Akhmet Baitursynov
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Ahmet Baitursynuly (, ,
romanized In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...
: ''Ahmed Baitūrsynūly'', ; Russified: Ахмет Байтурсынов) ( 5 September 1872 — 8 December 1937) was a Kazakh intellectual who worked in the fields of
politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
,
poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
,
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
and
education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
. Baitursynuly reformed the Kazakh alphabet. In 1912, he excluded all the purely
Arabic letters The Arabic alphabet, or the Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as specifically codified for writing the Arabic language. It is a unicameral script written from right-to-left in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters, of which most have co ...
not used in the
Kazakh language Kazakh is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia by Kazakhs. It is closely related to Nogai, Kyrgyz and Karakalpak. It is the official language of Kazakhstan, and has official status in the Altai Republic of Russia ...
and added letters specific to the Kazakh language. Baitursynuly's orthographic reform resulted in a script that functions like a true phonetic alphabet, with one letter for every sound in the Kazakh language, compared to the basic Arabic
abjad An abjad ( or abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving the vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels. The term was introd ...
. The new alphabet, named ''Tote jazu'' (meaning ''straight writing''), is still used by Kazakhs living in China, Afghanistan, and in Iran. Baitursynuly also developed the basics of Kazakh and the scientific terminology for the definition of Kazakh grammar. In 1937, he was executed by a firing squad during the
Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...
.


Early life, education

Ahmet Baitursynuly was born to a
Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
Kazakh family in what is today
Kostanay Region Kostanay Region (; ) is a region of Kazakhstan. Its administrative center is the city of Kostanay. The population of the region is 835,686. The population living in Kostanay is 207,000 which is equivalent to 23% of the region. Geography Kosta ...
,
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
and was educated at the
Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...
Teachers' School. After graduating in 1895, Baitursynuly held teaching positions in a number of cities in Kazakhstan, including
Aktobe Aktobe (, ; ) is a major city located on the Ilek River in western Kazakhstan. It serves as the administrative center of the Aktobe Region and is an important cultural, economic, and industrial hub in the region. As of 2023, the city has a popu ...
,
Kostanay Kostanay or Qostanai (, , rus, Костанай, p=kəstɐˈnaj) is a city located on the Tobol River in northern Kazakhstan. It is the administrative center of the Kostanay Region. As of 24 March 2022, the city's governor is Marat Zhundubay ...
and Karkaraly. When Ahmet was 13 years old, the police officers led by Colonel Yakovlev came to the village and staged a pogrom. Ahmet's father, Baitursyn Shoshak-uly, and three of Ahmet's brothers beat up Colonel Yakovlev. As a punishment, they were sent by Russian authorities to Siberia for 15 years. Ahmet obtained literacy in Kazakh,
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
,
Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. ...
, and
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
from the village mullahs. In his teenage years, he was sent to the Turgai Russian-Kazakh School by his relatives to learn more
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
. After graduating from there, Ahmet moved to Orenburg to continue his education by attending a four-year teacher's school, founded by Kazakh intellectual
Ibrahim Altynsarin Ybyrai (Ibrahim) Altynsarin (, ''Ybyrai Altynsarin''; ; – ) was a major figure in pre-Soviet Kazakh history. He was the most prominent Kazakh educator of the 19th century, at the period of Russian colonization of and cultural influence in ...
. In Orenburg, Ahmet faced financial difficulties, but still graduated from school in 1895. The same year of his graduation, he published his first article, "Kazakskiye primety i poslovitsy" ("Kazakh Superstitions and Proverbs") in a regional newspaper. Ahmet taught at the village schools in the Aktyubinsk, Kostanay and Karkaraly regions. While working as a teacher in a Russian-Kazakh school in the Kostanay region, Ahmet lived in a house near a Russian forester, whose daughter, Alexandra Ivanovna, fell in love and married him. Their marriage was committed in a Muslim mosque in the village of Auliyekol. Ivanovna converted to Islam, and changed her name to Badrisafa Muhammetsadikova Baitursynova. They lived in
Kostanay Kostanay or Qostanai (, , rus, Костанай, p=kəstɐˈnaj) is a city located on the Tobol River in northern Kazakhstan. It is the administrative center of the Kostanay Region. As of 24 March 2022, the city's governor is Marat Zhundubay ...
, where he worked as a teacher in a Russian-Kazakh school. The following year, Ahmet and his wife moved to Omsk, then to Karkaralinsk, where they stayed until 1909.


Political activity


Activism and imprisonment (1905–1909)

In 1905, he collaborated with other Kazakhs to form the Kazakh wing of the Constitutional Democrat Party. Baitursynuly was one of the authors of the Karkaraly Petition, which advocated to stop the expropriation of land from the Kazakhs, suspend the flow of immigrants, and to establish popular zemstvos. In 1907, he was first imprisoned for criticizing the Tsarist administration, and then in 1909 again for 8 months without a trial in the Semipalatinsk prison. His involvement in politics probably led to him being exiled from the
Steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...
regions. After being exiled, Baitursynuly moved to
Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...
.


Exile (1911–1917)

During his exile, he wrote articles for '' Ay Qap''. In 1911, Baytursinuli published his first work of a distinctly political nature — ''Masa'' ("Mosquito"). In 1913, Baytursynuly, along with former deputy of the First State Duma, Alihan Bökeyhan, and Mirjaqıp Dulatulı, a poet and a writer, founded a Kazakh newspaper named '' Qazaq'' in Orenburg where Baitursynuly served as the chief editor. The newspaper ran until the spring of 1918. During that time, he published "Qyryq Mysal" ("Forty Proverbs"). His other significant publication as well was a Kazakh translation of
Ivan Krylov Ivan Andreyevich Krylov (; ; 13 February 1769 – 21 November 1844) is Russia's best-known fabulist and probably the most epigrammatic of all Russian authors. Formerly a dramatist and journalist, he only discovered his true genre at the age of ...
's fables.


Alash Orda (1917–1919)

During the
Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
occurred, Baitursynuly returned to the steppes and began to work with the members of Alash Orda. With them, he sought for the Kazakhs to have an independent state. At the two Pan-Kyrgyz congresses in Orenburg, he participated in the creation of the Alash party and was one of the organizers and leaders of
Alash Autonomy The Alash Autonomy, also known as Alash Orda, was an unrecognized Kazakh proto-state located in Central Asia and was part of the Russian Republic, and then Soviet Russia. The Alash Autonomy was founded in 1917 by Kazakh elites, and disestabli ...
. At the end of that year, Baitursynuly was elected to the Constituent Assembly from the Turgai constituency. On 4 April 1919, he was granted amnesty by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. After that, Baitursynuly sided with the Soviet government and joined the Bolshevik Communist Party. From 1919, he served as a Member of the Committee of Deputies of the Constituent Assembly and as Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kazakh Krai, as well as Commissioner of Enlightenment. In these capacities, he helped to reform education and to establish the first university in KazakSSR.


Later life and execution

In June 1929, he was reminded of political activity and arrested by the NKVD, and sent to prison in Kyzyl-Orda, as in tsarist times again with Mirjaqyp Dulatuly, and then was sent to the Arkhangelsk region. His wife, Baitursynova and her adopted daughter Sholpan were sent to Tomsk. In 1934, at the request of Yekaterina Peshkova (wife of
Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (;  – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...
), who worked on the Red Cross Commission, Baitursynuly was released. He reunited with his family who already had three adopted children in Alma-Ata. In October 1937, Baitursynuly was arrested again for the last time for hiding "bourgeois nationalist sentiments". Two months later, on 8 December 1937, he was executed. This resulted in an outcry, which was quickly and bloodily silenced.


Legacy

To this day, Baitursynuly is held in great regard in Kazakhstan, but is viewed as somewhat tragic figure, signifying the extent of the numbers of authors, poets and thinkers who have perished due to the Soviet repressions. The Baitursynov Home Museum in honor of Baitursynuly was established in one of his former residences in Alma-Ata, and a number of streets were renamed in his memory across Kazakhstan. A statue of him is also to be found in the town of Kostanay. Baitursynuly's work is also part of the curriculum for high school education system of Kazakhstan. Another of Baitursynuly's significant accomplishments was his adaptation of
Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...
for the Kazakh alphabet. In 2021, UNESCO included Akhmet Baitursynuly on the list of UNESCO anniversaries for 2022–2023 in honor of the 150th anniversary of his birth. In November 2022, a monument to Akhmet Baitursynuly was unveiled. The ceremony was attended by President
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev Kassym-Jomart Kemeluly Tokayev (born 17 May 1953) is a Kazakhstani politician and diplomat who has served as the second president of Kazakhstan since 2019. He previously served as Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Prime Minister from 1999 to 2002 ...
, relatives of the scientist and representatives of the creative intelligentsia. On December 30, 2022, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the great scientist-turkologist, publicist, prominent statesman Akhmet Baitursynuly, a monument and a park were opened in
Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...
.


References

*
The Geography of Civilizations: A Spatial Analysis of the Kazakh Intelligentsia's activities, From the Mid-Nineteenth to the Early Twentieth Century
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baitursynov, Akhmet 1872 births 1937 deaths People from Kostanay Region People from Turgay Oblast (Russian Empire) Bolsheviks Russian Constituent Assembly members All-Russian Central Executive Committee members Kazakh-language poets Kazakh-language writers Kazakhstani poets Kazakhstani journalists 20th-century poets 20th-century Kazakhstani male writers 20th-century Kazakhstani writers Great Purge victims from Kazakhstan Soviet rehabilitations Writers from the Russian Empire Muslims from the Russian Empire Alash Autonomy