APersonIndependent states
Mukhtar Auezov
Writer, playwright and scholar (1897–1961), author of the epic novel The Path of Abai.
Mukhtar Auezov was born near Semey in the region where Abai was born. As a young man he was close to the Alash intellectuals and studied at Leningrad University.
A founder of Kazakh drama — his play Enlik–Kebek was among the first productions of the Kazakh theatre — he was also a major scholar of the Kyrgyz epic Manas.
His four-volume novel The Path of Abai (1942–1956), a vast panorama of Kazakh life, won the Lenin Prize in 1959 and has been translated into dozens of languages. The Auezov Academic Drama Theatre in Almaty bears his name.
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Updated: October 2, 2026