30 years have passed since Jeltoksan

History is the foundation upon which future of a country is built. Each Kazakhstani citizen must know and respect the history of his motherland and the country in order to successfully implement such ambitious goals as the 100 Specific Steps National Plan on implementation of the Five Institutional Reforms and Nurly Zhol programme.

These goals are reflected in Step 89 of the 100 Specific Steps National Plan. The project Nurly Bolashak and the values of Mangilik El idea have been introduced to the academic programmes of secondary education institutions of the country.  

“30 years have passed since the tragic events of December 16, 2016, when the youth of Almaty and other cities of Kazakhstan went out to for peaceful demonstrations against the Soviet Union’s policy. They frowned on several political moments. 30 years have passed, but I would like to remember December 16, 2016 when for the first time  Kazakhstanis and Kazakhs primarily demonstrated their political resistance to the authorities. Those days were very hard. The faculty had to stay in dormitories and carry out political and upbringing work with the remaining students. I was on maternal leave at that time, and  when I returned to my work 5 years later, in 1991, around 90% of the faculty didn’t work there. The students who studied at the University in 1980s had already graduated or left the institution by. There was a lot of injustice in regard to the participants of those events. People called them “Decemberists” and they became a symbol of bravery and resistance,” says the historian.

“In 1991, after gaining its independence, Kazakhstan started to rehabilitate and review its values and restore historical justice.  After December 16, 1986, Kazakh people were blamed in nationalism. However, I know some Korean and Russian lecturers who were also brought to responsibility “for improper upbringing of youth.” In 1992, the country started to gather historical documents and justice was finally served. Two books of memories of the Jeltoksan participants were published in Kazakh and Russian in 1990s.  I have traced the fates of my colleagues and students from the KazGU and found out that some of them were dismissed, some were prisoned. Although, their lives were broken, many of them coped with the complications of their lives. Some memories were too sharp. In my opinion, all of them had to tell their stories and reveal the truth, because they were victims. Therefore, reading this book, I was surprised to know that these people were able to oppose the entire political structure of the biggest country of the world. Now, meeting the Decemberists at some or other events, I see that the government supports them. They have founded their own organizations,” L. Akhmetova says.                                                                                             

 She believes that the work on gathering data of these events must be continued. 

 “The government rehabilitated the Decemberists, even some of them were justified posthumously. We need to further publish their memories to let our youth know their history. We need to gather materials in the archives to let the researchers study the documents of the participants, not only newspapers or governmental reports.  In December 1986 we saw how national self-consciousness woke up in the youth. Both Kazakhstanis and international community must be aware of it,” L.Akhmetova concluded. 

Jeltoksan  is the name of the riots of the Kazakh youth which occurred on 17-18 December 1986 in Alma-Ata, the capital of the Kazakh SSR. The riots later turned into mass protests and people’s uprising against the communist power.

As per official data, the unrests occurred after General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev dismissed First Secretary of the Kazakhstan Communist Party Dinmukhamed Kunayev and appointed outsider Gennady Kolbin, First Secretary of the Ulyanovsk Regional Committee of the Party, who had never worked in Kazakhstan, to this position. The protests participants demanded to appoint a representative of the local population to this position. Later, other cities of the country witnessed unrests.                                                                                                                            

Jeltoksan became the first mass riot in the USSR against the dictate of the central authorities. Similar events were later registered in other national republics of the USSR.