Auezov Mukhtar Omarkhanovich was a classic of Kazakh literature, a public figure, a Doctor of Philology, a professor, an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, and an Honored Scientist of the Kazakh SSR.

He was born in the Kaskabulak tract of the Chingiz volost of the former Semipalatinsk district; his childhood was spent in a nomadic aul. The future writer saw with his own eyes the life of Kazakh society of that time, full of contradictions, which the great Abai described so deeply and comprehensively in his works. He studied at a madrasah in Semipalatinsk, then in a five-grade Russian school, and in 1915–1919 at a teachers' seminary. In 1917, while studying at the seminary, he wrote the play "Enlik-Kebek" based on a folk legend.