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Kayum Mukhamedkhanov is a great scientist, a talented teacher, the author of the text of the national anthem of the Kazakh SSR, the first researcher of Abai's creativity and the founder of the museum of the great poet and educator. He saved for us the original word of Abai, Shakarim and the works of prominent Alashordians, brought back the names and works of many significant public and cultural figures from oblivion.
Kayum (Gabdulkayum) Mukhamedkhanov was born on January 5, 1916, in the city of Semipalatinsk. His father Mukhamedkhan Seitkulov was a fairly wealthy person, had a good mansion in Zhana-Semey, where such outstanding personalities as Abai and Shakarim visited literary evenings. M. Seitkulov was able to recognize talents in people and turned his hospitable house into a center of intellectual and spiritual communication. At different times, the young man Kayum saw next to his father M. Auezov, K. Zhanataev, S. Toraigyrov, A. Baimuratov, M. Dulatov. Thanks to their skill and mentorship, he embarked on a noble path of scientific and pedagogical work.
On the advice of M. Auezov inquisitive Gabdulkayum tirelessly studied the life and work of Abai. He heard the songs and poems of the great philosopher as a child when he was in elementary school. Abai's lyrics immediately fascinated and excited him.
K. Mukhamedkhanov from an early age began to engage in literary local history, collecting ethnographic materials, disappearing manuscripts and half-forgotten books that have become a bibliographic rarity.
After graduating from the first stage school, Kayum continued his education at the school of collective farm youth and agricultural technical school. Since 1932, he began his career as a cultural worker in the Semipalatinsk plant management "Soyuzmuka". In 1940, K. Mukhamedkhanov graduated with honors from the Semipalatinsk Pedagogical Institute named after N. K. Krupskaya and became a teacher there.
Already during his studies, Kayum Mukhamedkhanov wrote poems and articles that were published in the wall press and in the regional newspapers "Ekpindi" and "Priirtyshskaya Pravda". As a student of the Pedagogical Institute, he became a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR. In the 1940s he was a commissioner of the Writers' Union of Kazakhstan for the Semipalatinsk region. In this position, he paid close attention to identifying gifted young people: novice poets, prose writers and young akyns who are prone to improvisation, in order to prepare them for participation in aitys, provided assistance and gave literary advice. Back in 1943, at the age of 27, Kayum co-authored the text of the national anthem of the Kazakh SSR.
At the same time, he takes an active part in the organization of the State Literary and Memorial Museum of Abai. Among the many unique exhibits of the main collection, there is a photo of Abai with his sons. It got into the museum collection thanks to Kayum Mukhamedkhanov, who drew up an act on the acquisition of the exhibit - a photograph taken in 1896 in Semipalatinsk by photographer Kuznetsov. In 1947, the museum was devolved to the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR. And K. Mukhamedkhanov by the decision of the President of the Academy of Sciences K.Satpaev was appointed Director of the Abai Museum.
Every year, on May 31, Kazakhstan celebrates Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions. About 100,000 Kazakhstans were brutally tortured, 20,000 of whom were executed. Kayum Mukhamedhanov was not spared by a wave of repression.
In December 1951, after defending his PhD dissertation on the topic "Abai Literary School," whose supervisor was M. Auezov, he was sentenced to 25 years as an enemy of the people and returned after the "black five-year period" from Karlag only after full rehabilitation.
Kayum Mukhamedkhanov was arrested at his workplace, in a museum, and the monograph on his dissertation was anathematized and destroyed. After his release from Karlag, he had to reconstruct everything based on his own and people's memories. During the search in the apartment of K. Mukhamedkhanov, many books and manuscripts were seized, including a whole chest with Auezov's letters.
As soon as "thaw period" started at the end of the 50th year, K. Mukhamedkhanov addressed a letter to the regional party committee with a request for the rehabilitation of Shakarim Kudaiberdiev. He addresses a similar letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. In 1955, K. Mukhamedkhanov was reinstated in the State Pedagogical Institute named after N.K. Krupskaya, he was appointed senior lecturer at the Department of Russian Literature. For more than 50 years, he has been a teacher at the Semipalatinsk State Pedagogical Institute.
"In preparation for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Abai Kunanbayev, K. Mukhamedkhanov worked as a senior researcher in the Abai studies department of the research institute under the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Institute of Literature and Art named after M.O. Auezov" in Almaty.
For the rest of his life, Mukhamedhanov continued his scientific research, taught and supported all those interested in the history and culture of his people, consulting and sharing rare manuscripts, unique historical documents and photographs.
For his constructive work, K. Mukhamedkhanov was awarded government medals. He was the laureate of the state prize of the Republic of Kazakhstan (1996), the recipient of the Gold Medal of the International Academy of Abai (London, 1995), the first laureate of the International Prize of Abai and the international literary prize of the Union of Writers of Kazakhstan "Alash" (1996), the laureate of the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan.
More information about the life and work of K. Mukhamedkhanov can be found in the publications "A word about Kayum","Kayym Mukhamedkhanuly: bibliographic index "(Zh.M. Chushekova, A.Zh. Erzhepbaeva), "Peaks and Abyss. Essays. Mini stories. Writer's stories" (N. Alekseev), kept in the Library of Elbasy.