Farid Zagidullovich Yarullin (Farit Yarullin).

Farit Yarullin

Yarullin is one of the representatives of the multinational Soviet composer school, who made a significant contribution to the creation of professional Tatar musical art. Despite the fact that his life was cut short very early, he managed to create several significant works, including the Shurale ballet, which, due to its brightness, has taken a firm place in the repertoire of many theaters in our country.

Farid Zagidullovich Yarullin was born on December 19, 1913 (January 1, 1914) in Kazan in the family of a musician, author of songs and plays for various instruments. Having shown serious musical abilities from an early age, the boy began to play the piano with his father. In 1930, he entered the Kazan Music College, studying piano by M. Pyatnitskaya and cello by R. Polyakov. Forced to earn his living, the young musician simultaneously led amateur choral circles, worked as a pianist in cinema and theater. Two years later, Polyakov, who saw the outstanding abilities of Yarullin, sent him to Moscow, where the young man continued his education, first at the workers’ faculty at the Moscow Conservatory (1933-1934) in the class of B. Shekhter’s compositions, then at the Tatar Opera Studio (1934-1939) and, finally, at the Moscow Conservatory (1939-1940) in the composition class of G. Litinsky. During the years of his studies, he wrote many works of various genres – instrumental sonatas, a piano trio, a string quartet, a suite for cello and piano, songs, romances, choirs, arrangements of Tatar folk tunes. In 1939, he came up with the idea of ​​a ballet on a national theme.

A little over a month after the start of the Great Patriotic War, on July 24, 1941, Yarullin was drafted into the army. He spent four months in a military infantry school, and then, with the rank of junior lieutenant, was sent to the front. Despite the efforts of Litinsky, who wrote that his student was an outstanding composer of great value for the national Tatar culture (despite the fact that the development of national cultures was the official policy of the authorities), Yarullin continued to be at the forefront. In 1943, he was wounded, was in the hospital and was again sent to the army. The last letter from him is dated September 10, 1943. Only later did information appear that he died in the same year in one of the largest battles: on the Kursk Bulge (according to other sources – near Vienna, but then it could only be a year and a half later – at the beginning of 1945).

L. Mikheeva