8 800 080 15 05
kense@plibrary.kz
Today marks the 155th anniversary since the birth of the outstanding Kazakh statesman and public figure, scientist, publicist, one of the leaders of the Alash party, Alikhan Bokeikhanov. Alikhan Nurmukhamedovich stood at the origins of the realization of the dream of Independence of several generations of the Kazakh people. The active social, scientific and political activity of A. Bokeikhanov and his closest associates A. Baitursynov, M. Dulatov, Zh. Akpaev, M. Tynyshpayev, H. Dosmukhamedov and many other prominent figures became the first historical and independent movement on the way to the formation of modern statehood.
Alikhan Bokeikhanov was born on March 5, 1866, in aul No. 7 of the Tokraunsky volost of the Karkaralinsky district of the Semipalatinsk region (now this area belongs to the Karaganda region). In 1890, he graduated from the Omsk Technical School. In 1890-1894, he studied at the Economics Department of the Forestry Institute in St. Petersburg. After graduation, he worked as a mathematics teacher at an agricultural school in Omsk.
In 1893, A. Bokeikhanov began active work in political, economic and literary circles. During this period, the name of the 27-year-old activist Bokeikhanov was blacklisted as "politically unreliable". At the same time, Alikhan Nurmukhamedovich became the leader of the national movement of the entire Steppe Region. The ideas of statehood, the author of which was A. Bokeikhanov and his associates, were the first strategies of Kazakhstan's way of development in an era of fundamental changes.
Currently, the museum of the Library of Elbasy, located in the building of the former residence of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan N. A. Nazarbayev on the right bank of the capital, has an exhibition, in which a special place is occupied by a copy of the Karkaraly Petition, one of the authors of which was Alikhan Bokeikhanov. For the first time since the armed uprising of Kenesary Kasymov, the petition presented the official political demands of the Kazakh people to the Russian colonial authorities. 14.5 thousand people signed the document at the call of A. Bokeikhanov. The main requirements of the document included: the termination of the resettlement of peasants, the introduction of paperwork in the Kazakh language, the organization of a separate spiritual administration for Kazakhs, the abolition of censorship in the press, the introduction of a jury trial, the participation of Kazakh delegates in the meeting on the development of a draft on the convocation of the State Duma.
During this period A. N. Bokeikhanov began his active political activity. He was a full member of the Semipalatinsk Subdivision of the West Siberian Department of the Russian Geographical Society and the Semipalatinsk Statistical Committee. In 1905, he was elected a deputy to the First State Duma of the Russian Empire in the Semipalatinsk district, participated in the drafting of a document called the Vyborg Manifesto, condemning the dissolution of the Tsarist Duma.
In July 1906, among two hundred deputies, he signed the famous Vyborg proclamation "To the People from the People's representatives", condemning the dissolution of the Duma, calling on the people to civil disobedience. After the publication of this document, A. Bokeikhanov was arrested and sentenced to 3 months in prison, but he was kept in it for 8 months. After his release, Bokeikhanov was exiled to Samara and stayed there from 1908 until the February revolution of 1917.
After the February revolution, A. Bokeikhanov took an active part in the national liberation struggle of the Kazakh people. The new conditions became favorable for the creation of the party "Alash", the chairman of which was elected A. Bokeikhanov. The number of party members reached about 5 thousand people by 1917. Soon the draft program of the party was developed, in the first points of which it was written: the creation of the Kazakh autonomy as part of the Russian Federal Democratic Republic, equal rights for all nationalities, the separation of church and state, the introduction of a progressive income tax, the provision of free education in the native language, and more.
In October 1917, the Provisional Government fell, and the Bolshevik Soviets came to power. The leaders of the Alash party, in order to prevent the transfer of power to the Soviets in Kazakhstan, decide to convene the II All-Kazakh Congress, which resulted in the formation of the Provisional People's Council "Alash Orda" (the government of the Alash Autonomy). A. Bokeikhanov was elected Chairman of the Government. However, the history of the Alash autonomy was short-lived, in March 1920 it was liquidated by the Bolsheviks. In less than three years, the first Kazakh statehood went through many tragic tests. After the final victory of the Bolsheviks and the establishment of Soviet power in Kazakhstan, the Alashorda people recognized the power of the Soviets. However, all of them were repressed and shot in the 1920s and 1930s.
On June 26, 1937, A. Bokeikhanov was arrested. The investigation lasted three months. The trial of the notorious "troika" of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR took place on September 27, 1937. Alikhan Bokeikhanov, an outstanding son of the Kazakh steppe, was sentenced to death for belonging to a "terrorist organization". The sentence was carried out on the same day. Alikhan Bokeikhanov was 71 years old. It was possible to rehabilitate the prominent Kazakh figure only after half a century. On May 14, 1989, by the decision of the Supreme Court of the USSR, Alikhan Nurmukhamedovich was found innocent due to the absence of corpus delicti in his actions.
The historical merit of A. Bokeikhanov is that he formulated the basic principles of the national idea. He was the first to put on the agenda of the Kazakh society the ideas of national consolidation, the unification of the Kazakh lands within a single autonomy, the formation of a national political party, and the acquisition of statehood.
Analyzing this period in the history of Kazakhstan, the First President of Kazakhstan – Elbasy N. A. Nazarbayev said: "We can proudly say that the field of national action, outlined by the figures of "Alash" at the beginning of the century, was developed at the end of the century...".
It is symbolic that the year of the 155th anniversary of the outstanding Kazakh statesman and public figure Alikhan Bokeikhanov coincided with the 30th anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan. As the Head of State K. K. Tokayev noted at the first meeting of the State Commission on Preparations for the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Kazakhstan's Independence, the anniversary events of the anniversary year should give a spiritual impetus to the entire nation.
"He is a great son of our people, the founder of the Alash movement. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Kazakh intelligentsia, led by Alikhan, worked tirelessly in the name of national interests, setting an example of statehood", the President of Kazakhstan noted.
The book collection of the Library of Elbasy currently contains a number of publications that tell about the life of A. N. Bokeikhanov, as well as about the founders of the Alash party. Among them are collections of documents "Alash Orda" by N. Martynenko, "The Alash Movement" by T. Zhurtbai, "Figures of Alash. St. Petersburg pages" by N. Dulatbekov, "Eastern Branch of the Government "Alash Orda" by E. Sydykov, "Alash Army" by B. Abdygaliuly, "Ministers of Alash Orda" by M. Eskendiruly, as well as a 25-volume collection of materials of the newspaper "Ak Zhol" by Kh. Yesenkarkyzy.