Defined by everyone as a “romantic communist”, this is the story of Nazim Hikmet and all the difficulties he had to face in his life. Between strong political ideology and poetic production, we discover the most important stages in the poet’s career.
Who was Nazim Hikmet
Nazım Hikmet (Thessaloniki, January 15, 1902 – Moscow, June 3, 1963) was a naturalized Polish Turkish poet and writer. It was born in what was Ottoman Greece in one aristocratic family composed of a diplomat father and author of poems and short stories and a painter mother, also passionate about poetry. Wealthy childhood e rich in artistic and cultural stimuli it allows him to get closer to this environment and the different origins of his parents also allow him to know numerous languages from an early age.
He starts making his firsts artistic works when he was only 14 when he wrote poems that deal with the most disparate topics.
For example, he writes one about the fire that took place in the house opposite his and one about his sister’s cat. A few years later it starts also publish in a magazine gaining the esteem of his poetry and literature teacher Yahya Kemal, his great point of reference.
Nazim Hikmet and the communist ideology
After completing his studies he begins work as a teacher while in the meantime the Turkish war of independence breaks out.
This event forces him to leave his country not only for political reasons but also because he puts himself in danger by denouncing the Armenian genocide. Find a safe place in the Soviet Union where it is getting closer and closer to socialist ideas and where he enrolled at the Moscow University. He chooses to attend the faculty of sociology and when he discovers the texts of Marx he becomes an anti-militarist communist who associates with great supporters of this ideology including Lenin.
In 1928 he moved to Turkey where joins the National Communist Party also writing articles and theatrical texts. Back to have problems with the law as he was arrested for irregular posting of political posters, and was released five years later. During this period he continued his literary production by writing revolutionary poems for Turkish poetics. With the death of the only political leader close to him, the repression is only getting worse. In fact, in 1938 he was accused of inciting a revolt and this led him to be tried again.
Private life and vicissitudes of Nazim Hikmet
Many of his poems are banned and Hikmet often suffers gods very harsh treatments, which sometimes also includes torture. Furthermore, he himself protests with equally drastic and dangerous forms such as the hunger strike that causes him heart problems. Meantime however, he manages to be freed thanks to an international commission that sees the presence of artists such as Pablo Picasso, Jean-Paul Sartre and many others.
Once free, the government organizes two attacks against him and also tries to enlist him but fails because of his heart problems. Meantime is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and marries his third wife, a Polish translator. He seeks asylum in his wife’s hometown even asking for citizenship after renouncing the Turkish one. He then chooses to move to Moscow where he shares his life with some contemporary artists.