AZERBAIJAN DURING THE YEARS OF WORLD WAR II(BASED ON LETTERS FROM THE PERSONAL ARCHIVE OF SAMAD VURGUN)

Abstract

Samad Vurgun (1906-1956) is one of the prominent poets of Azerbaijani literature. During the Second World War (1939-1945), especially during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), his work was distinguished by its patriotic spirit.
During the war, Samad Vurgun traveled to the front lines and wrote many poems, essays, and speeches to raise the spirits of the people. His work during this period was aimed at convincing the people of victory and providing moral support to the soldiers.
Soldiers read, memorized, and drew moral strength from his poems. For this reason, many soldiers wrote letters directly to Samad Vurgun.
Some of these letters were later published in various archives and in the wartime press (in particular, "Communist", "Literary Newspaper", etc.).
The article studies the letters of the great Azerbaijani poet and playwright, prominent public figure Samad Vurgun, included in the personal archive fund preserved at the Institute of Manuscripts named after Mahammad Fuzuli of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. From these letters, samples written in 1941-1945 were purposefully selected. Based on these letters, valuable information about Azerbaijan's participation in the Second World War, the heroism and bravery of Azerbaijanis on the front line, as well as their sacrifices on the rear line were revealed and analyzed. In addition to the letters written by S. Vurgun to the fighting military personnel and their letters to the poet, letters addressed to the great artist by his fellow writers and editorial offices during the war years were also reviewed. For the first time, Azerbaijan's participation in the Great Patriotic War was studied on the basis of examples of epistolary heritage in the personal archive of a specific writer.