Fedor Ivanovich Samokhin (; 12 February 1918 – 17 July 1992) was a Soviet prose writer, journalist, translator, member of the Union of writers of the USSR (since 1958). One of the representatives of "village" and "lieutenant" prose. The oldest Russian writer of Kyrgyzstan, whose works reflect the life of the people of the republic, its history and modernity. For his achievements in the field of fiction and for his active participation in the promotion and development of Kyrgyz Soviet literature, he was awarded three Honorary Diplomas of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Kirghiz SSR.
The author of a number of works of fiction about the Great Patriotic War, the most famous of which was the novel "Cholponbai" about the feat of Hero of the Soviet Union Cholponbai Tuleberdiev, which was reprinted several times. The second edition of the story in the publishing house "Mektep" was digitized in 2019 by the Osh Regional Library named after Toktogul Satylganov, and in 2020 it was included in the section of materials from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Some of Samokhin's books are kept in the world's leading libraries, including the British Library and Harvard Library, as well as the Berlin State Library.
Biography
The one of the oldest Russian writer of Kyrgyzstan, whose works have become an integral part of the literary process in the republic, front-line soldier Fedor Ivanovich Samokhin was born on the farm of Verkhne-Sadovsky of the Don Host Oblast of the Russian Soviet Republic in the family of a poor peasant. In 1940, he graduated from the Nizhne-Chirskaya secondary school. In 1944, he studied at the courses for newspaper workers in Moscow; in the same year he joined the ranks of the CPSU(b).
He began his career in 1934 as an accountant at his native collective farm, from 1940 to 1942 he worked as a senior accountant at the Nizhne-Chirskiy fish station. From 1942 to 1943 Fedor Ivanovich was a member of the Bureau of the Nizhne-Chirskiy Underground Komsomol District Committee, was a scout for a partisan detachment, and was seriously wounded. After the liberation of this region from occupation, he was appointed editor of the regional newspaper "Kolkhoznik Dona"; there were also published the first stories of Fedor Samokhin "Na perekate", "Garmon'", "Provody".
From 1945 he was a correspondent for "Komsomolskaya Pravda", from 1946 – a literary worker, head of the department of the newspaper "Leninskaya smena" in the city of Alma-Ata, and from 1947 to 1949 – a special correspondent for the newspaper "Kommunist" (Jambyl Region). From 1949 he lived and worked in Frunze.
From 1949 to 1961, he was a literary officer, head of a department in the editorial office of the newspaper "Komsomolets Kirghizii", from 1961 to 1963 – a literary employee in the editorial office of the journal "Bloknot agitatora".
He took up literary work in 1944. The first book of the writer was the story "Razvedchitsa Klavdiya Panchishkina", published in 1952 in Volgograd.
A special place among the works created by the writer was occupied by the story "Cholponbai", published for the first time in 1958 by the publishing house "Molodaya Gvardiya", dedicated to the immortal feat of the Hero of the Soviet Union Cholponbai Tuleberdiev; in the same year he was admitted to the Union of Writers of the USSR and received recognition in the literary society of Kyrgyzstan. Samokhin got acquainted with writers, poets and other cultural figures such as Aaly Tokombaev, Chingiz Aitmatov, Mikhail Sholokhov and others.
Took part in the translation and publication of the collection of works by Kyrgyz front-line writers "Zveni, komuz!" (1985).
In 1992, after a long illness, Fedor Ivanovich Samokhin died in Bishkek.
Creative activity
The beginning of his professional writing activity is considered 1949 and the beginning of work in the newspaper "Komsomolets Kirghizii". Fedor Samokhin did not have both legs and moved on prostheses, but he nevertheless often travelled a lot around the republic, got acquainted with interesting people – livestock breeders of Susamyr, builders of the Toktogul hydroelectric power station, oil workers from Izbaskent, cotton growers of Aravan, hydrologists of Orto-Tokoy and the fishermen of Issyk-Kul, the miners of Kyzyl-Kiya and the beet growers of the Kemin valley, who later became heroes of his works such as the stories "Dom moyego ottsa", "Tri ostrova", "Rodina, ya vernus'!" and "Chuiskiye razlivy".