SEITKALI MENDESHEV
In Bokei Orda S. Mendeshev established Rural Teachers Community which was set professional as well as political tasks. Thus, Seitkali joined Astrakhan Community of Mutual Assistance which united advanced experience of teaching work.
In 1916 Mendeshev was arrested for participation in national-liberation movement and was committed to Astrakhan prison. During the February Revolution in 1917 he took part in organization of a Revolutionary Committee of Novaya Kazanka village.
In October 1917 S. Mendeshev together with Bolshevik S. Generalov held revolutionary agitation in Bokei Orda and was actively involved in collapse of local bodies of the Provisional Government. In 1918 S. Mendeshev was elected member of the Regional Executive Committee and 1919 he took the post of the Committee's Chairman.
S. Mendeshev was among the founders of the first Kazakh Cavalry and first Komsomol Organization in the oblast. He tuned up work of the journal "Uchitel" (Teacher) and organized translation of the Soviet Constitution into the Kazakh language.
In July 1919 he was appointed member and Vice Chairman of the Military-Revolutionary Committee for Administration of the Kirgiz (Kazakh) Region under the RSFSR Council of People's Commissars. In 1920 S. Mendeshev became first Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. He focused his efforts around preparation of decrees on eradication of polygamy, payment of kalym etc.
In 1921 S. Mendeshev together with S. Seifullin, A. Zhangeldin and other officials of the national republics and regions left for Moscow to take part in the First Session of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (b). At this sitting the Central Bureau of the Communist organizations of Oriental nations was reorganized into the Central Bureau of Agitation and Propaganda among Turkic-speaking peoples. S. Mendeshev was elected member of the Bureau.
S. Mendeshev played a great role in establishment of new basis of tax policy. In 1924 he actively participated in work of a specially established commission on attraction of working Kazakhs to the governmental work.
During 1926-1930 S. Mendeshev was a member of the economic conference of the RSFSR. In 1930-1937 he was the People's Commissar of Education of the KASSR, Chairman of the Science Committee, Head of the Department of the KASSR Council of People's Commissars for protection of natural reserves and monuments. He headed emergency commission for fighting with starvation in Kazakhstan, was among the members of the commission for national-state demarcation of the Central Asian republics. During the period from 1928 to 1929 S. Mendeshev held the post of a member of the Constitutional Commission and the Commission for Land Use in the national republics. He was also Charge d-Affairs of the USSR Central Executive Committee for holding elections to the Council of Chuvash Republic.
S. Mendeshev left rich literary heritage having published over 40 articles and reports. There are more than 20 historical works, articles and memoirs which tell about life and activity of S. Mendeshev.
Source: Kazakhstan, National Encyclopedia, Volume 3.
Book "Historical Figures"