Akhmet Baitursynov is a well-known Kazakh scientist, translator, a major state and public figure. Also known as a writer and linguist. It was he who reformed the Kazakh written language at the beginning of the 20th century, after which millions of people could use it. In 1912, he conducted a whole revolution, removing all Arabic letters that were not used in the Kazakh language, and adding unique characters instead. The new alphabet is still used by Kazakhs around the world.
Biography of a linguist scientist
Akhmet Baitursynov was born in the tract Sartybek in 1872. It is located in the Turgai region.
Now you know from this article in which year Akhmet Baitursynov was born.
When he was only 13 years old, the police staged a pogrom in a family village. Akhmet's father and his older brothers could not stand the bullying and beat Colonel Yakovlev, who led the punitive operation. For this they were exiled to Siberia for 15 years.
The hero of our article mastered the diploma from local mullahs, and received primary education at a Russian-Kazakh school, after which he entered a teacher's school in Orenburg. While a student, experienced serious financial difficulties, but still managed to get an education.
Teaching activities
Until 1909 he taught at volost schools. When he worked in Kustanai district, he lived with a forester, his daughter Alexandra fell in love. Soon they got married according to Muslim custom. The wife of Akhmet Baitursynov changed not only his last name, but also his first name.
The young couple moved to Kustanai, where Akhmet Baitursynov taught at the Russian-Kazakh school. Then they moved to Omsk, then to Karkaralinsk. They had no children.
Since 1905, the hero of our article begins to be actively involved in political processes in the country. For example, he takes part in the compilation of the Karkaraly petition, in which there were demands to stop the expropriation of land from the Kazakhs, and to organize popular zemstvos.
First went to prison in 1907. Akhmet Baitursynov was accused of criticizing the tsarist administration. Two years later, he ended up in Semipalatinsk prison, spent 8 months there, although he was imprisoned without trial.
Speaking for the independence of Kazakhstan
In his political rhetoric, the ideas of independent Kazakhstan are more and more clearly traced. Since 1913, together with his associates, he has been publishing the Kazakh newspaper in Orenburg. It is in it that formulates its main ideas. In work on the publication, he is assisted by Alikhan Bukeikhanov, a former deputy of the First State Duma, as well as a popular writer and poet named Mirzhakip Dulatov.
Baitursynov believes that in order to preserve Kazakhstan's independence, it is necessary, first of all, to strive for education and culture. It is necessary to develop literature in the Kazakh language. The presence of his own language and literature was considered as integral factors, without which there is no people.
The Kazakh newspaper was published by the hero of our article until 1918. All this time she was a key socio-political Kazakh publication. For five years, the Kazakh community had the opportunity to express their ideas and reason on pressing issues.
During the October revolution
In 1917, Akhmet Baitursynov, whose photo is in this article, took part in the creation of the Alash Kazakh party. It was established in Orenburg. He was elected representative to the Constituent Assembly of the Turgai District.
In 1919 he was amnestied. After that, he finally sided with the Soviet government. He became a member of the Communist Party.
In 1929, the Soviet government recalled Baitursynova his nationalist activities. He was arrested. He served in the NKVD prison, then was sent to the Arkhangelsk region. His wife and adopted daughter named Sholpan were sent to Tomsk. The family was forcibly separated for several years. The couple did not see each other, Ahmet did not know anything about the fate of the adopted child, whom he and his wife took up, as they could not have their children.
Exemption
In 1934, Yekaterina Peshkova (wife of Maxim Gorky) played an important role in the biography of Akhmet Baitursynov. At that time, she worked on the Red Cross Commission. Thanks to her petition, Baitursynov was released.
He reunited with his family. Together with three adopted children, he arrived in Alma-Ata. Until the end of his death, he lived in a house that later received the status of a house-museum.
In 1937, Baitursynov was again arrested. The hero of our article fell under the Great Terror machine that raged in those years in the Soviet Union. As a representative of the national interests of the Kazakh people, he found himself in the field of vision of special services.
Two months later, he was shot by the sentence of the NKVD troika as an enemy of the people. Officially, the Kazakh writer was amnestied only in 1988.
Language reform
Baitursynov played an important role in the formation of modern Kazakh literature. He was a professor of philology, led the Republican Academic Center.
He worked at the first in the history of the Kazakh people's state university. He owns numerous pedagogical manuals on native speech, textbooks, with the help of which work was carried out to eliminate illiteracy, Baitursynov also published an illustrated primer. Only in the 1920s did he survive several editions.
The main reason for the reforms was that Arabic writing without vowels was a serious inconvenience for the Turkic languages.
Alphabet design
Baitursynov proposed his own reform project of the Kazakh alphabet. The whole point was to note the sign of the front or back row in each word. It was very similar to musical notation of bass or treble clefs and significantly saved the number of characters for vowels, and also reconciled the Kazakh language with Arabic graphics.
Many contemporaries, for example, the linguist Evgeny Polivanov, called this project a genius. The scientist, noting the merits of Baitursynov, wrote that if the problem of the Kazakh language could be solved without regard to neighboring nationalities, then the Kazakh school could be completely satisfied with the spelling of 1924, proposed by the hero of our article. However, it was not possible to implement this project. Mass Latinization began in 1928, and in 1940 the Cyrillization of the Turkic languages of the peoples that were part of the Soviet Union.
Literary activity
Baitursynov made a great contribution to the development of Kazakh literature, confirming his idea that only a people with their own written language and literature can claim independence.
The collections of Forty Fables and Masa, which included his most famous fables, were extremely popular. The collections were published in 1909 and 1911, respectively.
He also did a great job of collecting and publishing samples of Kazakh oral folk art.
In 1926 he published two books at once - Literary criticism and 23 lamentations. Literary Studies is a special work of Akhmet Baitursynov. This is the first scientific study devoted to the study of the history of Kazakh literature.
In the same 1926, Baitursynov wrote a literary work entitled "On Terminology in Turkic Languages." Also, under his authorship, many manuals and textbooks were published for teaching Kazakh children their native language. This "Textbook", published in 1912, "Alphabet", which was released in 1924, "New Alphabet" (several editions were published from 1926 to 1928), as well as the methodical manual "Bayanshy", published in 1926.