THE THIRTEENTH CHAIRMAN

THE THIRTEENTH CHAIRMAN (Un Osonso Chairman), a drama. Written in 1979 by A.K.Abdullin. The plot is based on the opposition of the main character of the play, Murat Gareyevich Sagadeyev to the dogmatic interpretation of principles of socialism by the secretary of the District Committee, Daut Usmanovich Baimov. The action takes place during courtroom hearings at which the 13th chairman of the collective farm Krasny Luch (The Red Ray) Sagadeyev is being tried for squandering collective farm money and creating a monopoly of state trade and consumer cooperation. The drama reflects the social and moral atmosphere and the spiritual conflict in the USSR and the world in the 1970s. It is a tragedy of a man who is well ahead of his time. A continuation of the play was a drama titled The Last Patriarch (1986; and the new edition titled The River of Longing, 2001), which tells about the life of Sagadeyev after imprisonment. The premiere of the play took place in 1979 in E.Vakhtangov Academic Theatre (Moscow; the screen version appeared in 1987). Literary translation into Russian was done by the author of the drama.