The greatest son of the Great Steppe
September 5 marks exactly 150 years since the birth of the most recognized public educator, an outstanding political, public and statesman, talented linguist, satirist poet and brilliant publicist of the 20th century Akhmet Baitursynuly (1872-1937). Director of the Institute of History and Ethnology named after Ch.Valikhanov Professor Ziyabek Kabuldinov spoke about some interesting autobiographical data from the life and work of the great mentor Akhmet Baitursynuly, the precepts of the national leader to contemporaries and future generations about the importance of developing literature and publishing newspapers in the native language.
In the conditions of a difficult, contradictory and transitional period at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, he, together with his associates and like-minded people, embarked on a great mission to awaken the national identity of the then-nascent Kazakh nation and attempts to achieve freedom and independence.
1. SOME AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL DATA FROM THE LIFE AND ACTIVITIES OF THE GREAT MENTOR
Akhmet Baitursynuly was born on September 5, 1872 in the village of Sarytobek, Tosyn volost, Turgai district, Turgai region, in a simple pastoral family. He comprehended the basics of literacy while studying with the aul mullah, then his relatives assigned him to study at the Turgai two-year Russian-Kazakh school.
Here is what he wrote about his years of study in his personally completed autobiography dated November 2, 1921:
“I am the son of a Kyrgyz (Kazakh) No. 5 of the aul of the Tusun volost of the Turgai district. From 1886 to 1894 I studied at the Turgai two-year school. From 1891 to 1895 I studied at the Orenburg Kirghiz teacher's school".
In 1895, he was sent as a teacher to the Aryngaziev school, which was opened on February 13, 1894 in village No. 2 of the Aktobe district of the Turgai region, and later was transferred to the Bestamak volost of the Aktobe district of the same Turgai region.
He worked in the Bestamak volost in 1895-1896, after which he transferred to the Auliekol school of the Amankaragai volost of the Kustanai district of the Turgai region. In 1900-1902, he taught in the Kustanai pedagogical class, while simultaneously working as a teacher in the Urunbaev village school of the Mendigarin volost.
In 1902, A. Baitursynuly became a clerk for the director of public schools in Akmola and Semipalatinsk regions A.E. Alektorov in Omsk. And in 1904 he was appointed head and teacher of the Russian-Kyrgyz school in the city of Karkaralinsk.
2. TESTIMONIES OF THE NATIONAL LEADER TO CONTEMPORARY GENERATIONS
Akhmet Baitursynuly became a teacher and mentor for the whole nation, giving his contemporaries and future generations a valuable parting word for dynamic development for all time:
“In order to keep up with other nations, we must be literate, rich and strong. To be literate, one must study. To be rich, you need professionalism. Unity is needed to be strong. We need to work in this direction.
3. HIGH ASSESSMENT OF HIS ACTIVITIES BY CONTEMPORARY
In 1923, at the celebration of his half-century anniversary, representatives of the Alash and the emerging new Soviet intelligentsia highly appreciated his services and work to the people. For example, the famous poet and writer Saken Seifullin in the article “Akhmet Baitursynov is fifty years old” wrote:
“Akhmet Baitursynov is an educated person. He is one of those enlightened people who at one time raised their voice against the royal henchmen, who stood up for the humiliated and oppressed people
Akhmet was the only one among other learned gentlemen who, in tsarist times, neglected his career and the benefits of service, preferring wanderings and hardships in order to wake the people from centuries of sleep, appealing to the trampled honor. While other educated Kazakhs hurried to take advantage of the interpretive service at the district authorities, governors and courts, while others rushed to power themselves, Akhmet gave himself without a trace to serving the people”
4. PUBLIC AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES
In his political and social activities, Akhmet Baitursynuly always raised and defended the vital interests of his people. From the beginning of the twentieth century, he took an active part in the formation of the national-democratic Alash movement. He was one of the authors of the Karkaraly petition of 1905, which raised topical issues of education, freedom of conscience and religion, land use and the judiciary, the need to publish a national newspaper and educate children in their native language.
In 1913, he published the first issue of the Kazakh newspaper, which until 1918 was the main tribune and a popular political, scientific and literary publication.
A. Baitursynuly and M. Dulatuly were co-editors of the Kazakh newspaper. For some time, with the support of Alikhan Bukeikhan, along with publishing and editorial activities, he worked in Samara at the Don Land Bank. It was indirect support for him as an editor from the chief agent of this bank, A. Bukeihan.
Since 1917, Akhmet Baitursynuly actively participated in the organization of the Alash party, later in the creation of the Alash autonomy, he was a member of the government of Alash-Orda, where he was responsible for a block of issues related to education and culture. In particular, in the period from December 5 to December 13, 1917, together with A. Bukeikhan, E. Omarov, S. Dosshanov and M. Dulatuly, he was a co-organizer of this important historical congress.
Moreover, by the decision of this congress, he was included in the commission for the development of textbooks for schools of the nascent Alash autonomy.
5. GOING TO THE SIDE OF THE BOLSHEVIKS
When on April 4, 1919, the Soviet government announced an amnesty to representatives of the government of Alash Orda, A. Baitursynuly went over to the side of the Bolsheviks, taking the high position of deputy chairman of the Kirrevkom.
It was one of the steps of national reconciliation in the context of a bloody civil war.
He made a great contribution to the formation of the borders and territory of the future Kazakh Soviet autonomy within Russia. Of course, he and his entourage took into account the proposals and position of the members of the government of Alash Orda, who tested these issues when creating the foundations of statehood.
The Kostanay region turned out to be part of Kazakhstan. It was also a great merit of A. Baitursynuly, because then there was a great threat of rejection of this county into the neighboring Chelyabinsk province.
This can be seen from his letter to V.I. Lenin, where he, together with M. Seralin, clearly gave arguments in favor of leaving the county to his native Kazakhstan.
Moreover, he took a number of initiatives to grant real autonomy to the Kazakhs as part of the Bolshevik government, as can be seen from his proposals at one of the meetings of the Kirrevkom on October 27, 1919:
“To show independent actions of the Kirghiz Revolutionary Committee so that the Kirghiz (Kazakhs-author) clearly see that the Soviet government gave the Kirghiz people real autonomous self-government, and not fictitious one.
His merit is also great in ensuring that Kazakhs are also widely represented in the leadership of central and local authorities, that is, he laid the foundations for the future “indigenization policy” of the state and party apparatus, as can be seen from his letter to V. Lenin himself dated April 17 1920:
“To put at the head of the administration of the Kirghiz region real ideological communists and experienced honest ideological workers from the Kyrgyz intellectuals ... in all government bodies, which are subject to areas with a mixed population, there should be at least 2/3 representatives of the oppressed nation ... management of the economic and economic institutions of Kirkrai , ... should be in the hands of the Kyrgyz ... create a military district that unites Kyrgyzstan, with control in the mountains. Orenburg ... the garrisons in the cities must necessarily be from the Kyrgyz
As part of the Kirrevkom, he took a number of actions to create revolutionary committees in the Turgai region, create a trade and telegraph service, radio broadcasting, and return the printing house of the Kazakh newspaper to Kirrevkom.
In 1920-1921 he was the first People's Commissar of Education of Kazakhstan. In 1921-1922, when a massive famine broke out in Kazakhstan, he was a member of the republican commission to assist the starving. In 1922-1923, Akhmet Baitursynuly headed the Academic Center of the Republic under the People's Commissariat of Education of the KirASSR...
6. BRILLIANT LITERATOR, PUBLICIST, SCIENTIST AND TEACHER
Akhmet Baitursynuly made a great contribution to the formation of new Kazakh written literature. In 1909, his first book “Kyryk Mysal” (“Forty Fables”) was published, in which, based on the well-known plots of the fables of Krylov and Abai, he created a number of original works in which he criticized and ridiculed the arbitrariness and violence of local colonial authorities.
One of the goals of A. Baitursynuly when translating fables was to promote the unity of the nation. No wonder the collection begins with the fable "Swan, Pike and Cancer", which criticizes the lack of former unity among the Kazakhs.
In 1911, his poetry collection “Masa” (“Mosquito”) was published, where the main idea was the need to familiarize the Kazakh people with advanced knowledge, build an educated and cultural society capable of meeting new challenges.
Under his leadership, this center organized work on the scientific study of the history and culture of the Kazakh people, initiated the publication of curricula and textbooks for Kazakh schools, petitioned for the training of scientific and pedagogical personnel. Prominent representatives of the Kazakh intelligentsia M. Dulatuly, K. Zhubanov, B. Mailin, E. Omarov, S. Seifullin, T. Shonanov and others took part in its work.
During this period, the textbooks he created on his native speech, an illustrated primer, textbooks on the elimination of illiteracy were especially in demand.
He was the author of the first primer in the Kazakh language “Oku uraly”, written back in 1912, reprinted several times until 1925. He was the author of the first textbook on the Kazakh language "Til Kural", in which some linguistic concepts were defined, and the syntax of the Kazakh language was systematized.
Akhmet Baitursynuly also wrote a practical guide for teachers "Til zhumsar" and a textbook "Bayanshy", which were widely used during the eradication of illiteracy in the Kazakh steppe.
Akhmet Baytursynuly is known as the largest founder of the alphabet based on Arabic script. Today, his alphabet is still used by millions of Kazakhs abroad, including among the Kazakhs of China.
A. Baitursynuly studied the basics of linguistics and methods of teaching the Kazakh language. In 1926, the scientist wrote the first major study in the Kazakh language "Adebiet tanytkysh" ("Fundamentals of Literary Studies"), which defined the history and theory of literature, methodology, laid the foundations of national literary science.
In 1926, he was a participant in the 1st Turkological Congress in Baku, a congress of workers of public education in Kazan, where he invariably raised issues of the development of the education system and the development of literature.
He was a brilliant publicist. By the way, one of the first ministers of education of the Kazakh Soviet autonomy, S. Saduakasuly, in this regard, Akhmet put higher than the talented and prolific Alikhan Bukeikhan in this regard:
“Of the most prominent Kyrgyz publicists, Baitursynov (a very comprehensive publicist) can be noted in the first place, then Bukeikhanov (exclusively on political issues) and Dulatov (defender of women and public education).
In 1937, a list of books by “enemies of the peoples” was published, which were subject to seizure from bookstores and libraries, including those of Akhmet Baitursynuly: “Zhoktau”, “Textbook of the Kazakh language”, “Til zhumsatar”, Kyryk mysal”, “Masa” , Practical Grammar”, “Agriculture of Karakalpakstan”, “Adebiet Tanytkysh” and other books that have gone through several reprints.
7. ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERATURE AND EDITION OF NEWSPAPERS IN THE NATIVE LANGUAGE
In one of his memoirs, knowing the place of language in the future of any state, Akhmet Baytursynuly wrote prophetically:
“The people of the Kyrgyz (Kazakh - ed.), For a long time occupying a certain territory, lived an isolated life, now we see an influx of migrants in the Kyrgyz (Kazakh - ed.) steppe. What will be our fate in the future? In order to preserve our independence, we need to strive with all our might and means for enlightenment and a common culture; To do this, we must first deal with the development of literature in our native language”
At the same time, he emphasized the importance of the newspaper for society:
“The newspaper is the eyes of the people, its ears and language. As much as a person needs eyes, ears and a tongue for a person, so much a newspaper is needed for the people”
8. HISTORICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL WORKS
He showed himself both as a historian and an ethnologist. In 1895, on the pages of the Turgai newspaper, he published an article entitled "Kazakh signs and proverbs."
In 1923, in Moscow, he published the poem "Er Sain" with a preface and author's comments.
In the same year, he completed work on the manuscript "History of Culture". In 1926, he compiled and published in Moscow the collection "Zhoktau" (lamentations).
In 1925, A. Zataevich published his book “1000 songs of the Kazakh people” in Orenburg, where in the introduction he highly appreciated the personality of Akhmet Baitursynuly:
“Baitursynov knows the songs of his people well and performs them perfectly, he is a good dombra player, as he deeply knows the history, ethnography, life and customs of the Kazakh people.
9. JOINING A PARTY AND EXCLUDING
After Akhmet went over to the side of the Bolsheviks, the party organs took all measures to ensure that he joined the Bolshevik Party. So, on the pages of the newspaper Izvestia of the Kirghiz Territory (1920, April 15), they enthusiastically wrote about Akhmet's decision to join the party, praising him in every possible way:
"T. Akhmet Baitursunov knows the whole steppe. Every Kirghiz (Kazakh - author) heard the name of this leader of his people, a major Kyrgyz (Kazakh - author) public figure and writer. The entire political movement in the development of the social thought of the Kyrgyz people over the past decades is closely connected with the name of Baitursynov.
On the same page of this newspaper, Akhmet himself wrote for what purpose he joins the ranks of the Bolshevik Party:
“After a long-term search for ways to liberate the Kyrgyz (Kazakh-ed.) people, who were in centuries of oppression, I came to the following conviction: The liberation of the Kyrgyz people can only get happiness together with the rest of the oppressed part of humanity.
But on November 27, 1921, he was expelled from the party during the "party purge", he was charged with the following violations: failure to attend party meetings; late payment of membership dues and participation in the government of Alash Orda.
10. POLITICAL PERSECUTION AND REPRESSION BY THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE AND THE SOVIET POWER
A. Baitursynuly was an active defender of the violated rights of the Kazakhs, often speaking out against the atrocities of the representatives of the tsarist administration.
Therefore, on July 1, 1909, it was not by chance that he was detained as a suspect in anti-government agitation and was imprisoned in Semipalatinsk prison until February 1910. In accordance with the decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it was decided to send him administratively outside the Kazakh steppe to the city of Orenburg with the establishment of police supervision.
He was forbidden to appear in all six Kazakh regions for 2 years. Within three days he had to leave Semipalatinsk.
During the years of editing the newspaper "Kazakh" in 1913-1917, he "several times was subjected to fines and administrative arrest."
In 1916, he was brought to trial on charges by Karkaralinsky bailiff Popov.
In June 1929, among 43 well-known political figures of the region, he was arrested and by the decision of the board of the OGPU of Kazakhstan dated April 04, 1930, he was sentenced to death. By decision of December 5 and 13, 1931, the collegium replaced the sentence with 10 years in a Soviet concentration camp. His wife Alexandra Baitursynova and daughter Sholpan were deported to Tomsk.
In 1934, he was released from custody for health reasons, returning to Alma-Ata.
On August 7, 1937, by the decision of the UGB of the NKVD of the Kazakh SSR, he was again arrested and on November 25 of the same year he was convicted and sentenced to capital punishment.
10. REHABILITATION AND RETURN OF A GOOD NAME
In 1958, there was an attempt to rehabilitate A. Baitursynuly. But "considering his active counter-revolutionary activities in the early years of Soviet power in Kazakhstan," he was denied rehabilitation. After that, there were several appeals for his rehabilitation.
On November 4, 1988, the decision of the troika of the UNKVD of the Alma-Ata region of November 25, 1937 was canceled by the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Kazakh SSR and the case against him was dismissed due to the absence of corpus delicti in his actions. Moreover, he pleaded not guilty. The investigation began without initiating a criminal case, it was carried out with a clearly accusatory bias. At the end of the investigation, he was not acquainted with the materials of the criminal case. In addition, he was deprived of legal protection.
Today, the streets and schools of Kazakhstan, the Institute of Linguistics in Almaty, the State University in the city of Kostanay are named in his honor. Baitursynov Readings are held annually in a number of higher educational institutions of the country. Encyclopedias and his multi-volume works are published.
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