WHEN ONE COMPLEMENTS THE OTHER

Eldar Ahadov is a member of the Union of Writers of Russia, four-time winner of the national literary prizes "The Silver Pen of Russia", "The Golden Pen of Russia", "For the good of the world" (twice in prose and poetry) and many other Russian literary contests. He is the author of the books "My alphabet", "Prophetic Dream", "Tables of Wind", "Stone alphabet", "Look into my eyes", "Praying for you", "Sovereign pantheon", "Slavic pantheon", "Nenets pantheon", "Book of love" and many others. His works have been published in the United States, Bulgaria, Israel, Ukraine and Azerbaijan.

Ahadov graduated from the Leningrad Mining Institute. He has been living in Krasnoyarsk since 1986. In addition to creative activity, he also works by his speciality.

-Eldar, how did you, a city boy, decide to become a mine surveyor?

- In 1978, I enrolled in the Leningrad Mining Institute. The thing is that on the personal initiative of the Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev, many young men and women were sent from the republic to the best universities of the Soviet Union for higher education. In total, more than 15,000 people were sent to the leading universities of the Soviet Union for education in 1969-1982. It was the embodiment of the care of the republic's leader about Azerbaijani youth. I was among these young people. A mine surveyor is a speciality, without which it's impossible to conduct mining operations and extract minerals. A mine surveyor sets the pace of all underground work, in other words, he shows where to dig or drill...

- Did you work in Azerbaijan after graduation?

- Yes, I worked in the Department of Geology of the Azerbaijani SSR as a surveyor of the complex topographic and geodetic party, and I spent a lot of time in the highlands of the Lesser Caucasus and in the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range - in Samxor, Balakan, Zaqatala – on the ground and under the ground.

- How did you end up in Siberia?

- Very simple. It was one country - the Soviet Union. I married, and we, newlywed Komsomol members, decided to live on our own - separately from my and her parents. So we ended up in Siberia.

- Was it not difficult to live in snowy Siberia after warm Baku?

- As a child, I spent a lot of time with my Tatar grandmother in a village in the Penza region, saw the snow, went sledding, and then, after graduating from school and a year of work in one of the Baku project institutes, I entered Leningrad University. So I was used to snow and frost. And a lot of my fellow countrymen still live in Siberia, Azerbaijanis like Farman Salmanov, the discoverer of Tyumen oil, not just lived, but were an example for other nationalities. They were pioneers.

- They say that you put two rivers in Siberia on the map, and they now bear your name.

- I worked as head of the topographic party. My party led operations in one of the underdeveloped areas of Sayany. There is such a mountainous region in Siberia. When we examined the area, it turned out that two actual tributaries of the Teplaya River were not on the map. Since I was the first to find them in the area, they were given my name.

- I wonder how you manage to be a surveyor and a poet at the same time. These are different vocations.

- One complements the other. I would just be an office philologist, would never have seen what I saw, wouldn't have gone through what I went through, wouldn't have known the world on my life experience that allows me to communicate with the most sophisticated readers on an equal footing.

- How long have you been writing?

- Since 1968. Since I was eight.

- A writer's work is...

- A writer's work is work, not self-indulgence, a whim or caprice.

- Who was your first "censor"?

- I didn't have censors. There were teachers who gave me a lot from their own experience, generously sharing it, not teaching, but suggesting the right path. Of course, this is the famous translator of Samad Vurgun - Vladimir Qafarov, well-known children's poet Mikhail Yasnov, who led literary groups, of which I was a member in Baku and then in Leningrad. I corresponded with Bulat Okudzhava and Mikhail Dudin, communicated with great Suleyman Rustam ... Later, direct contact with such world-class writers as Viktor Astafyev and Timur Zulfuqarov left a deep trace in my life.

- Eldar, do you write when you want it?

- I try to follow the principle "write only when you can't help writing".

- Do you indulge yourself or "bind yourself to the chair" to write a certain number of words a day?

- I've never done that, but fortunately, there have been no long downtimes either.

- What inspires you to write?

- Love of life.

- Do you ever have a stupor?

- No. According to the sign of the zodiac, I belong to the element of water. Water flows and bends around obstacles ... or seeps through them.

- What other than imagination does a writer's work require?

- Patience and love.

- What is the greatest reward for you as a writer?

- Readers.

- Eldar, you have a large number of awards. How do you feel about it?

- They are like memorable milestones of life. There is a huge emotional formation behind each of them.

- What are you working on now?

- There are a lot of plans. Last year I published 12 books. How many will I be able to write this year - I don't know, but there is, and will be, something to write about. I'm not superstitious in this regard, but if I say, I'll be obliged to write because I respect my word, and creativity is a process which happens not out of obligation, but out of love.