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video.
Akhmet Baitursynov was born in
January 1873 in Sarytubek, where the river Zhilanchik flows into
the lake Akkol (present-day territory of Zhankeldin area of
Kostanai oblast). After the successful graduation of a two-year
school in Torgai in 1891 Akhmet entered the specialized school in
Orenburg which trained teachers for Kazakh schools and in 1895 his
pedagogical profession in aul and volost schools of Aktobe,
Karkaraly and Kostanai
began.
Akhmet Baitursynov was the
founder of the newspaper “Kazakh” which had more than three
thousand subscribers. He was the editor from 1913 to 1918.
The newspaper came out under extremely hard conditions of
tsarist- police regime. He published many materials concerning
education, literature and linguistics, acquainted readers with the
rich cultural heritage of Kazakh people, appealed to them for
knowledge and spiritual enrichment.
The
newspaper “Kazakh” initiated the national democratic
press.
These years was the time when
Akhmet Baitursynov was drawn to literary activity, he translated
Krylov’s fables into the Kazakh language. Simultaneously he was
busy creating the first in time textbooks in the Kazakh language,
started national schools, wrote such books as “Masa” (“A Fly”),
“Kyryk mysal” (“Forty
fables”).
Akhmet Baitursynov stood at the
beginnings of literary criticism and Kazakh linguistics. In the
twenties on basis of Arabic script and taking into considerations
peculiarities of the Kazakh language he created the Kazakh
alphabet, wrote some books concerning the problems of Grammar,
Morphology, Phonetics, Methodology and contributed much to
advancement of the Kazakh literature and
culture.
Many years of Akhmet
Baitursynov’s life and activity are connected with the creation of
Alash-Orda and foundation of Alash party; he was one of the authors
of the party programme. This programme stated that Russia should be
a democratic-federative republic and Kazakhs should be granted
autonomy. It is significant that the Provisional people’s council
of Alash-Orda was composed of 25 members, out of which 10 were
representatives of Russians and other ethnics living in
Kazakhstan.
The twenties were a difficult
period in the history of Kazakhstan; the intelligentsia was
persecuted by henchmen of Stalin’s regime. In 1929 A. Baitursynov
was arrested and then exiled to Arkhangelsk Oblast, his scientific
and poetic heritage was banned. Only in 1934 with the assistance of
E.P. Peshkova, Maxim Gorky’s wife, who worked for the Red Cross,
Baitursynov was released from exile ahead of time. But in August
1937 he was imprisoned on charges of counter-revolutionary
activity. He didn’t plead himself guilty, as the Chairman of
Kazinpros he only expressed his disagreement with some actions of
the Soviet government. The exile deeply undermined Akhmet’s health.
In accordance with the resolution of the Almaty oblast NKVD (PCIA)
(The People’s Commissariat for Internal
Affairs) troika (group of three)
on the 25 of November 1937 he was sentenced to be shot. His life as
the lives of many representatives of intelligentsia was terminated
in 1937. The resolution was executed on the 8 of December
1937.
Akhmet Baitursynov’s permanent
life companion was his beloved wife. She was born in 1878 in
Chelyabinsk oblast. Being a teacher at a Russian-Kazakh school in
Aulekol (100 kilometers from Kostanai) she got acquainted with
Akhmet Baitursynov. In that same 1896 they married in the mosque of
Troitzk. Since that time Aleksandra Ivanovna began to practice
Islam. With her consent her husband named her Badrisafa
Mukhamedsadykkyzy. Their family life started in Kostanai. In
connection with the exile of A.Baitursynov in 1929 to Arkhangelsk
Badrisafa as the public enemy’s wife together with their daughter
Sholpan was exiled in 1391 to Tomsk oblast. Then they were
separated; Sholpan was left in Tomsk and Badrisafa was sent to
Western Siberia for tree felling in the village of
Zhukovo.
In 1934 they came back to the
motherland. In 1937 when A.Baitursynov was arrested and shot
Badrisafa was arrested again and exiled to Sverdlov Oblast. There
she fell seriously ill. On her returned to Kostanai the helpless
Badrisafa was taken to the hospital for the disabled people. She
became the victim of Stalinist repressions; her life tragically
ended on the territory of Kostanai
oblast.
In memory of people up to now
legends about this pure beautiful love of Akhmet and Badrisafa who
managed to retain it through their hard lives full of hardships and
sufferings pass from mouth to
mouth.
They complemented each other
nicely: Akhmet - wise, intelligent, a person of fortitude and
Badrisafa – gentle, feminine, equally a person with a strong
mind.
Their names are recollected by people coupled
with, without being separated from one
another.
Many-sided talent of Akhmet
Baitursynov permitted him to try his pen in poetry, in social and
political journalism, in science and other fields of culture. He is
not only a scholar, translator, ethnographer, author of many
textbooks he is the author of many poems for younger children.
Akhmet-aga was a great Ustaz – the Teacher with a capital T for
children and grown-ups. He was and is in memory of people as a
bright luminary of Kazakh science and
culture
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