“Soul of Turkmen” - this was the name of the first giant carpet in the history of Turkmen carpet weaving, woven in the period from 1941-1942. Since then, 80 years have passed. While looking for witnesses to the creation of the legendary work, we met the director Charyyar Seyidov, who shot the short film “Patterns of Your Carpet”. The plot of the documentary film is dedicated to the memorable meeting of talented craftswomen who showed the world a unique masterpiece of Turkmen carpet weaving.

Reconstructing in detail the process of weaving a huge carpet, the director went on a long journey throughout Turkmenistan and gathered carpet weavers in Ashgabat, where the artistic and experimental workshop was based. The film was released on wide screens in 1983, when the 40th anniversary of the valuable relic was celebrated.

- The meeting of the carpet weavers on the platform of the Ashgabat railway station turned out to be very touching, because many of them have not seen each other since the very time when work on the unusual carpet was completed. They recalled how in the summer of 1941 they settled down on the square in front of the Mollanepes theater building, in the open air, because it was difficult to find a suitable room for such a huge carpet loom,” says Charyyar Seyidov. - At that time, almost all the craftswomen were 17 years old, and they worked very productively, they made up to 10 thousand knots every day. Suddenly, after four months of painstaking work, the threads of the future miracle carpet broke off, and soon the Great Patriotic War began, which became a severe test of the spirit of young girls.

Having started to weave the carpet again, already in the days of hostilities, not a single carpet maker quit her job, although from time to time, each wondered who would be pleased with a large-scale red canvas when a terrible war takes the lives of fathers, brothers and sons.

The first funerals began to come to many families. Soldier's brides, mothers of unborn children and young widows weaved all their sorrow and the pain of loss into the patterns of the carpet. It seemed to them that in this way they were bringing the day of the end of the war closer. Unshakable faith in the Great Victory gave the young craftswomen strength in their hard work.

The first Turkmen giant carpet was completed in the days of the defeat of the Nazi hordes near Moscow, it became a harbinger of future victorious fireworks. The total area of the largest and most unique carpet in the world was 193.5 square meters - 11 meters wide and 18 meters long. It was possible to admire the gigantic canvas in the pavilion of the Ashgabat VDNKh, which became the “home” for the newly-minted wonder of the world.

In the above-mentioned documentary, the work supervisor Nurtach Annamuradova recalls:

- In that year of 1941, before the war, we were told that the first ten books of Turkmen literature and art were being prepared in Moscow. It was then that we were offered to weave a carpet the size of the entire span of the Bolshoi Theater stage. Turkmen artists were supposed to perform against the background of our carpet. And thirty-six skilled stakhanov carpet weavers from different regions undertook to fulfill the task of the government of the Republic, it was completed in record time. The first Turkmen giant carpet was woven in 7 months.

The talent and high professionalism of the carpet weavers were highly appreciated. For many years the craftswomen continued to work, passing on the traditions of ancient carpet weaving from generation to generation. All kinds of carpets can be found today in Turkmenistan, but the main one - the giant carpet of 1941, has become a part of the history of not only the Turkmen people, but also the entire world community. A valuable relic is kept in the National Museum of Turkmen Carpet, and thanks to the preserved documentary film, descendants will never forget the heroines of large-scale carpet weaving.

Svetlana Chirtsova