December 08, 2019

A Tatar poet living in Chelyabinsk, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, labor veteran Akhmet Makhmutovich Rafikov turned 103 years old.

Akhmet Makhmutovich Rafikov was born on December 5, 1916 in the village of Staraya Kamka of the Spassky district of the Kazan province in the family of a teacher. From an early age, Akhmet Makhmutovich experienced hard peasant labor, survived the famine in 1921 and 1937. Before his eyes, dekulakization and collectivization of peasants took place.

In 1941 he was called up for military service. His combat path passed through the cities: Karachev, Bryansk, Gomel. He was a member of the liberation from the fascist invaders of Belarus and Poland, was wounded. After the hospital, he continued the war in 1281 SP 60th Infantry Division, which  stormed Berlin, where he was seriously wounded. For courage and heroism Akhmet Makhmutovich was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the Order of the Red Star, medals “For Courage”, “For Military Merit”, “For the Liberation of Warsaw”, “For  Capture of Berlin “,” For the victory over Germany ”and many other government awards.

Akhmet Makhmutovich wrote his first poems in the pre-war 30s, when he studied in Yelabuga. Notebooks with verses written during the war were lost.

In the 70s, living in Chelyabinsk, A. Rafikov became a member of the literary association after M. Jalil. His poems were published in many newspapers and magazines of the Chelyabinsk region, Bashkiria, Tatarstan, poetry collections. Songs are composed and sung on his poems.

Currently, Akhmet Makhmutovich Rafikov lives in Chelyabinsk.

For his great contribution to the development of Tatar poetry, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Peace Fund of Russia.

Congress of Tatars of the Chelyabinsk region