Shaykhi Farkhullovich Mannur

Shaykhi Mannur (real name – Shaykhelislam Farkhullovich Mannurov) was a Soviet Tatar poet, writer and translator. He was born into a poor peasant family in the village of Tulbay. He received his primary education at a madrasa and a secular school, then moved with his family to the Kuzbass, where in 1921 he began working in a mine. Mannur's literary debut came in 1923, when his poems and sketches appeared in newspapers in the Urals, Kazan and Moscow.

After studying at the Sverdlovsk Party School, Mannur lived and worked in various parts of Siberia, served in the army, and worked in the Donbass — at a metallurgical plant, at a school and on the construction of the Dnipropetrovsk Hydroelectric Power Station. He was actively involved in literary activities. For some time he worked on the editorial staff of the newspaper 'Eshche', then moved to Kazan and in 1937 graduated from Kazan Pedagogical University.

During the Great Patriotic War Mannur served as a war correspondent. After the war he for a time headed the literary department of the Kazan Opera and Ballet Theatre. From 1949 he devoted himself entirely to literature. His first collection of poems was published in 1928. He founded a library in his native village, which later became a museum-library. Shaykhi Mannur died on 11 June 1980 and was buried in his native village. In 1981 the Shaykhi Mannur Prize was established; it is awarded annually on 15 January, his birthday.