Karim Tinchurin is a talented playwright, producer-innovator, honoured artist of Tatarstan, lecturer and public figure.

K. Tinchurin was born on September 15, 1887 in peasants’ family in the village Tarakanovo (at present Akkul) in Penzenskaya Gubernia (Penza province). While a teenager, K. Tinchurin used to work as a washman in an eating-house at a railway station. Then he studied at a famous Tatar medrese “Mukhammadiya” (religious school). Displeased with teaching there, he and 82 shakirds left the medrese in protest in February 1906. Years of wandering in Russian provinces and teaching in village schools followed later on. Rich experience, which he got for the years, was a good life school for future playwright. Meeting interesting people, people of bright destinies, gave him valuable material for future plays.

In 1910 K. Tinchurin was engaged by the first professional theatre company “Saiyar”, where he was an actor, playwright and one of the leading producers. During the first years he wrote a play “Honest labour” (1912), “Fatal Step” (1913) and others.

K. Tinchurin showed himself as an innovator in drama. His innovation implied redistribution of social and subject points of dramatic conflict. He concentrated his attention on learning such difficult and contradicting phenomenon as the world of forming personality.

In 1918 K. Tinchurin worked in Moscow in the Central Moslem Military Board, where he headed the department of culture, and then in one of the front-line companies.

In November 1922 the Tatar Academic Theatre named after G. Kamal, directed by k. Tinchurin, was opened in Kazan. A whole galaxy of actors, such as B. Tarkhanov, K. Shamil, G. Bolgarskaya and others worked together with K. Tinchurin in the theatre.

For his rather short creative life K. Tinchurin wrote more than 30 plays, many of them, such as “Guys from Kazan”, “The American”, and “Native Country” are included in the golden collection of national drama art and theatre. His immortal plays “The Blue Shawl”, “Without Sails” can be rightfully ranked with the classics of Russian multinational and world art.

K. Tinchurin was subjected to repression as “people’s enemy” and executed by shooting without judicial investigation on November 14, 1938.

On October 14, 1955 he was rehabilitated. His plays were staged again.