Bishkek, Jan. 22, 2026. /Kabar/. Information collection from CIS countries has begun in order to publish a series of encyclopedias dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the great writer Chingiz Aitmatov, Artur Azhybaev, a research fellow at the Ch. Aitmatov Institute of Literature of the Kyrgyz National Academy of Sciences, candidate of philological sciences, told First Radio.
According to him, these events are being held as a preparation for the Year of Chingiz Aitmatov.
“Basically, no matter which people in the world we take, they have their own sacred figures and artistic masterpieces. For the Kyrgyz, we can confidently say that one of those artistic masterpieces is Manas, and the other is Chingiz Aitmatov. 2028 was specially declared the Year of Aitmatov and was signed by the president. In preparation for this, we traveled to the countries of the former Soviet Union or the current CIS. Here, we are studying the influence of Aitmatov’s work in these countries, and on the history of world literature in general,” said Azhybaev.
While traveling around the countries, the scientist noticed that similar works were created under the influence of Aitmatov’s works.
"We have been to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Karakalpakstan, Georgia and Armenia. In fact, having done a lot of work over the past 2 years, I have become convinced of one thing. Chingiz Aitmatov's work has had a great influence on many writers in the former Soviet countries. As a result, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks and Azerbaijanis have created works similar to Aitmatov's. We are currently investigating all of them," he said.