A while ago, my friend Jemal Kerimova told me a wonderful story. It is both dramatic and life-affirming.
When Jamal was a student at the Turkmen State Art College in 1970s, she often went to exhibitions of works by Turkmen painters. Once, Evgenia Mikhailovna Adamova came up to Jamal and asked her to model for her new painting.
Evgenia Mikhailovna was working on the painting of a cotton picker. Jemal failed to accurately imitate the young rural woman’s graceful pose.
- Haven’t you ever picked cotton?
- No, I haven’t. Even when my fellow students and I were sent out on the fields to pick cotton, I always helped with cooking.
- Don’t get upset, I’ll make a sketch of you for another painting… Did your parents object to your career choice as an artist?
- On the contrary, they wholeheartedly approved of my choice. My father is an artist.
- You are lucky. My father, a financier, did not let me even think about painting. At his insistence, I became a teacher at first, and then entered Medical Institute, but I dropped out when I was a third-year student and applied to the Art College. A big scandal this caused in my family defies description! My relationship with my parents was rather strained for a few years. Something unusual happened at this very period and I would like to tell you about it.
“During the war years (at that time I was married to Ivan Ivanovich Cherinko, a famous painter who lost his life during the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake), I met an elderly woman when crossing railway tracks. She looked perplexed and was searching for something. She did not speak Russian and could not explain what had happened to her. But it was obvious she needed some help”, Adamova began to tell the story.
Evgenia Mikhailovna brought her to her parents’ home. Although the artist’s mother did not speak Turkmen either, the two women were able to perfectly understand each other. Shortly after that, the family learned that Mamajan-eje (it was the woman’s name) had two sons. Her older son had been sent to the front the year before. Her younger son was called up shortly before that and she accompanied him to Ashgabat. The train with conscripts suddenly started and she was left alone! She was standing amidst the railway tracks with strangers going back and forth. She was totally confused… She did not know why she had come there and what she should do next… She was gripped by fear.
Although Mamajan-eje was treated as a family member by the Adamovs, she was in no haste to change her old habits. The mattress on her bed was moved to the floor… Three days later, the guest asked to take her to a bazaar. The thin woman walked between the stalls for a long time trying to find something. And at last, she found. It was camel knitting yarn in white, black and red. Having realized what it was for, we bought knitting needles for her too.
Knitting brightened her up a little. The deft and rhythmic movements of her needles showed that the woman was a very experienced knitter. She made a gift of her first jorabs to the head of the family. Later, the other family members, their friends and acquaintances were presented with national-style warm socks. Then, the guest decided to knit and sell Turkmen socks to help her new family financially. However, Evgenia Mikhailovna’s father said, “We will manage on our own. You had better knit socks for front-line soldiers!” Mamajan-eje was really grateful for his advice. Her sons fought on the front, and they could possibly receive warm socks knitted by their mother…
The feat of Turkmen women, who donated tons of their silver jewelry to the Defense Fund to help to win in the Great Patriotic War, will be remembered forever. People Artist of Turkmenistan Evgenia Adamova’s well-known painting ‘Turkmen Women - To the Motherland’ immortalizes the feat of our fellow countrywomen, who made donations of their jewelry, money, government bonds, agricultural products and warm clothes to the Defense Fund.
The red background adds to the depth and heightens the intensity of emotions. The painting features women waiting in the line at the donation center. Their wonderfully expressive faces show deep sorrow and determination. They donate their family treasures to the Defense Fund for the sake of victory over fascism. Jorabs are depicted next to the jewelry…
As you have already guessed, one of the women in the painting is Mamajan-eje. Naturally, Evgenia Mikhailovna could not do otherwise. Although the painting was created long after they had parted with Mamajan-eje, she had sketches of this thin woman with a determined face expressing her personal pain. The mother’s tragedy is reflected in her large eyes, she does not know anything about her sons’ fate: Are they alive?! The artist depicted Mamajan-eje as a central figure.
… Shortly after the celebrations with fireworks exploding in the sky to mark the victory and the end of the war, Mamajan-eje took an old and tattered piece of paper with her address out of a small bundle of her personal items… Why now?! Most likely, she had regained her memory long before, but she knew that nobody was waiting for her and did not want to return to her empty house. More importantly, she knitted jorabs for front-line soldiers…
Mamajan-eje went to her native village together with Evgenia Mikhailovna’s parents. Her fellow villagers could not believe their eyes, because they thought the woman had been dead. She had been missing for two years and half. They informed her that her older son’s two letters and a killed-in-action letter notifying of her younger son’s death had come while she was away. When Mamajan-eje heard of the killed-in-action letter, her face petrified with horror. Evgenia Mikhailovna’s parents asked the woman to give their address to her neighbors and to return to Ashgabat with them. But she decided to stay.
Two months later, a postman delivered a letter to the Adamovs from Mamajan’s older son. He had written it to thank them for their cordiality and kindness to his mother and warmly invite the family to visit them…
Evgenia Mikhailovna had finished telling the story of Mamajan-eje just before the drawing session was over. She had drawn several sketches of Jemal. Later, Jemal would recognize herself looking at a beautifully attired young girl going to a joyous open-air celebration in Adamova’s painting “To a Toý” …
