Translator Z. Bektenov was born on October 29, 1911, in the village of Ken-Suu in the current Tyup district of the Issyk-Kul region, in the family of a rural paramedic. In 1925, he graduated from elementary school in his native village, in 1930 — from the Kyrgyz Pedagogical Technical School in Frunze, and in 1940 — from the Kyrgyz State Pedagogical Institute.
He began his career in 1930 as the head of the district education department in the city of Sulyukt. From 1931 to 1932, he worked as the deputy responsible secretary of the Kyrgyz section of the Central Publishing House of the Peoples of the USSR under the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and as a teacher at the Communist University of the Toiling East in Moscow. From 1932 to 1934, he headed the educational and methodological department of Kyrgyzgosizdat, and from 1940 to 1942, he was the deputy director of the Przhevalsky Teacher's Institute. In 1942, he was drafted into the ranks of the Soviet Army and served in Iran (Mashhad) until 1946. Since 1946, he worked as a junior research associate, head of the folklore and epic "Manas" sector at the Institute of Language and Literature of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences, and since 1961 to the present, he has been a senior lecturer and associate professor in the Department of Methodology of Teaching Kyrgyz Language and Literature at the Kyrgyz State University named after the 50th anniversary of the USSR.
In 1933, in collaboration with T. Baidzhiev, Z. Bektenov published the first textbook of the Kyrgyz language for grades 3-4, and in 1949, they created the first textbook on Kyrgyz literature for secondary schools.
The writer has been engaged in translation work since 1929. He has translated works by N. V. Gogol, D. Fonvizin, A. M. Gorky, A. A. Fadeev, N. Hikmet, and others into Kyrgyz.
He has been a member of the Union of Soviet Writers since 1986.
He has been awarded medals "For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", "Veteran of Labor", and honorary certificates from the Supreme Soviet of the Kyrgyz SSR.
He is an excellent educator of the Kyrgyz SSR.
In 1949, Z. Bektenov was unjustly repressed and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. In 1955, he was fully rehabilitated and restored in all civil rights.
TRANSLATIONS
Fadeev A. The Rout: A Novel. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1957. — 187 pages.
Gogol N. V. Collected Works in 2 Volumes: Vol. 1. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1959. — 375 pages.
Fadeev A. The Rout. — Frunze: Kyrgyzstan, 1974. — 251 pages.
Gogol N. V. Selected Works. — Frunze: Mektep, 1980. — 376 pages.
Gogol N. V. The Night Before Christmas: A Tale. — Frunze: Mektep, 1986. — 48 pages.
The Flying Ship: A Ukrainian Folk Tale. — Frunze: Mektep, 1986. — 136 pages.
