Алаш Орда

Alikhan Nurmukhamedovich Bukeikhanov is a prominent social and public figure, organizer, and the leader of the national-democratic party Alash, first leader of the Kazakh national “Alash Orda” government

Scientist, talented publicist Alikhan Bukeikhanov dedicated his entire conscious life to the struggle for freedom and political independence of the Kazakh people.

Alikhan Bukeikhanov was born on March 5, 1866 in the village №7 of Tokraunsk parish of Karkaralinsk district of Semipalatinsk region (now the territory of Aktogay district of Karaganda region).

In 1886-1890 he studied in Omsk technical school. In 1890-1894 he studies on the economic faculty of the Saint Petersburg Emperor’s Forest Institute. Successfully finishing this institute on specialty forest economist, Alikhan Bukeikhanov taught mathematics in Omsk agricultural school. Then he served as the official of the Omsk migrant management, up to 1905.

In 1893 he took an active part in the work of political, economic, literary and other circles, participated in student “disorders”. Judging by archival documents, during these years Bukeikhanov’s activity first attracted the attention of the Department of the Tsarist police, his name falls into the blacklist of “politically unreliable”. During this period, his talent as a public, political figure is especially clearly manifested, putting him forward as the true leader of the national movement of the entire Steppe region.

The most famous was the 1905 petition, signed at the Koyandin Fair by 14,5 residents of the Karkaraly county of the Semipalatinsk region, in which the basic political and socio-economic demands of the Kazakhs were expressed, was compiled by Alikhan Bukeikhanov, Akhmet Baitursynov, Zhakyp Akbayev, Mirzhakyp Dulatov, Mohammed- Maksut Bekmetov.

Alikhan Bukeikhanov actively participates in a number of public organizations. For example, he was a full member of the Semipalatinsk sub-department of the West Siberian Division of the Russian Geographical Society and the Semipalatinsk Statistical Committee.

After the February Revolution, Bukeikhanov took an active part in the national liberation struggle of the Kazakh people. After two all-Kazakhstan congresses, held in July and December 1917, he managed to create the “Alash” party and the Alash Orda government, Bukeikhanov is elected as its chairman. The name of the party was proposed by the delegate of the Ural region by the lawyer Zhansha Dosmukhamedov and everyone is supported. The newspaper “Kazakh” became the party’s printed organ. This was a truly historic event, as the creation of a unified Kazakh state became a reality for the first time.

With the advent of Soviet power, he is hampered in political activities and is recalled for permanent residence in Moscow, where Bukeikhanov spent the last 15 years of his life. During this period, he continues to engage in literature and research activities. Carefully collected samples of oral creativity, folklore heritage, wrote works on history, ethnography, literature.

In the 1920s he was arrested twice. In 1937 he was again arrested and imprisoned in Butyrsk prison. He was charged with “… headed a counter-revolutionary struggle against Soviet power, established ties with the leaders of the terrorist center in Kazakhstan and Moscow”. On September 27, 1937, he was sentenced to capital punishment. The verdict was carried out on the same day. After 56 years Alikhan Bukeikhanov was rehabilitated.