Zhanibek Zhanuzak (1889-1937)

20Janibek Zhanuzak was born in  a poor family  of Petropavlovsk in 1889. He studied in  the Tatar madrasah of Hasen Ponomarev  of Petropavlovsk and he received an incomplete secondary education. Since 1911 he has been working as a typesetter  for about a year in the printing house, then  he worked as a teacher in the villages of Poludinskaya and Yessilkol volosts . He was even called “Moldabala” (“boy-mullah”) at that time.  When the commotion began in 1916, Zhanibekov, in his own years, was to be mobilized for logistical work, but managed to avoid them. Mirzhakyp Dulatov  helped him  in this case because Dulatov  had known him before. Mirzhakyp was a secretary of the newspaper “Kazakh”, published in Orenburg. He arranged Zhanuzak as a newspaper forwarder.

In the years of the revolution (1917), when the “Alash” party was founded, Zh. Zhanibekov joined its ranks. The Turgai regional committee of the Alash party was organized in Orenburg. The committee included  ten Kazakhs living in Orenburg and fourteen members from four districts.  The members from Orenburg were  A. Birimzhanov, A. Baytursynov, A. Bukeikhanov, E. Omarov, O. Zhanibekov, M. Dulatov, G. Zhundybaev, S. Doszhanov. The chairman of the regional committee of the Alash party was A. Bukeikhanov, his deputy A.Baitursynov, the secretary -M.Dulatov, and the treasurer-  Zh.Zhanibekov.

Living in Orenburg, Zhanibekov witnessed events that took place there in the turbulent1917-1918 years. Zh. Zhanibekov published an article “The situation in Orenburg” of the newspaper “Kazakh” No. 261 of February 27 (14), 1918,  about the events that took place in Orenburg.

After the Bolsheviks came to power, the “Alash” party was dissolved, its leaders could not hold high posts. From 1919-1920, they  began to work mainly in the sphere of public education and in the editorial offices of newspapers and magazines. In the fall of 1919, when the Soviet power was established after the defeat of the Kolchak army in Petropavlovsk, Zhanuzak Zhanibekov returned to his native city and began working in public education institutions. In 1920 he joined the Communist Party. In 1921-1924 he worked in the gubernia department of public education and  he simultaneous teaches at  three-year courses of Kazakh teachers.  Then  he worked together with another former member of the Alash party Zhumagali Tleulin  in Kazakh pedagogical technical college. Since 1925 he works as deputy editor, then as editor of the provincial newspaper “Bostandykty” (“The Flag of Freedom”).

In November 1926 Zh. Zhanibekov moved to Aktyubinsk and he worked  as editor of the newspaper Kedyi (Poor Bed) until 1929. In  1929-1932 he  works as a teacher of school number 36 in Shingyrlau district of Aktobe oblast. In 1933 he returned to Petropavlovsk and served as director of the cooperative technical school. After the closing of the technical school at the end of the same year, he is worked as a responsible employee of the personnel department of the trust “Kazakh gold”. From August 1936 until his arrest, he works as chairman of the settlement council of the Stepnyak mine of the “Kazakh gold” system.

On July 29, 1937, the North-Kazakhstan regional department of the NKVD arrested Zhanuzak Zhanibekov. He was accused of conducting hostile agitation against the revolution, that he did not conduct an anti-religious struggle.

Zhanibekov was convicted by the decision of the “Troika” of the North Kazakhstan regional department of the NKVD  to be shot according to article 58, paragraphs 10 and 11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR.