Bakhtiyar Mahmud oghlu Vahabzadeh (; August 16, 1925 – February 13, 2009) was an Azerbaijani poet, dramatist, lyricist and translator as well as a college professor and politician. He is often regarded as one of the greatest contemporary poets of Azerbaijan. Life Vahabzadeh was born in 1925 in Nukha (now Shaki) where his bust now stands on a central square. With his family he moved to Baku in 1934 and later studied philology at Azerbaijan State University (now Baku State University). He would remain there as a professor till 1990 except during 1962-1964 when expelled for nationalist leanings. During that time he survived dire poverty by selling his wife's jewellery. They had three children, Gulzar, Isfandiyar and Azer. Isfandiyar was named Azerbaijan's ambassador to Moldova. Vahabzadeh died in Baku on February 13, 2009, aged 83. His memorial celebration was attended by the President of Azerbaijan. Literary career Vahabzadeh presented his doctoral thesis on the Azerbaijani poet Samed Vurgun in 1951. In 1952, afraid that his anti-Stalin sentiments and critical sentiments towards certain elements of the post World War II Soviet system would be discovered, he destroyed the majority of his early poetic works, albeit keeping just a small sample by hiding the manuscripts in his mother's prosthetic leg. Over his career he wrote on numerous themes, notably country (Azerbaijan), family, nature, language and freedom. For years his articles and poems appeared in the review Türk Edebiyatı having gained acclaim in Turkey for Yel Kaya'dan Ne Aparır? (What Does the Wind Steal from the Stone?), an article published in Varlık that set out to answer critics of the medieval poet Fuzuli. Vahabzadeh won the Azerbaijan SSR state prize as honoured arts worker in 1974, won the state award for the whole USSR in 1984 and was named People's Poet a year later. In 2002, Vahabzadeh received the Commodore Medal from the Romanian Ministry of Culture for his poetry book titled Benim Garibim (My Poor). Poetry and Long Verse Among his best known long verses, Yollar-Oğullar (Roads-Sons) was dedicated to the Algerian Independence Movement, and the Mugam celebrated Azerbaijan's best known composer Üzeyir Hacıbeyli. Many of Vahabzade's works had a political edge that purported to criticise inadequacies of the USSR's Western enemies while in fact having underlying resonances with problems back home. Thus Latin Dili (Latin Language, 1967), written in reaction to a visit to Morocco noted how local people, like Azerbaijanis