On April 14, 2026, a scientific seminar titled **“The People’s Constitution in the Context of the Historical Development of Kazakhstan’s Statehood”** was held at the Presidential Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan, organized by the research staff of the Institute of State History.
The scientific seminar was attended by representatives of leading mass media, political scientists, legal experts, and historians. Among the speakers were a well-known scholar, Doctor of Law, Professor of L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University Zh.I. Ibragimov, as well as researchers from the Institute of State History and the Kazakhstan Institute for Public Development. As the chair of the seminar, the Director of the Institute of State History of the Committee of Science of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, PhD, Associate Professor N.S. Pusyrmanov delivered a report. He noted that the text of the new Constitution had been adopted through a nationwide referendum and had generally received broad public support. The main idea of the updated Basic Law is defined by education and science, culture and innovation. This represents a fundamentally important shift, demonstrating that the future of the state is determined not by mineral resources and natural wealth, but by human capital and the achievements of its citizens. According to the Director of the Institute of State History, another important direction is digitalization. In this regard, for the first time, the new Constitution enshrines a provision on the protection of citizens’ rights in the digital environment. The next speaker was the Deputy Director of the Institute of State History, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor B.G. Ayagan. In his report, the prominent scholar emphasized that the features of Kazakh statehood have been developing since ancient times. He was followed by Doctor of Law, Professor Zh.I. Ibragimov, who stated that the Constitution strengthens justice in a new society. Then the floor was given to the Chief Researcher of the Institute of State History, Doctor of Political Sciences Zh.I. Kuanyshev. According to him, the new Constitution adopted at the nationwide referendum is aimed at redistributing the powers of the branches of government and strengthening the mechanisms of checks and balances. The seminar was organized by the Head of the Department of Source Studies, Historiography and National History, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor G.M. Karasaev, who in his speech highlighted the positive impact of the newly adopted Constitution on enhancing the role of Parliament and increasing government accountability. The Chief Researcher of the same department, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor T.M. Aminov, assessed the new Constitution as the fundamental law that shapes the political system of the Republic of Kazakhstan and has fulfilled its historical mission. The concluding report was delivered by the Director of the Institute of State History, PhD, Associate Professor N.S. Pusyrmanov. During the seminar, issues of continuity of the principles of statehood, their transformation, and their reflection in the modern constitutional system were discussed. The organizers of the scientific seminar were the Institute of State History and the Presidential Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Scientists expressed confidence that the draft Constitution will become the foundation for the country’s sustainable development.
Presentation of the monograph “The Honorable Son of Alash Shot in the Urals – Khasan Nurmukhamedov”at the Institute of State History
On November 3, 2025, the Presidential Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan hosted the presentation of a new monograph by the Leading Researcher of the Institute of State History, Candidate of Historical Sciences, and Associate Professor Dametken Dosmukhamedkyzy Suleimenova, titled “The Honorable Son of Alash Executed in Oral – Hasan Nurmukhamedov.” The event gathered representatives of universities and research institutions, including Professors O. Ozganbayev, A. Ismakova, T. Zhurtbai, Deputy Director of the Presidential Center, Candidate of Historical Sciences B. Muttakhidenkyzy Kaiypova, and other distinguished guests. During the presentation, Dr. A. Ismakova, Professor at Nazarbayev University, and Dr. K. Sarsenbina, Director of the Astana branch of the Sh. Ualikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology, shared their insights, warmly congratulating the author and praising the scholarly significance of her work. The monograph is dedicated to the life and public activity of Hasan Nurmukhamedov, one of the prominent figures of the Alash movement in the early 20th century. The team of the Institute of State History sincerely congratulates Dametken Dosmukhamedkyzy Suleimenova on the presentation of her new work and wishes her continued creative success!
The feat of Kazakhstanis on the fronts and in the rear of the Great Patriotic War (dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Victory)
This year marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. As our President K. K. Tokayev noted, May 9 holds a special place in our history. This is a day of selfless worship of the spirits of our grandfathers and fathers, grandparents who defended the country. This is the day when we remember the heroic feat of the people who defeated fascism. In a fierce war, our people made efforts and suffered huge losses. We won thanks to the heroism and dedication of the front-line soldiers, the dedication of the home front workers. It is our sacred duty to perpetuate the memory of our troubles, who made their lives for the liberation of the country and the bright future of the generation [1]. The first stage of the war was very difficult. In such circumstances, the role of Kazakhstan has increased somewhat. The war required a large output of ferrous, rare and non-ferrous metallurgy, coal and oil industries. Kazakhstan has accepted the evacuated institutions. In 1941-1942, more than 220 factories, workshops and artels were relocated to the republic. In addition, 240 industrial enterprises were built in Kazakhstan in 1941-1945. Kazakhstan supplied 85% of lead, 35% of tin, 75% of polymetallic ores. During the war years, Karaganda miners extracted 34 million tons of coal. Oil production increased by 39% [2]. Agriculture has also adapted to the need of war. Despite the fact that two thirds of the conscripts for the war were agricultural workers, in many collective farms 80% of the workers were women. The needlewomen showed courage in their work. Agricultural producers of Kazakhstan not only transferred bread, meat, and raw materials to the front, but also saved about 370,000 evacuated cattle. Thus, a large amount of meat, milk, wool, and leather were sent to the front. Residents of Kazakhstan raised funds for the assembly of tanks, airplanes, as well as an entire squadron. The funds voluntarily provided by Kazakhstanis for the needs of the front will amount to 4,700 million rubles. In addition, about 2.5 million warm clothes and 1,600 wagons of gifts were sent to the front. In addition, scientific and creative teams have been evacuated to Kazakhstan. Academic scientists such as the Moscow and Leningrad Film Studios, about 20 scientific institutions and world-famous names I. P. Vernadsky, V. A. Obruchev, A.M. Pankratova, A. A. Skochinsky and others were transferred to Almaty. As a spiritual weapon, literature served as a great cause. Such masters of poetry and prose as Zhambyl Zhabaev, Mukhtar Auezov, Sabit Mukanov, Dmitry Snegin, and young writers as Zhuban Moldagaliev, Syrbai Maulenov, Sagyngali Seyitov, and Zhumagali Sain wrote their works about the heroes of the front and rear. 90 Kazakhstani poets and writers fought on the war fronts [3]. From the first days of the war, military formations and units were formed on the territory of Kazakhstan. The 316th Infantry Division was one of the first to be established in Kazakhstan. The personnel was based on the workers of Almaty, Zhambyl and South Kazakhstan regions. Major General I. V. Panfilov, who participated in the Civil War and fought in the ranks of the glorious 25th Chapaev Division, was appointed division commander. In total, 12 rifle divisions, 4 cavalry divisions, 7 rifle brigades, about 50 separate regiments and battalions, and various military formations have been formed in Kazakhstan. During the war, 1,196,164 Kazakhstanis were drafted into the army. The formed military formations and units were multinational in composition. 670,000 people have been mobilized to work at industrial enterprises. The glorious 316th Infantry Division under the command of Major General I. V. Panfilov played a decisive role in the battles near Moscow. He managed to stubbornly resist the enemy tanks. The immortal feat of 28 soldiers of the 1075th Infantry regiment, who destroyed 18 Nazi tanks at the Dubosekovo junction on November 16, 1941 and did not send the enemy to Moscow, is known all over the world. Political instructor V. G. Klochkov, who was part of this group, said: “Russia is huge, but there is nowhere to retreat to! Follow Us, Moscow!”catchphrases spread all over the front. All twenty-eight Panfilov members were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. General I.V. Panfilov died heroically on November 18, 1941. In the battle for Moscow, having received the title of Hero only in 1990, the battalion under the command of senior Lieutenant Bauyrzhan Momyshuly showed resilience. In the same battle, Tolegen Tokhtarov, Malik Gabdullin, and others were Heroes of the Soviet Union. P. B. Vikhrev was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union after his heroic death. In addition, the Heroes of the Soviet Union were Karaganda pilot N.Abdirov, mortar man K. Metataev, Lieutenant G. Ramaev, who died heroically for their Homeland. Other divisions, brigades and regiments formed in Kazakhstan were deployed to the fronts of the Great Patriotic War in 1942. At that time, the 312th Division, formed in Aktobe, fought one seven-fold defensive battle against three or four enemy divisions near Maloyaroslavl. The 102nd Division, formed in Shymkent, held a defensive line in northeastern Ukraine. During the Great Patriotic War, the Battle of Stalingrad became a turning point. Among the formations involved in this fierce battle was the 38th Infantry Division, formed in Kazakhstan. He fought each time as part of the 62nd Army / Commander V. I. Chuikov /, the 57th Army / columnist F. I. Tolbukhin /, as well as the commander of the 64th Army / Commander M. S. Shumilov /, who bore the brunt of the battle for Stalingrad. The 81st Infantry Division, formed in the city of Zhambyl during the battles near Stalingrad, made a significant contribution to the defeat of the enemy. In late November and early November 1942, this division participated in battles against Nazi troops who attempted to capture the city of Kotelnikovo and, thus, liberate the besieged army of Paulus in the city of Stalingrad. Also, the battalions of the 152nd Rifle brigade, formed in Uralsk, blocked the road to
The declaration of independence of Kazakhstan and the Republic’s first steps in the international arena
Independence is the main asset of any state. Different peoples achieve independence in different ways, through revolutions, wars, and national liberation movements. For Kazakhstan, the events of December 1986 marked the beginning of the people’s desire for sovereignty and self-determination. On October 25, 1990, the Kazakh SSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the republic, which played an important role on the path to independence of Kazakhstan. In 1991, on December 16, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan adopted the Constitutional Law “On the State Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan”. This year we celebrate the 33rd anniversary of Independence Day, the formation of a sovereign state called the Republic of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan’s independence became possible as a result of the collapse of the USSR, of which our republic was a part for 74 years. Until recently, the leadership of Kazakhstan fought for the preservation of the Soviet Union, making efforts to adopt a new treaty on the creation of a renewed union state. However, nothing came of it. The political and economic crisis in the USSR in the late 80s and early 90s reached its peak. The decrepit and incapacitated Soviet state machine, inherited by the last leader of the country, the architect of perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev, glitched after glitch. The perestroika put forward at the April 1985 Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which brought about glasnost and, to a certain extent, democratization of public life, did not have a significant impact on improving the living conditions of the Soviet people. The USSR was experiencing a severe systemic crisis. And in such a difficult situation, since the early 1990s, political movements for independence and secession from the USSR began to emerge in the republics. The Union Republics adopted declarations of sovereignty, establishing the supremacy of their laws. This process has firmly established itself as a “parade of sovereignties.” The attempts to use force made by the Soviet leadership in Tbilisi (1989), Baku (1990) and Vilnius (1991) had the opposite result: the protests multiplied and became more widespread. The dramatic events of those years became a bitter but important experience for us. Realizing the reasons for the rapid fall of a once great power and analyzing the tactical mistakes of the allied leadership, we learned important lessons from what was happening. They helped in the fight against difficulties, and Kazakhstan had a lot of them,” the first President N.A.Nazarbayev wrote in his book “The Era of Independence” [1, 24]. Political reforms in the USSR in the late 80s and early 90s, the proclamation of a course towards the creation of Soviet parliamentarism, the convening of a new supreme authority – the Congress of People’s Deputies, the introduction of the institute of the President of the USSR, the formation of a multiparty system – led to the democratization of society and made inevitable the aggravation of a seemingly long-ago “resolved” national issue. Forced internationalization without taking into account national interests has led to serious miscalculations in national policy. On May 18, 1989, Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to adopt a Declaration of Sovereignty. By the summer of 1991, most of the Union republics of the USSR had adopted laws on sovereignty, which forced the union leadership to accelerate the development of a new Union Treaty. The signing of such an agreement meant not only the preservation of a single state, but also the transition to its real federal structure. On March 17, 1991, a referendum was held on the question: to be or not to be the USSR and what it should be like. The majority voted for the preservation of the USSR. The Baltic republics, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia did not participate in the voting. In September, the Extraordinary Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR recognized the independence of the Baltic republics. The leaders of seven republics – Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan – have announced their intention to create a new interstate entity, the Union of Sovereign States (UCC). But that didn’t happen. On December 8, 1991, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha near Brest, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed an agreement on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States. It stated that the USSR, as a subject of international law, was ceasing to exist. December 21, 1991 In Almaty, the leaders of 11 states (except Georgia) signed a Declaration on the final termination of the existence of the USSR and the formation of the CIS – the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation from the post of President of the USSR. Thus, 1991 was marked by epochal events: the failed coup attempt, the liquidation of the CPSU, and the collapse of the empire called the USSR. Thus, by the end of 1991, Kazakhstan had developed a favorable political environment for gaining its independence, the August 1991 coup, the collapse of the USSR, the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the formation of the former Soviet republics as independent states accelerated the adoption of the Law on Kazakhstan’s Independence. After the August coup in Kazakhstan, the Communist Party was dissolved, and the republic became virtually independent. The President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, could not prevent the centrifugal tendencies, and every day his power weakened more and more. In order to make his power more legitimate, N.A.Nazarbayev went on a major democratization of the political system and announced the holding of national presidential elections. On December 1, 1991, the first national presidential elections were held in Kazakhstan, and on December 10, Kazakhstan ceased to be socialist. On this day, the Law “On Changing the name of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic” was adopted, which approved the new name – the Republic of Kazakhstan. On December 16, 1991, the Law “On the State Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan” declared Kazakhstan an independent state with an independent system of government bodies, an independent economic system, its own armed forces and a
“Kumys holiday of the steppe world of Eurasia: leitmotif, memory and identity”
During The Days of Yakutia in Kazakhstan and the II International Scientific and Practical Seminar “Modern historical and historical-anthropological studies of Eurasia” on April 18, 2024, the presentation of the collective monograph “Kumys holiday of the steppe world of Eurasia: leitmotif, memory and identity”, carried out as part of a scientific program carried out on the basis of The State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve “Bozok” of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The monograph was prepared by Zubaida Kabievna Suraganova, a leading researcher at the Institute of State History of the Science Committee of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (director of the scientific program “Traditional Rituals as a manifestation of a mindful culture: resources and strategies of symbolic Capital of Steppe Eurasia”), PhD. Doctor of Historical Sciences, Ekaterina Nazarovna Romanova, Chief Researcher and Head of The Center for Intellectual History and Culture of the Institute for Humanitarian Studies and Problems of Indigenous Peoples of the North of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Istor.Science, Naurzbayeva Zira Zhetibaevna, a famous researcher of Kazakh mythology, writer, screenwriter and translator, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences. The book is dedicated to an ancient holiday tradition, the history of which dates back to ancient times. Today, the Kumys holiday is a representation of the intangible cultural heritage, cultural memory and a manifestation of the identity of the peoples of steppe Eurasia.
Collaboration in the study of history: successful partnership and close ties
The development of a new humanitarian education in Kazakhstan and Italy, and the study of little-known pages of history were discussed at the Institute of State History with the participation of Maria Teresa Giusti, PhD, Professor of the Gabriele d’Annuzio State University (Kieti Pescara, Italy). M. T. Giusti is the author of 18 articles and 8 monographs in publications belonging to the international group “A-rated journal” (Q1), including the work “Italian military in the USSR, 1941-1954”, translated into Russian. At the meeting, the Director of the Institute, PhD N.Pusyrmanov noted: “Kazakhstan and Italy have rich historical traditions, despite the geographical gap, their history has been intertwined for many centuries. In the Middle Ages, famous Italians such as Marco Polo and Giovanni de Plano Carpini toured Jochi ulus, marking the beginning of cultural and educational exchange between our peoples. However, it is important to remember that our history is not limited to famous names only. Your works reveal the history of thousands of Italian prisoners of war who visited the former USSR, including Kazakhstan, in the 1940s.” After the meeting, Giusti, an Italian historian and researcher, gave a professorial lecture on the political, cultural and economic ties between the two countries in the last century, and Italians in Kazakhstan in the 1940s. A bilateral agreement was reached that the mutually reliable collaboration would be continued with new interdisciplinary research.
The history of Kazakh diplomacy
The Institute of State History has launched a stream of “Talks” meetings with the participation of historians and experts in the form of lectures, discussions, and opinions. “Talks” is held every week on Thursday at 3 p.m. This is not only a platform for mutual discussion of scientists, but also an opportunity to share new knowledge, creative potential, and skills and competencies. The first meeting was held on the topic “The problem of the Kazakh Khanate in the work of A. P. Chuloshnikov.” Speaker: Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Chief Researcher of the Department “Source Studies, Historiography and History of the Fatherland” A. N.Kashkumbaev. Expert scientist, researchers through reviews on our official website (www.history-state.kz , +7-7172-75-23-53) questions of national history, results of the study “History of independent Kazakhstan”.
“The secret of history is in archival data” the Akmola region joined the project
Today, a memorandum of cooperation has been signed between the Institute of State History and the State Archive of the Akmola region. Within the framework of the joint project, it is planned to conduct applied scientific research “historical and cultural origins of the Akmola region”. The purpose of the research is to study the history of the formation and development of historical and cultural (administrative–territorial, urbanization, ethnodemographic) processes of the Akmola region in the XIX-XXI centuries. Thanks to this research work, recommendations on the sustainable development of social processes in the region will be prepared. These works coincide with the direction of modernization of the historical consciousness of our nation, raised at the second meeting of the National Kurultai in Turkestan. Today, a research group led by a scientist at the Institute of State History, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Alima Auanasova is studying the archival fund of the region. Recall that on July 5 of this year, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Astana, the Institute of State History and the State Archive of Astana signed a memorandum of mutual cooperation and launched the project “the secret of history -in archival data”. Cooperation with regional archives will continue in this area.