Khalid-Said Khojaev is a talented Turkologist, one of the first professional Uzbek linguists, the first translator and commentator in the USSR of a unique linguistic monument of the XI century - the Turkic dictionary of Mahmud Kashgar. His name is certainly significant in the history of Turkology. However, until recently it was forgotten, and his biography had to be found out bit by bit.

One of the authors of this article, F. D. Ashnin (1922-2000), became interested in the activities of Kh.-S. Khodjaev in connection with the study of the history of Turkology in Russia and the USSR. It was known that he was the author of the book "Comparative grammar of the Ottoman, Uzbek and Kazakh languages", published in 1926 in Baku in Turkish by the Society for Survey and Study of Azerbaijan. That's all. For many years, we searched for both the book itself and data about its author. The book was not available in Moscow libraries.

The author of this book was also known to have participated in the First All-Union Turkological Congress held in Baku in 1926, and his name appears in the published materials of the congress. They indicated that Khodjaev, an Uzbek who was permanently living in Baku by 1926, was personally invited to the congress, i.e., apparently, by that time he had already established himself as a Turkologist (however, his book is not mentioned in the materials of the congress and, probably, it was published after the congress). At the same time, Khodjaev spoke at the congress three times and only in Uzbek, and there are no Russian summaries of his speeches, which indicates that the speaker's knowledge of the Russian language was insufficient at that time. There was also a brief mention of the scientist in one of the articles of Academician A. N. Kononov: "In the mid-30s, the Azerbaijani branch of the Academy of Sciences created a commission headed by Kh.-S. Khodjaev to translate the "Divan" of Mahmud Kashgarsky into Azerbaijani. By 1939, the translation was completed and in the same year edited by S. E. Malov and A. N. Kononov. " ¹ As we'll see later, this help doesn't have everything exactly right. The last reliable information about Khodzhaev in his lifetime dated back to 1936, when his book, published ten years earlier, was widely criticized (see below); from what A. N. Kononov wrote, it did not directly follow that Khodzhaev was alive in 1939. About further years - nothing. One could only guess at the tragic fate of the scientist, but there was no information about this.

The surname of Kh. - S. Khodjaev was absent from the well-known "Biobibliographical Dictionary of Domestic Turkologists" by A. N. Kononov. In the early 1980s, the author was preparing the dictionary for a second edition, and in this regard, one of the authors of this article, F. D. Ashnin, decided to help him. Unexpectedly, we managed to find a book by Kh. - S. Khodjaev, published in 1926. It turned out to be in the personal library of one of the Turkologists. And still nothing was known about its author. We started writing to Turkologists we knew in Baku, Tashkent, and Alma Ata.

Baku linguist Akrem Jafar responded. In a reply letter dated November 30 to our letter dated November 10, 1983, he informed us that his daughter was living in Baku

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Kh. - S. Khodjayeva Behidzha, after Mammadov's husband. And soon, on December 25, Behija Khanum herself, to whom Akrem Jafar gave our address, wrote a letter and sent a parcel with copies of documents kept in the family. Here are excerpts from her letter.

"We are grateful to you as a whole family and consider ourselves obliged for the fact that you want to remind people, in particular the Turkological world, about Khalid Said. Akrem-muallim kindly introduced me to the contents of your second letter to him." Further, B. H. Mammadova, speaking about her family, concluded: "Here is a brief description of those who remained after the late Khalid-Said, a man with a tragic fate, who passed away prematurely, or rather, who passed away. He left on June 4, 1937, and 20 years later, i.e. in 1957, he was rehabilitated posthumously by the decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR of May 16, 1957 "for lack of evidence of a crime" - this is the exact wording of the certificate that we were given, the date of his death should be considered October 12, 1937". After telling all that she knew about her father's relatives, B. H. Mammadova wrote:: "I met and was very familiar with people who were either his students, graduate students or knew him intimately. I remember something about him, too. Something that could not be reflected in stingy references and papers. He was known as a very kind and knowledgeable person. His lectures were so interesting and informative that they were remembered for a long time, and dozens of years later these people excitedly told and remembered about him."

On January 12, 1984, Kh. - S. Khodzhayev's daughter wrote us another letter, where she gave us additional information about her father. The letters and documents sent contained significant information, but much was still missing, especially data on the tragic death of the scientist. It was only in 1998 that we managed to get acquainted with the investigative file of Kh. - S. Khodjaev N Pr 26762, which is kept in the Archive of the Ministry of National Security of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Baku^*. The investigation file, the information provided by B. H. Mammadova, the documents sent by her (they are stored in the personal archive of F. D. Ashnin in Moscow) together give an idea of the scientist's life.

Khalid-Said Khojayev was born in 1888 in the village of Kosh-Kurgan, 25 km from Tashkent. The month and date of birth are not specified in the case file and were not known to B. H. Mammadova. The family was peasant and, according to her daughter, " his relatives have always been proud and proud of the fact that they had such a learned man in their family." She also reported in 1983 that Khodjaev's nephews live in both Kosh-Kurgan and Tashkent, "and are quite intelligent people in their own way, mostly belonging to the rural intelligentsia."

Almost nothing is known about the future scientist's childhood and youth. According to his daughter, Kh. - S. Khodjaev graduated from a madrasa in Tashkent. But his fate was such that after 1911 he lived very little in his homeland, although he still had ties with Uzbekistan. From the records of the interrogations, it is clear that Kh. - S. Khodjaev had almost no contact with his relatives who remained in Kosh-Kurgan. He knew that his parents were no longer alive, but he gave the date of his father's death vaguely: "in 1930-1931", and could not specify the year of his mother's death (l. 7). It also says that he was the eldest of four brothers and sisters; two brothers and a sister born from 1907 to 1910 In 1937, they lived in Uzbekistan; according to B. H. Mammadova, none of them existed by 1983.

In 1911, Kh.-S. Khodjaev's fate took a turn that determined his subsequent life and further activities: he was sent to study at Istanbul University. Later, the investigation used this fact as evidence of his " pan-Turkism "and"connections with Turkish intelligence." According to Kh. - S. Khodjaev (l. 8), he was in Turkey in 1911-1913 and 1914-1918, and graduated from the History and Literature Department of the University in 1917. We don't know what he did in the past.

^* The authors of the article express their gratitude to the archive management for the opportunity to study the case. Further, when referring to the case, only the sheet number will be indicated.

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1913-1914 (was he returning to his homeland?). After graduating from the university, Khojaev stayed in Turkey for another year, and there is no information about what he did during these years.

The most obscure part of the scientist's biography is connected with 1918. From Turkey, he does not return to Central Asia, but ends up in Azerbaijan. It may have been difficult to get to Tashkent during the civil war, and Azerbaijan was briefly captured by Turkish troops in 1918, and it was possible to get there from Istanbul. Khodjaev briefly wrote about this period of his life in the first interrogation: "From 1918 to 1920 he taught in Kirovabad" (l. 8) (in those years and now - the city of Ganja). Later, when the scientist was already broken, he was forced to give such testimony :" In 1918. I was sent to Azerbaijan together with a group of Istanbul University students (from among the former residents of the Russian Empire) on the initiative of the pan-Turkist leader Abdul Rashid Ibragimov, along with the Turkish army of Nur Pasha. We were assigned to the special department of the Turkish army "Shuba and Maxcyca" (military Police service), headed by Bahaydin Pasha, who at the same time was the head of the police department (counterintelligence) of the Musavat government in Azerbaijan. It was not possible to use us for intelligence and political work, because at first, after arriving in Azerbaijan, we were sent to collect food taxes for the Turkish army, and then, after 1-1 1/2 months, the Turkish army was forced to evacuate" (l. 19). In the report of another interrogation, the following was added:: "Together with Shuba and Mahsus'i, about 30 people left for the disposal of Nur Pasha in Ganja in 2 groups: Turkestan (5 people) and Caucasian (21 people)" (l. 28).

In these testimonies, it is difficult to separate truth from fabrications. One should not believe the testimony about serving in the Turkish counterintelligence service: in 1937, this was supposed to be written. By the way, if all this really happened, Khodjaev would have suffered much earlier than in 1937. But it is hardly doubtful that he came to Azerbaijan with the Turkish army in a multinational group of graduates and students of Istanbul University (he names Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Turkmen, Lezgins), and the mention of participation in the "collection of food taxes for the Turkish army"also looks reliable.

After the evacuation of the Turkish troops, Khojayev stayed in Azerbaijan, first in Ganja, then moved to Baku. In 1921, he did go to Tashkent, "where he also taught" (l. 8), but stayed there only for a year. We do not know what was the reason for his desire to return to Azerbaijan, maybe because of better working conditions, or maybe he was charged with some charges in Tashkent. In any case, in 1922 Kh. - S. Khodjaev left his homeland forever.

As the scientist wrote in the "Questionnaire of the Arrested", he "from 1922 to the day of his arrest constantly taught at universities in Baku "(p. 8). Soon he married an Azerbaijani woman, which further connected him with Baku. Behija's daughter was born in 1925.

In a questionnaire written in 1935, Kh. - S. Khodjaev indicated that he had taught at different years at the Azerbaijan State University, at the Pedagogical Institute, at the Industrial Technical School, at the Hydrotechnical School, at the working schools. His daughter writes: "He begins his teaching career in one of the oil districts of Baku-the working village of Balakhani, where he taught literacy to workers, taught at the labor faculty... He continued his teaching work to the end-he worked at the technical school (named after Agamala oglu), Baku universities and at postgraduate courses."

In 1920-1930. Baku was the leading cultural center not only of Azerbaijan, but also of all the Turkic peoples of the USSR. Both local scientists and prominent representatives of the intelligentsia of various Turkic nationalities worked there (almost all of them would die in 1937). Students from other republics of the USSR, including Uzbekistan, studied in Baku.Kh.-S. Khodjaev played the role of a link between the Azerbaijani and Uzbek intelligentsia. As B. H. Mammadova writes, " his huge

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It was also a merit that in the 1920s, on his initiative, a large group of young Uzbeks and Uzbeks were sent to study in Baku for a number of years, where they received their initial, and some later, higher education. He also helped many of them financially, and some even stayed at his house for long periods. Among them were such prominent personalities of Uzbekistan as Halima Nasyrova-People's Artist of the USSR (the first Uzbek woman-opera singer. - F. A., V. A., D. N.), Khady Zarifov is a prominent scholar of philology and folklore... and many others." It is also mentioned in the case file that in 1925-1926 Kh.-S. Khodjaev was in charge of the dormitory of the Uzbek representative office in Baku, where Uzbek students lived (l. 9).

Kh. - S. Khodjaev took an active part in language construction, advocating the Romanization of the alphabets of the Turkic languages. The First All-Union Turkological Congress mentioned above, in which he actively participated, was devoted to this issue in the first place. B. H. Mammadova writes that " they were very good friends, collaborated together (question of the alphabet), and Agamali oglu greatly appreciated and respected him as a specialist and a person." A special book by Kh. - S. Khojayev was devoted to the problems of romanization of the Azerbaijani script.

But the most significant publication of the scientist was "Comparative grammar of the Ottoman, Uzbek and Kazakh languages". As already mentioned, the book was published in Turkish. Even when we didn't know anything about the author's biography, it was possible to assume that he studied in Turkey: his level of command of the Turkish language is very high. The book shows the author's erudition in Turkology and knowledge of the comparative historical method.

Kh. - S. Khodjaev was engaged not only in linguistics. According to B. H. Mammadova, he also had works on literature, mainly Azerbaijani. "Khalid Said was an excellent scholar of Fizuli and an excellent interpreter of its poetry. He also tried his hand at poetry, and some of his poems were published in magazines of that time... The list of his scientific works includes a translation of the novel "Past Days"by the Uzbek writer Julkun-bai... For some reason, however, he did not include his other translation of the Turkish writer Reshad Nuri Guntekin's "Chaly Kushu" - "The Songbird". The first translation of this work belongs to Khalid Said." In all cases, apparently, we are talking about translations into Azerbaijani.

Until 1937, Kh. - S. Khodzhayev, as can be seen from his questionnaires, was not arrested or dismissed from his job. In the investigative case, only the removal of the scientist from the post of head of the hostel is recorded. However, by the standards of those years, the usual studies and accusations of "ideological mistakes" were enough. Here is an article published a year before Khodjaev's death: "In 1926, the Comparative Grammar of the Ottoman, Uzbek, and Kazakh Languages" by Khodjaev was published. In this book, the author confines himself to proving the kinship of these three languages by using a formal comparative method and thereby supports the theory of "ancestral homeland and proto-language" " ² . Let us recall that at that time the accepted dogma was the ideas of academician N. Y. Marr about the unscientific and "bourgeois" nature of the very concept of kinship of languages and proto-language. The authors of the article were the greatest Baku linguist of that time, the outstanding Crimean Tatar scholar B. V. Choban-zade and the Azerbaijani linguist of the new, Soviet generation G. Bagirov. Both will soon be arrested, as will the critic Kh. - S. Khodzhaev, B. V. Chobanzade, and G. Bagirov will return many years after the Kolyma camps and exile ^.3

B. V. Choban-zade should not be reproached for the above quotation, just because the main example of "hostile methodological constructions" in the article is the works of B. V. Choban - zade himself in the 1920s, and he and his co-author himself are called the main examples of "hostile methodological constructions".

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he stigmatized him more fiercely than Kh.-S. Khodjaev. How Bekir Vagapovich really felt about his Uzbek colleague is evidenced by his "Review of the scientific and pedagogical activities of Comrade V. V. Yakovlev". Khalid Said Khojaev", preserved by B. H. Mammadova and related to the same time as the cited article-review marked December 2, 1936. It says: "Tov. Khodjaev is one of the most qualified linguists-orientalists. Khojaev is fluent in Arabic, Persian, Turkic (Azerbaijani. - F. A., V. A., D. N.), speaks Uzbek languages and knows Russian well. At tov. Khodjaev has published 14 scientific works, among which his latest work on the syntax of the Turkic language should be especially noted. In this work, com. Khalid-Said used all the main works of Eastern and Russian linguists on the theory of syntax and the rich material collected by him over many years on the syntactic structure of the Turkic language. " V. B. Chobanzade raised the question of awarding Kh. - S. Khodjaev the title of associate professor and the degree of candidate of sciences without defending his dissertation. Apparently, the offer did not materialize: in the investigative file, he is not named anywhere as an associate professor or candidate of sciences.

B. H. Mammadova writes that " in the last years of his life, Khalid-Said Khojayev worked as a researcher of the 1st category of the History sector of the Azerbaijan branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. At the same time, he taught various linguistic disciplines (stylistics and grammar of Turkic languages, reading monuments, etc.) at the philological faculties of higher education institutions and at postgraduate courses in Baku." The documents show that he worked at the Branch of the Academy of Sciences since September 1, 1934.

Khodzhaev's report on his scientific work has been preserved, which shows that in the 1930s he wrote several major works, most of which have not come down to us. Of the 13 works listed by him, in addition to comparative grammar, only "Brief Stylistics of the Azerbaijani Language" was published in 1933, and in 1928 in the Crimea, the All-Union Central Committee of the New Alphabet published his "Memoirs of work on the new alphabet". The report, dated November 19, 1935, lists the ready-to-publish "Detailed Syntax", 14 p. l. (see above the review of it by B. V. Chobanzade); "Theory of stylistics", 14 p. l.; "Lectures on Jaghatai literature", about 5-6 p. l. (a course of lectures delivered at AzSU); "Theory of Turkic literature", 18-20 pp.; "Brief review of the history of Turkestan", 8-7 pp.; " Grammar of Iranian (Persian. - F. A., V. A., D. N.) Russian language", 6-7 p. l.; "Commented study of the Orkhon inscription" with translation into Azerbaijani, artistic translations. According to Kh.-S. Khodjaev, the manuscripts of his books were used for teaching at AzSU and at the Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute.

But the main topic of the scholar's studies in the last years of his life was the dictionary of Mahmud of Kashgar ("Diwan lugat at-Turk"). This unique linguistic monument of the XI century, made in the tradition of Arabic grammar, provides extensive material on various Turkic languages and dialects of that time. The dictionary's manuscript was found and first published in Turkey. In the USSR in the 1930s, the dictionary had not yet been published or commented on. A. N. Kononov made an inaccuracy when he wrote about the "commission headed by Kh. - S. Khodzhaev". According to B. H. Mammadova, her father "worked out this problem alone, as the documents show, and the editors of this work were Academician Krachkovsky and Professor Malov, with whom Khalid-Said met more than once (he went to Leningrad to visit them)." The investigation file records at least one such trip in the summer of 1936.

Khodjaev himself wrote about his work in the report mentioned above: "A scientific commented study with a translation (from Arabic to Turkic) of the dictionary of Mahmud Kashgar. The work is approximately 70-80 p.sheets... Kashgar is being translated into any language at all for the first time and is also being studied for the first time-

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based on the principles of modern Oriental studies. This work is being prepared for publication on behalf of the Az. branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The first volume is already ready, and the remaining volumes are being prepared. To characterize the exceptional significance of the book of Kashgar, I enclose a special article of mine on the question of Kashgar, which characterizes this historical document from all sides."

This article of 11 typewritten pages has been preserved and was sent to us along with other documents by Kh.-S. Khodjaev's daughter. This is the only thing that has come down to us from what the scientist did when studying the famous dictionary.

The report also mentions another work by Kh. - S. Khodjaev "Historical grammar of the Turkic language", about which it is said: "The manuscript - approximately 12 p.sheets - is being prepared for publication. This book is a historical grammar of the common Turkic language up to the 11th century. It is compiled on the basis of the historical work of the famous scholar Mahmud Kashgarsky. The work is compiled on a special assignment of the Az. branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences."

As can be seen from many investigative cases that we have studied, which constantly mention the work of Kh. - S. Khodjaev in the field of translation of the dictionary of the XI century, this work was given great importance in the academic branch. In April 1937, the translation with commentary was completed; we do not know to what stage the work on the "Historical Grammar of the Turkic Language" was completed. The translation of the dictionary became widely known not only in Azerbaijan, but also in other Turkic republics of the USSR, as evidenced, in particular, by the letter of her father to the secretary of the Kabardino-Balkar Regional Committee of the CPSU(b) Kumukov preserved by the daughter of Kh.-S. Khodjaev. B. H. Mammadova told about the history of this letter: "The letter ... it is a response to a request to agree to develop the problem of translating the dictionary of Makhmud Kashgar into Kabardian (apparently, Balkar. - F. A., V. A., D. N.) language. I must say that similar proposals were received from other places, in particular, from Alma-Ata and others. I explain this by the fact that Khalid-Said was not only in the Soviet Union, but also in general was the first to work on the translation of this dictionary." Here is a letter to Kumukov:

"I received your letter of 4DP 37 and read it with great satisfaction. I apologize for the late response, but please note the following::

1) The only copy of the work of Mahmud of Kashgar was found in Istanbul and reproduced there.

2) I began translating and reworking this work on September 1, 1935, and finished it in April of this year.

3) I am currently engaged in preparing this work for publication, and I hope to transmit it to the editors in Leningrad, Academician Krachkovsky and Professor Malov, by July 1 of this year.

4) There is only one copy of this work available in the AZFAN and therefore I cannot send it, but to familiarize you with the nature and content of this work, I am sending you an article on this subject.

5) Travel to Leningrad (June 25) I am happy to make a stopover in Nalchik and make a detailed report, if you are interested and want to learn more about the content of this book in connection with the relationship of this book to the Kumyk and Karachay-Balkar languages. Please let me know in advance.

At the end of my letter, I express my readiness to be of great help to you in this matter. Please accept my brotherly and sincere greetings. Khodjaev H. S."

The letter is dated June 1, 1937 and apparently was not sent - two days later, on June 3, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Khodjaev, and on the night of June 4, the scientist was arrested. He was 49 years old.

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In the months when the translation of the dictionary of Mahmud Kashgar was being completed, "Case No. 12493" was being developed in Baku, in which several hundred people were injured. First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party(b) of Azerbaijan (formerly chairman of the Azerbaijani Cheka) M. D. Bagirov and his closest assistant, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan Yu. D. Sumbatov, fabricated accusations against Bagirov's rivals in the Azerbaijani leadership, involving the most prominent representatives of the Azerbaijani intelligentsia, as well as other Turkic peoples living in Baku ^.4 Arrests in the Azerbaijani branch of the Academy of Sciences began in January 1937, when B. V. Choban-zade was arrested among others. In March, a prominent Tatar historian, G. S. Gubaidullin, was arrested. As a result, after several waves of arrests from January 1937 to April 1938, almost all employees of the branch, Turks by nationality, suffered (almost all of the employees of other nationalities survived).

During February-April 1937, the investigators collected statements on Kh. - S. Khodzhaev, obtained from previously arrested employees of the branch. He was included in the next group of people to be arrested. Prominent writers Huseyn Javid, Ahmed Javad, Mikayil Mushfiq, and Sanyly were arrested on the same night.

In comparison with the investigative cases of B. V. Choban-zade, G. S. Gubaidullin and others, the case of Kh.-S. Khodzhayev is small: 97 sheets, of which the last 35 were added during the rehabilitation period. The scientist was not included in the list of "heads of the organization". The case file is standard: the documents that preceded the arrest - the decision on the choice of a preventive measure (l. 1-3) and the arrest warrant (l. 4); the search report (l. 5), which notes the seizure of Turkish newspapers and magazines; the "Questionnaire of the arrested person" (l. 7), the minutes of interrogations (l. 8-38), testimony against X.- S. Khodzhaev of other arrested persons (l. 39-51); "protocol of the announcement of the end of the investigation" (l. 52); indictment (l. 53-55), receipt of the arrested person on receipt of the indictment (l. 57); protocol of the court session (l. 58); sentence (l. 60); certificate of bringing the sentence in execution (l. 61). Just like in thousands of other cases.

The case records five interrogations that took place in June-July 1937. The first three were led by investigator S. S. Zykov, and the last two were led by him and Investigator Petrunin. Zykov in the case of R. Akhundov (vol. I, l. 106) ⁵ is described as a "specialist in the intelligentsia", at the same time he "worked" with G. S. Gubaidullin.

The first protocol of June 5, 1937 (l. 8) contains only the biographical data of Kh. - S. Khodjaev. The next day, at the next interrogation (p.9-10), the defendant categorically denied the charges against him. Kh. - S. Khodjaev stated that from 1916 to the day of his arrest, he "held pan-Turkist positions" (l. 10); that he joined the "organization" in 1926 after G. S. Gubaidullin arrived in Baku and was assigned to conduct the work among Uzbek students in Baku (l. 10-11). However, to the demand to list all those whom he "processed in the pan-Turkist direction", he replied:: "I ask the investigation to give me a chance to think about it, because I'm not feeling well right now" (l.11). It is possible that Khodjaev was so beaten up by this point that he could not say anything anymore.

The next interrogation (l. 7-21) lasted from 7 to 9 July. For three days, the defendant was forced to speak by two successive investigators, his testimony is interspersed with Zykov and Petrunin's remarks: "Stop resisting", "Tell lies again", "We insist on a confession". It was then that the scientist was forced to give the above-mentioned testimony about "working in Turkish counterintelligence" in 1918. He had to list the Istanbul students with whom he had come to Azerbaijan in 1918; the former Uzbek students of Baku who had been" processed "by him, who had returned to their homeland by that time; and people with whom there was a"counter-revolutionary pan-Turkist connection" in Baku. We don't know anything about the fate of people from the first two groups

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it is not known, but among the Baku "counter-revolutionaries" there are those who have already been arrested, and those whose arrest was still pending, in particular G. Bagirov, as well as B. V. Choban - zade's student A. Demirchizade, who will not be arrested.

Another important statement: "I promoted pan-Turkism in my works, in particular in the book I translated by Mahmud of Kashgar" (l. 18). The" counter-revolutionary " nature of the dictionary of the XI century had to be declared to other persons under investigation. Gubaidullin showed that it "provides a pan-Turkist concept on the ethnography and linguistics of the Turkic peoples "(Case No. 25993, G. S. Gubaidullin, l. 68) ^.6

The last interrogation recorded in the case file (l. 28-31) took place on two days: on July 14 and 15. It is mainly devoted to Khojayev's relations with the Turkish consulate in Baku, through which he received "assignments".

There was enough material to convict the scientist, and Kh. - S. Khodjaev ceased to interest the investigation. After July 15, the case was not updated for almost two months, the investigation was resumed only in connection with the upcoming arrival in Baku of the "troika" of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. On September 13, Yu. D. Sumbatov approved the indictment. In it, Kh. - S. Khodjaev is simultaneously called a member of the "All-Union counter-revolutionary pan-Turkist organization" and an "old Turkish intelligence officer" (l.53-54). He, like many others, was credited with preparing "the armed separation of national republics from the USSR and the creation of a single Turkic-Tatar state" (l.55).

The "troika" from Moscow (I. O. Matulevich-chairman, I. M. Zaryanov, Ya. K. Zhigur) arrived in Baku in October and met for three days - from October 11 to October 13, 1937. Kh. - S. Khodjaev's turn came on the second day, October 12, his case was considered for fifteen minutes-from 15.10. until 15.25. Like almost all those whose cases were considered during these days, he was sentenced "to the highest degree of criminal punishment". B. H. Mammadova considered October 12, 1937, as the day of her father's death, since the rehabilitation certificate indicated only the date of conviction, but not the date of execution. However, the investigative file indicates that the sentence was carried out a day later-on October 13. On the same day, B. V. Choban-zade, G. S. Gubaidullin, Akhmed Javad and many others were executed. Sentences due to the large number of convicts were passed within three days, and it was more convenient to shoot everyone together on the last day of the troika's work.

On the day of Khodjaev's execution, his wife Sara Rza kyzy, who had studied at a trade union school in 1937, was also arrested. As she later wrote, she was released early from the camp on May 15, 1941, but then she "wandered around the districts and villages for 12 years, as she was restricted in her place of residence" (l.65). The twelve-year-old daughter was brought up by her maternal grandmother and aunts after her parents ' arrest. As she recalled in 1983, during the arrest of her mother, even an album with family photos was confiscated, and only one photo of Khodzhaev was accidentally preserved, which was found in the drawer of his work desk after his arrest and given to his family.

After the 1953 amnesty, S. R. Khodjayeva received permission to live in Baku, but having no living space there, she lived with her sister's family of three in a room measuring 11 ^m2 (l. 65). She wrote to the Prosecutor of Azerbaijan twice - on 14.12.1954 (l. 63) and 08.04. 1955 (l.65-66), but only after the second application did the review of her husband's case begin. According to the KGB of Uzbekistan, none of the Uzbek students listed by Khodjaev as "processed" by him was listed among the convicts (p.85). Interviewed Azerbaijani scientists-Ali Abdulla oglu Sultanli, Feyzul-la Samad oglu Kasum-Zade, M. A. Shiraliyev, Mikayil Hasan oglu Rafili (who studied under Khojayev at the Ganja gymnasium in 1919)-gave the deceased positive reviews (pp. 87-91). We should especially mention one reference. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed on trumped - up charges of "espionage", but there was a Special archive of the NKVD-MVD, which recorded data on real spies. In January 1956.

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a request was made to this archive, and in response it was written that "no information was found about the espionage activities of Kh.-S. Khodzhaev from 1918 to 1937" (l. 85). The rehabilitation case in this case proceeded very slowly, and it was only on May 16, 1957, that the Supreme Court of the USSR decided to quash the sentence (l. 97). The same date is indicated in the certificate received by the family.

Khojaev's widow died in 1975. Judging by what she wrote to us in 1983, the fate of their daughter was quite successful: in 1983, she taught English at the Department of Foreign Languages of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, her husband was the head of the Department of Industrial Economics at the Higher Party School of Azerbaijan, her daughter Afruz is a musicologist, Candidate of Sciences, was a researcher at the Institute of Architecture and Art of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences.

As for the investigator who conducted the interrogations of Kh. - S. Khodjaev, one of the investigative cases says about him (data from 1954): "Zykov Sergey Semyonovich, born in 1904, from peasants, education - incomplete secondary, we do not judge from the words, lieutenant colonel, head of the investigative department of fire protection of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan SSR" (The Akhundov case, vol. I, l. 90).

Together with the scientist, his works were destroyed by the NKVD of Azerbaijan. As mentioned above, only a small part of his manuscripts were published. The translation of the dictionary of Mahmud Kashgar was also lost. Although the investigative cases referred to the dictionary as "counter-revolutionary", in 1939 the Azerbaijani branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences decided to start translating it again. It was then, when Kh. - S. Khodzhayev was no longer alive, that the commission mentioned by A. N. Kononov was created. As Akrem Jafar testified in a letter to F. D. Ashnin dated December 25, 1983, the team was headed by the oldest Baku orientalist, Professor P. K. Zhuse, who wrote about the dictionary in the 1920s. Among the translators were Seyid Nizami, Is-mikhanov, A. Demirchizade, A. Aleskerzade, Jalal Efendiyev and M. R. Eskerli participated in the editing. It was this translation, and not Khodzhaev's, that was edited by A. N. Kononov together with S. E. Malov in 1939. A new translation was completed in 1941, but, as Akrem Jafar wrote, " printing this book was considered impractical." In 1946-1947, the translation was again prepared for publication, but even then they did not dare to publish it. Finally, in 1956, as stated in the same letter, "the issue of publishing the translation of the Divan was raised again, and a new edition, taking into account the norms of the modern Azerbaijani literary language, its new spelling, terminology, etc., was entrusted to A. Demirchizade, Akrem Jafar, J. Efendiyev. The new edition is based on a photocopy of the "Divan" manuscript." The new version was completed, but the Azerbaijani translation of the dictionary was fatally unlucky. "Why it was not published, I have to write you a whole novel about it," wrote Akrem Jafar. As a result, the only translation of the dictionary in the USSR was Uzbek, published in 1960-1963. And the Azerbaijani edition (as well as the Russian one) is still missing.

notes

¹ Soviet Turkology. 1973. N 1. P. 4.

² Proceedings of the Azerbaijan Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Baku, 1936. Vol. 30. P. 186.

³ See: F. D. Ashnin, V. M. Alpatov. Delo professora B. V. Choban-zade [The case of Professor B. V. Choban-zade]. 1988. N 5. pp. 125-134.

⁴ For more information about these tragic events, see: F. D. Ashnin, V. M. Alpatov. Edict. op.; they are the same. The case of Rukhulla Akhundov // East (Oriens). 2000. N 2. pp. 91-109.

⁵ The investigative file of R. Akhundov N Pr 16629 in five volumes is kept in the Archive of the Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan in Baku.

⁶ The investigative file of G. Gubaidullin N Pr 25993 in three volumes is kept in the same place.

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