Tamara Khanum
Тамара Артёмовна Ханум
Born	Tamara Artyomovna Petrosyan (1906-03-29)March 29, 1906 Novy Margilan, Fergana Oblast, Russian Empire
Died	June 30, 1991(1991-06-30) (aged 85) Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union
Occupation(s)	Dancer, choreographer, ballet instructor
Awards	Stalin Prize People's Artist of the USSR Order of Lenin

Tamara Khanum (real name: Tamara Artyomovna Petrosyan; March 16 (29), 1906, Margilan, Fergana Region, Russian Empire - June 30, 1991, Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, USSR) was a Soviet, Uzbek dancer, singer, actress, and choreographer. She was honored as a People's Artist of the USSR in 1956 and received the Stalin Prize, second degree, in 1941.

Biography

Tamara Petrosyan was born on March 16 (29), 1906, in Margilan (now Fergana region, Uzbekistan) (according to other sources, in the village of the Gorchakovo railway station of the Margilan city council). She was of Armenian nationality.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

From 1919, she performed as part of an Agi brigade under the leadership of Hamza Niyazi.^[1][6] In 1921-1922, she worked as an actress at the Tashkent Russian Opera and Ballet Theater named after Sverdlov.^[1][6] In 1922, she enrolled in the Tashkent Ballet Company and began dancing in semi-professional concert groups led by the first Uzbek artists Yatym Babadzhanov, Abrar Khidoyatov, and Ali Ibrahimov.^[2][6][7] In 1924, she graduated from the Central Technical School of Theatrical Arts (CETETIS) (now GITIS) in Moscow.^[6][1][8][3]

From 1924 to 1928, she was a soloist in the concert group of M. Kari-Yakubov (from 1926 - concert-ethnographic ensemble, from 1928 - musical-experimental ensemble).^[1] From 1925 to 1929, she performed in the musical-drama theaters of Samarkand, Kokand, and Andijan, where she played the roles of Shirin ("Farhad and Shirin" by Khurshid), Gulchehra ("Arshin mal alan" by U. Gadzhibekov), and Halima ("Halima" by G. Zafari). From 1929 to 1934, she worked at the Samarkand Musical-Drama Theater (from 1931 - in Tashkent, reorganized into the Uzbek Musical-Drama Theater).^[6][1][8]

She played a role in the development of the National Ballet Theater. From 1929 to 1934, she was a soloist and one of the organizers of the Uzbek Musical-Drama Theater in Samarkand (from 1931 - in Tashkent), created on the basis of the musical-experimental ensemble from 1939 - the State Uzbek Opera and Ballet Theater (now the Navoi Opera and Ballet Theater).^[6] She led the dance group at the theater. In 1933, she participated in the organization of the ballet studio at the Uzbek Musical-Drama Theater (later - the Uzbek Republican Ballet School, from 1947 - the Uzbek Choreographic School, now the Tashkent State Higher School of National Dance and Choreography).^[9]

In 1934-1935, she was one of the organizers, ballet master, dancer, and pedagogical repetiteur of the Khorezm Regional Musical-Drama Theater (now named after Agakhi) in Urgench.^[8][6] In 1934, she played the role of Indra in the ballet "Ferengi" by B. K. Yanovsky.^[6] From 1936 to 1941, she was a soloist and choreographer at the Uzbek Philharmonic and the State Uzbek Opera and Ballet Theater.^[6] For forty-five days, she sang, danced, and worked as a builder on the Big Fergana Canal. As an elderly person, she traveled to Irkutsk to work on the construction of the Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station.

From 1941 to 1969, she was an organizer, artistic director, ballet master, and soloist of the musical ensemble of the Uzbek Philharmonic.^[6] She combined her artistic activities with extensive agitational work and took an active part in the movement for the emancipation of Muslim women. During the war years, she actively participated in front-line brigades, gave over 1000 concerts, received the Stalin Prize for her contribution to the defense fund, and donated funds for the construction of airplanes and tanks.^[3] In 1944, she performed concerts for Central Asian workers mobilized to work in Chelyabinsk and Molotov regions.^[10] She was a member of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) from 1941. She was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR since 1937 and from 1948.

She passed away on June 30, 1991, in Tashkent, and was buried in the Chigatai Cemetery.^{[11][2][12][13][14]}

Awards and titles

Tamara Khanum received numerous honors and awards throughout her lifetime:^{[11][14][6][18][19][8][3][2][13][20][7]}

• People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR (1932)
• People's Artist of the USSR (1956)
• Stalin Prize, 2nd degree (1941) - for her outstanding performance of Uzbek dances
• Order of Lenin (1976)
• Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree (1985)
• Five Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1937, 1950, 1951, 1959, 1967)
• Order of Honor (1939)
• Order of Outstanding Merit (Uzbekistan) (2003, posthumously)
• Medal for Labor Distinction
• Medal "For the Centenary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"
• Medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus" (1943)
• Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (1945)
• Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945"
• Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945"
• Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945"
• Medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (1946)
• Medal "Veteran of Labor"
• Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Military rank of "Captain in the Soviet Army" (1943)

Filmography

• 1962 - "Песни Тамары" (documentary) - main role^[21][7]
• 1964 - "Поёт Тамара Ханум" (documentary)^[21][7]

Memory

In 1986, in Tashkent, a permanent exhibition of Tamara Khanum's costumes was opened in her house during her lifetime.^[11] In 1994, the Tamara Khanum Memorial Museum was established.^{[2][13][7][12]}

On March 29, 2006, Uzbekistan celebrated the centenary of Tamara Khanum in a festive and commemorative manner. This event recognized her significant contributions to the world of dance and culture.

See also

• Hujum
• Nurkhon Yuldashkhojayeva
• Tursunoy Saidazimova
• Rano Yarasheva

References