Shaikhzada Mukhametzakirovich Babich

Shaikhzada Mukhametzakirovich Babich was a Bashkir and Tatar poet, a classic of Bashkir national literature. Shaikhzada Babich was born on 2 January 1895 in the village of Asyanovo, Birsky Uyezd, Ufa Governorate (now Dyurtyulinsky District of the Republic of Bashkortostan) into the family of a mullah. He received his initial education in his native village, studying at a madrasa under his father's guidance. In 1910 the fifteen-year-old went to the Kazakh steppes, where he taught Kazakh and Karakalpak children to read and write. From 1911 to 1916 he continued his studies at the Ufa madrasa 'Galiya'.

Known as a Tatar–Bashkir poet and political figure, Babich played a significant role in the Bashkir national liberation movement. He was a member of the Bashkir government and headed the All-Bashkir Youth Union in 1917. On 28 March 1919, while transporting the printing press of the Bashrevkom to Orenburg, Shaikhzada Babich was brutally killed in the village of Zilair in the Zilair canton of the newly formed Bashkir ASSR.