Sadriddin Aini

Sadriddin Aini (1878-1954) (Tajik: Садриддин Айнӣ, Persian: صدرالدين عيني) was a Tajik intellectual prolifically engaged in poetry, fictional writing, journalism, history and lexicography. He was born in what was the Emirate of Bukhara and helped to propagate the Russian Revolution in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. He helped to bind together a sense of Tajik nationalism that survived the collapse of the Soviet Union. He recreated Tajik literature, that was banned during emirate and wrote first Tajik novel "Dokhunda" (1927). He was also member of Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan for 20 years, was awarded Order of Lenin three times and was first president of Academy of Sciences of the Tajikistan SSR.

Aini attended a madrasa in Bukhara, where he learned how to write in Arabic. He attended the Soviet Congress of Writers in 1934 as the Tajik representative. By purporting national identity in his writings, he was able to escape the Soviet censors that quieted many intellectuals in Central Asia. Aini survived the Soviet Purges, and even outlived Stalin by one year. His main work was four volume "Yoddoshtho."