Poet and philosopher, historian, translator, playwright and novelist Ravil Bukharaev died January 24, 2012, shortly after his widely celebrated 60th anniversary. His widow, the famous Russian poetess Lydia Grigorieva told us about the presence of Ravil Bukharaev in a literary and public space for the two years in which he is no longer with us.

The sudden death of my husband broke his incarnation of many grandiose creative ideas. Underperformance of his earthly destination was another blow to me. In fact, besides the personal feelings of grief and irreparable loss I as nobody knew how much he was still able to write, create, make.

Since we have always been aware of creative ideas and affairs of each other, all my strength, I eventually turned to work with manuscripts and computer files that hold real treasures of his mind, spirit and talent. As a result of my hard and painstaking work a host of publications appeared in leading literary journals in Russia and other countries.

In Moscow magazine “Znamya”, a novel by Ravil Bukharaev “Khasanov or Wandering Garden ” was published with my afterword. Unpublished chapters of prose works were published in 2013 in the journal “Russian Club” – it is published in Tbilisi in Russian – and in the journal “Kazan”.

In the journal ” Friendship of Peoples” the novel “Red Lotus ” was published. In St Petersburg magazine “Zvezda” came out a religious-philosophical article “Jesus in Islam”, which is essentially a preface to his book “Conversations on the northern Islam”. Rather, the first , a completed and edited by him during his lifetime, a volume of six hundred pages of the series ” The History of Islam in Russia”.

A libretto – tale “A Mother’s Heart” was published based on the myth of the Tatar White Wolf . This work I had to finish instead of him. And I hope that this poetic tale eventually finds its expression in music. After all, there are so many young talented composers in Kazan! This could be the first libretto of Tatar musical or musical performance . I am open to all suggestions because I appreciate the ideas that were initially laid by Ravil Bukharaev, the basis of this text, interpretation and reinterpretation of the popular fairy Tatar tale.

In January, last year, a large block of memories was published written by figures of art, science, poets and writers from different countries, Moscow and Kazan on how wonderful , sensitive and kind person he was and what a significant contribution by him, without exaggeration, to world culture has been made. And about how much he could do to promote Tatarstan and Kazan, because his book about Kazan and Tatar history and modernity are recommended to study in universities in many countries! These memories will be the basis for future books . And I ‘m waiting for the people who knew Ravil in childhood, adolescence or adulthood, send me your memories of him. This book is still in its infancy , it is being formed. Much remains to be done, a lot of work to display all facets of talent and personality of this extraordinary man, whom Chingiz Aitmatov openly called a “national treasure”.

Lydia Grigorieva, London. “Kazansky Vedomosty”