He was destined to become one of the most courageous poets of the 20th century — Musa Jalil.

Still a teenager, he began writing poetry in his native language, and in 1919, at the age of 13, his first publication appeared in the newspaper “Kyzyl Yulduz” (“Red Star”).

His life was short but brilliant. At the age of 38, on August 25, 1944, Musa Jalil was executed in the Plötzensee prison in Berlin. Before that, he spent nearly a year in the Moabit prison, where he was imprisoned together with Belgian patriot André Timmermans. Later, Timmermans handed one of Jalil’s notebooks with poems to the USSR Consulate in Brussels, thus preserving an invaluable poetic legacy for the world.

We invite you to attend our Literary Salon to honor the memory of this great poet,
to read favorite poems, and to talk about his life, courage, and poetry — poetry that proved stronger than death.

Language of the event: Russian