Алаш Орда

Bahtygerey Kulmanov was born on 22 December 1859 in the Nikolskoe village of the Bokei Orda of the Astrakhan region. He graduated from the school of Zhangir, the Oriental faculty of the Imperial University of St. Petersburg in 1887, he graduated with honors. In 1888, B. Kulmanov defended his dissertation in Philology, received a master’s degree in Philology, in other words, the title of candidate of Sciences, and became the first Kazakh who has received the academic rank.

He worked in Baku for different elected positions. In 1890-1903 he led the Kamysh-Samara part of the Inner Orda. In 1906 and 1907 was a member of the First and Second Duma of the Russian Empire from the Kazakhs of the Inner Orda. He led the Muslim fraction of the Duma. From April 22 to December 2, 1917 he was the Commissioner of the Provisional government in the Bokei Orda.

In December, 1917 at the Second all-Kazakh constituent Congress of Alash Orda B. Kulmanov was elected as a Chairman of the Presidium. He was one of three candidates who had applied for the Chair of the Government of the Alash Republic. Kulmanov presented the “Alash” party in Bokei Orda in Western Kazakhstan. After the February revolution he was elected as a Commissioner of the Kazakh national autonomy.

But, unfortunately, the history of the Republic of Alash was not a long one, the Bolsheviks strongly objected to it, and alash figures were persecuted. In 1918 Bakhtygerey Kulmanov through Astrakhan immigrated abroad. One of the best sons of the Kazakh people Bakhtygerey Kulmanov died in 1919.