Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish field marshal and statesman who was the founder of the Republic of Turkey and served as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He led sweeping reforms, turning Turkey into an industrialising nation. Ideologically a republican, secularist, and nationalist, his policies and socio-political theories became known as Kemalism. Atatürk's personality cult and the Kemalist historiography developed around it have had significant and ongoing influences on Turkey's political culture and historical narrative. May 19, 1881 – November 10, 1938; died at 57. Alive at the same time as Albert Einstein, Leo Tolstoy, Pablo Picasso, Friedrich Nietzsche, and John Paul II. Wiki link