His father, Täçgök, was the leader of the village of Serdar and a prosperous miller; his mother was the daughter of an Afghan vizier (later, Atabayev never concealed his "non-proletarian" origin).

He graduated from a second-class Russian-native school[2] in Tejen (1899–1903), and then the Tashkent Teacher's Seminary (1903–07).

He taught at the workers technical school of Merv uyezd, headed a first class school in Baherden, was the translator for the head of Tejen District, and served in the office of the Merv Bank.

Between September 1920 and 1922, he was chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

Between February 1925 and July 1937, he was Prime Minister of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic.