The present paper considers the novel O?on-o?ak bala sak ("Quite a Long Childhood" or "A Long, Long Childhood") by Mostay / Mostaj Karim or Mustay Karim, if transliterated from Russian (1919-2005), a prominent Bashkir writer, poet, publicist and playwright, whose contribution to the Bashkir literature has been honoured with the title of the People's Poet of the Republic of Bashkortostan. Apart from the fact that the work under consideration is within the scope of the author's current research, the reason for choosing exactly this piece of M. Karim's literary work is that it is perhaps the first and best known example of an autobiographic novel written in Bashkir. This fact in turn implies that this novel is a valuable object of linguistic and cultural research.