Russians are crazy about Abay's poetry

The cover of Abay Qunanbayuli book "Selected Poems".

Russian publishing house has published a book of poems Selected Poems by famous Kazakh poet, writer and philosopher Abay Qunanbayuli, Tengrinews.kz reports, referring to Alpina Non-Fiction publishing house. “The edition of the book was not so large, it was printed in 3000 copies. The book is in hard-cover and has 128 pages, it isn’t thicker than a palm,” Roza Piskotina, chief editor of the publishing house said. According to Pavel Podkossov, the publishing house’s director, Selected Poems by Kunanbayev is in great demand in Russia, all the books were sold out immediately. “The entire edition has 'flown off' the shelves,” he said. Selected Poems costs about 250 roubles (about $8) in Moscow book shops. However, Podkossov hasn’t mentioned if his publishing house was going to print an extra edition of the books. The name of the prominent Kazakh poet became popular among Russian Internet users thanks to Aleksey Navalny, one of Russian opposition leaders. He wrote in his Twitter: “They have released Udaltsov and me, and we are going to #ChistyePrudy (a large pond in Moscow, Russia). Meet you at the monument to an unknown Kazakh).” Kazakh Internet users were outraged by this tweet. Later Navalny begged his pardon and promised to read about Abay in Wikipedia and “to learn everything about him.” Then #unknownKazakh and #OccupyAbay became popular hashtags in Twitter. Abay Qunanbayuli (August 10, 1845 – July 6, 1904) was a great Kazakh poet, composer and philosopher. He was also a cultural reformer bringing Kazakh culture toward European and Russian cultures.

Russian publishing house has published a book of poems Selected Poems by famous Kazakh poet, writer and philosopher Abay Qunanbayuli, Tengrinews.kz reports, referring to Alpina Non-Fiction publishing house. “The edition of the book was not so large, it was printed in 3000 copies. The book is in hard-cover and has 128 pages, it isn’t thicker than a palm,” Roza Piskotina, chief editor of the publishing house said. According to Pavel Podkossov, the publishing house’s director, Selected Poems by Kunanbayev is in great demand in Russia, all the books were sold out immediately. “The entire edition has 'flown off' the shelves,” he said. Selected Poems costs about 250 roubles (about $8) in Moscow book shops. However, Podkossov hasn’t mentioned if his publishing house was going to print an extra edition of the books. The name of the prominent Kazakh poet became popular among Russian Internet users thanks to Aleksey Navalny, one of Russian opposition leaders. He wrote in his Twitter: “They have released Udaltsov and me, and we are going to #ChistyePrudy (a large pond in Moscow, Russia). Meet you at the monument to an unknown Kazakh).” Kazakh Internet users were outraged by this tweet. Later Navalny begged his pardon and promised to read about Abay in Wikipedia and “to learn everything about him.” Then #unknownKazakh and #OccupyAbay became popular hashtags in Twitter. Abay Qunanbayuli (August 10, 1845 – July 6, 1904) was a great Kazakh poet, composer and philosopher. He was also a cultural reformer bringing Kazakh culture toward European and Russian cultures.

Russia CIS Kazakh Kazakhstan literature Moscow news opposition poet politics Abay