Translator S. Bektursunov was born on December 20, 1909, and died on June 13, 1962, in the village of Uch-Koshoy, currently in the Talas district of the Talas region, in a family of poor farmers. Orphaned at an early age, he was raised in an orphanage and studied at a rural school. In 1930, he graduated from the Kyrgyz Pedagogical Technical School in Frunze.
He began his labor biography in 1930 as the director of a school in the village of Aravan in the Osh region and then worked for some time in the system of the People's Commissariat for Education of the Kyrgyz ASSR.
From 1930 to 1931, from 1935 to 1937, and from 1939 to 1940, he served as the director of the Kyrgyz Drama Theater; from 1931 to 1932, he was the chairman of the Kyrgyz Radio Committee; from 1932 to 1934, he was the head of the culture, agitation, and propaganda department of the Kyrgyz Regional Committee of the Komsomol; then, from 1937 to 1938, he worked as an editor-translator of the classics of Marxism-Leninism at the Institute of Party History under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan; from 1938 to 1939 and from 1940 to 1943, he was an editor of political and artistic literature at Kyrgyzgosizdat; from 1943 to 1944, he was the deputy editor of the newspaper "Kyzyl Kyrgyzstan"; from 1946 to 1948, he served as the head of the theater department of the Arts Department under the Council of Ministers of the Kyrgyz SSR; and from 1954 to 1957, he was the editor of children's artistic literature at Uchpedgiz.
S. Bektursunov is known as one of the remarkable Kyrgyz masters of artistic translation. Since 1932, he has been translating mass-political literature and educational materials, and since 1939, he has primarily focused on artistic literature. In 1940, his translation of stories by A. P. Chekhov was published in Kyrgyz, and in 1943, the well-known work by V. V. Bartold "Kyrgyz: Historical Outline" was published. A significant contribution to national literature was his translation of L. N. Tolstoy's epic "War and Peace" and the novel "Resurrection," which he worked on starting in 1945 for ten years. Thanks to the talented translations of S. Bektursunov, the Kyrgyz reader became acquainted with "The Captain's Daughter" by A. S. Pushkin, "The Headless Horseman" by Mayne Reid, plays by A. M. Gorky such as "The Last," "Vassa Zheleznova," and others, the trilogy "Walking Through Torments" by A. N. Tolstoy, and many other works.
S. Bektursunov co-authored with V. Goryachikh the play "Heroes with a Fulfilled Dream" ("Armansyz azashtar"). He is the author of many dubbings for films voiced at the "Kyrgyzfilm" studio.
A member of the CPSU since 1937 and a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR since 1955.
TRANSLATIONS
Chekhov A. P. Stories. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1940. — 124 p.
Bartold V. V. Kyrgyz: Historical Outline. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1943. — 92 p.
Zharikov L. Snow, Rise Up with the Blizzard: A Novella. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1943. — 88 p.
Tolstoy L. N. War and Peace: Vol. 1. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1949. — 347 p.
Gorky M. Vassa Zheleznova; The Last: Plays. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1952. — 136 p.
Tolstoy L. N. War and Peace: Vol. 2. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1951. — 400 p.
Gorky M. Enemies; Yegor Bulichev and Others. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1953. — 140 p.
Mayakovsky V. My Discovery of America: Essay. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1953. — 88 p.
Tolstoy A. Stories and Tales. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1953. — 76 p.
Tolstoy L. N. War and Peace: Vol. 3. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1954. — 272 p.
Ulug-zade S. Renewed Earth: Novel. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1954. — 360 p.
Tolstoy L. N. Short Stories, Tales, and Fables. — Frunze: Kyrgyzuchpedgiz, 1955. — 68 p.
Aksakov S. A Man Under the Snow. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1956. — 32 p.
Stories about Chapayev. — Frunze: Kyrgyzuchpedgiz, 1956. — 71 p.
Tolstoy L. N. Resurrection. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1956. — 504 p.
Gorky M. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1957. — 46 p.
Gorky M. How I Learned. — Frunze: Kyrgyzuchpedgiz, 1957. — 31 p.
Raspe E. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. — Frunze: Kyrgyzuchpedgiz, 1957. — 88 p.
Abrahams P. By the Path of Thunder: Novel. — Frunze: Kyrgyzuchpedgiz, 1958. — 264 p.
Pushkin A. S. The Captain's Daughter. — Frunze: Kyrgyzuchpedgiz, 1958. — 148 p.
Mayne Reid. The Headless Horseman. — Frunze: Kyrgyzuchpedgiz, 1959. — 459 p.
Tolstoy L. N. Selected Works. — Frunze: Kyrgyzuchpedgiz, 1959. — 4115 p.
Tolstoy A. Walking Through Torments: Novel. — Frunze: Kyrgyzuchpedgiz, 1960. — 703 p.
Sokolov-Mikitov I. Winter in the Forest: Stories. — Frunze: Kyrgyzuchpedgiz, 1962. — 24 p.
Ostrovsky N. Born to Be a Burden. — Frunze: Kyrgyzuchpedgiz, 1962. — 332 p.
Tolstoy A. N. Walking Through Torments. — Frunze: Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1962. — 460 p.
Pushkin A. S. The Captain's Daughter. — Frunze: Kyrgyzstan, 1973. — 112 p.
Tolstoy L. N. Sevastopol in December Days: Story. — Frunze: Kyrgyzstan, 1974. — 27 p.
Tolstoy L. N. Resurrection. — Frunze: Kyrgyzstan, 1975. — 500 p.
Tolstoy L. N. Stories. — Frunze: Mektep, 1977. — 96 p.
Mayne Reid. The Headless Horseman: Novel. — Frunze: Mektep, 1987. — 432 p.
