Mustafa

YvanKyrlya(real name - Kirill Ivanovich Ivanov) is an actor andpoet.Не was born on March 17, 1909 in the village of Kupsola, Sernursky district, the Mari El Republic. Yvan's mother was left alone with three children in her arms, he grew up an orphan. But Kyrlyamanaged to finish school and enter the workers' faculty of Kazan University.

Yvanwas greatat amateur performances, and teachers, noticing his outstanding artistic talent, gave him a "start in life" - a direction to the acting faculty of the State College of Cinematography.

After the release of the film "Road to Life" by Nikolai Ekk, the young actor YvanKyrlya, who played the role of Mustafa, became a real people's artist, although he did not have honorary titles. "Road to Life" was the first Soviet sound film. The film was a triumph in 107 countries around the world. The name of YvanKyrlyawas featured on movie posters in Paris, Berlin, New York...

In early 1937, Kyrlyamoved to Yoshkar-Ola and became an artist at the Mari State Drama Theatre. But suddenly YvanKyrlya"disappeared somewhere for a long time" (composer Sigismund Katz). "Then the traces of Kyrlyawere lost..." (Nikolai Ekk). "There were rumors that he died in the war" (Mikhail Zharov).

No, Kyrlyadid not die in the war. Two months since his arrival in his homeland, "the director of the theater and government officials who invited me to work were arrested as enemies of the people, and some time later, on April 23, 1937, they arrested me as an accomplice in a counter-revolutionary group. During the investigation, I could not confess anything, because I was not guilty. After spending five months in prison, they sent me to the prison camp andannounced that I was convicted by thespecial NKVD troikaof the Mari El Republic for a term of 10 years, articleC.R.A. (counter-revolutionary activity)", - Kyrlya wrote in a petition addressed to Beria.

YvanKyrlyadid not wait for an answer.

Repressed in 1937, he died in a prison camp near Sverdlovsk in July (according to other sources in January) 1943.

During his lifetime he published two books of poems and songs. Published since 1929. The poetic gift of YvanKyrlyawas appreciated by Gorky, Koltsov and Ehrenburg. The works "I sing for joy" were published in Russian, Moscow, 1968.

Theatrical prize named after YvanKyrlyawas organized in the Mari El Republic.

The monument was unveiledon November 2, 2009 in the year of the centenary of the first Mari actor YvanKyrlya. It represents the figure of the actor on a trolley in the form of a singing Mustafa - the hero of the first Soviet sound film "Road to Life". The location of the monument on the railway station platform is not accidental.  The sculpture symbolizes the return of the actor to his native land and the path that every person chooses for himself.

The monument authors are sculptors Anatoly Shirnin and Sergey Yandubaev.

The material is bronze.