GÄDIATỊ (SEḰAYỊ FỊRT) COMAQ

 

GÄDIATỊ (SEḰAYỊ FỊRT) COMAQ (Rus: ComakGadiev; b. 14 January 1883, d. 24 October 1931), Ossetic writer. Comaq was born in South Ossetia as the son of Gädiatị Seḱa. He studied for some years at the historical-philological faculty of the University of Dorpat, Estonia, but returned to the Caucasus during the civil troubles in 1905-7 and engaged in political activities; about this time his first poems appeared. In 1908 he was deported to Siberia, but he came back in 1917 and joined the Bolsheviks. After that his work was dedicated to the cause of the new regime. During the 1920s he held various offices as an intellectual leader in Ordžonikidze (Vladikavkaz; Oss: Dzädžịgäu), the capital of North Ossetia. For some time he was the chief editor of Rästdzinad (Justice), a North Ossetic newspaper, and later became the head of the Pedagogical Institute of Ordžonikidze (Xäxxon pedagogon institute "Pedagogical institute of the mountains") and of the North Ossetic Institute of Local History, and was for some time the secretary of the Transcaucasian Communist University (Zakavkazskiĭ kommunistcheskiĭ universitet) in Tbilisi. In 1925 his collection of poems, Cardị fäylauäntä (The waves of life), appeared. He also wrote short stories and a couple of verse dramas (Amondš cäudžịtä “On the way to happiness”; Os-Bäγaṯịr [the name of a medieval hero]), besides critical essays. Comaq was among the most outstanding figures of the Ossetic intelligentsia who started upon their literature career before the revolution and later identified themselves with the Soviet regime. Today his literary work is still in high esteem.

 

Bibliography:

Gädiati Comag, Uacmịstä (Collected works), Ordžonikidze, 1959.

Idem, Ravzœrgä uacmịstœ (Selected works), Cxinval, 1986.

L. E. Cxovrebova, Zhizn i tvorchestvo Gadieva Comaka i russkaya literatura (The life and works of Comak Gadiev and Russian literature), Cxinval, 1971.

N. G. Džusoytị, “Comak Gadiev,” in Ocherk istorii osetinskoĭ sovetskoĭ literatury (A sketch of the history of Ossetic Soviet literature), Ordžonikidze, 1967, pp. 38-51.

Idem, Istoriya osetinskoĭ literatury (A history of Ossetic literature) II, Tbilisi, 1985, pp. 222-67.

(Fridrik Thordarson)

Originally Published: December 15, 2000

Last Updated: February 2, 2012

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