KARATAYEV MUKHAMEDZHAN KOZHASBAIULY

He graduated from the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University and post graduate courses of the Leningrad Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature. During 1936-1937 he served as an Executive Secretary of the board of the Union of Kazakhstan Writers. At the same time he worked as a teacher and led the Department of Literature of the abovementioned University. M. Karatayev started writing in 1934. The young critic was among the founders of the Kazakh literature. He was actively involved in literary work; he wrote articles and was a co-author of a number of textbooks for secondary schools. He also made reports and gave lectures on literature. One of his famous works is an article devoted to S. Seifullin's poem "Kyzyl At" (Red Horse) and a research work on G. Musrepov's story "Shugyla". In 1947-1951 he was a teacher at the Zhambyl Pedagogical College. In 1955-1960 he was an Editor and Director of publishing house "Kazakh state art literature". In 1967-1979 he was a Senior research assistant, Head of the department of Kazakh  Literature of the Institute of Language and Literature of the Kazakh Academy of Sciences and Editor-in-chief of the "Kazakh Soviet Encyclopedia". Since 1988 till 1995 he was a chief consultant at the Institute of Language and Literature of the M. Auezov Academy of Sciences. He is an author of over 700 articles, more than 40 books and 15 manuscripts. His work is devoted primarily to the problems of modern literature and literary criticism of Kazakhstan, study of the history of the Kazakh literature, unity of the national and integration traditions  and innovation in the Kazakh literature. He translated M. Gorkiy's trilogy "Moi Universitety" and M. Sholokhov's novel "Tikhiy Don" into the Kazakh language. In 1974 he was awarded Abai State Prize of Kazakhstan. He was also awarded S. Ualikhanov Prize, Order of the Red Banner of Labor, Badge of Honor and many other medals.

Source: Kazakhstan, National encyclopedia, Volume 3.