Almas Ildyrym

Who was Almas Ildyrym?

Almas Ildyrym, born Ildyrym Almaszadeh, was an Azerbaijani poet. After the Bolsheviks established their power in Azerbaijan in 1920, the fact that Ildyrym had been born into a wealthy merchant family plagued him for the rest of his life. Though he was accepted to the faculty of Oriental Literature at Azerbaijan State University, it was not long before they dismissed him because of his family origins.

In 1926, Almas co-authored a book of poems, Dün bugün with Suleyman Rustam. Soon he was exiled to Dagestan for the nationalist ideas in his poems. While in exile, he wrote Dağlardan xatirələr, Ləzgi elləri, Krımda axşamlar, Səlimxan, and Günah kimdədir?. Two years later, he returned to Baku and published a collection of poems entitled, Dağlar Səslənərkən. However, the distribution of this book was prohibited and the author was banned from the Writers' Union of Azerbaijan.

Again, he was exiled, this time to Turkmenistan where he worked as a school director. But because he was constantly repressed, he decided to escape to Iran with his family. However, while crossing the border into Iran, he was caught and made to stay in water up to his chest for hours.