Makhmud Esambayev

• Name — Makhmud Esambayev • Born — 15 July 1924 • Birthplace — Starye Atagi, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union • Died — 7 January 2000 • Place of death — Moscow, Russia • Occupation — Dancer, ballet master, choreographer, actor

Makhmud was born in Starye Atagi, USSR to a Chechen family. When he was a child, his father would take him to village weddings where he would perform dances. At the age of fifteen, Makhmud joined the Checheno-Ingush Song and Dance Company, and at nineteen, he joined the operetta theater of Pyatigorsk, where he would give concerts to Red Army troops fighting in World War II. In 1944, he was deported along with other Chechen people during the Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush, an ethnic cleansing of Chechen and Ingush people by the Soviet forces. Years later, Makhmud joined the Kyrgyz State Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after Abdylas Maldybayev as a soloist, where he played the lead role in productions of Swan Lake (playing the part of Von Rothbart), The Fountain of Bakhchisarai and The Sleeping Beauty. After the rehabilitation of the Chechen people and gaining the right of return, Makhmud was elected more than once to the Supreme Soviet of the Checheno-Ingush ASSR, the Russian SFSR, and the Soviet Union. Makhmud was known for always wearing his papakha hat, calling it "my crown" and not even removing it when meeting with a head of state. His papakha made an unparalleled and very conspicuous presence on the floor of the Soviet legislature. On noticing it, the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev would murmur that "Makhmud is here, it's time to call the session open." He died of natural causes on 7 January 2000. He was a recipient of the Hero of Socialist Labour and People's Artist of the USSR awards.

• I Will Dance (1963) • Swan Lake (1968) • The Land of Sannikov (1973) • Upright Magic (1975) • At the World's Limit International (1974) • Upright Magic (1975) • Rip (1994)