Kazakh politician who founded the Alash party and led the Alash Orda government in 1917–1920
Born in Semipalatinsk Oblast in 1866 (some sources say 1870), he graduated from the Omsk Technical School and the Saint Petersburg Forestry Institute and wrote the first biography of Abay Kunanbayev. He joined the Constitutional Democrats (Kadets) in 1905, entered the State Duma in 1906 and, after signing the Vyborg Manifesto, was imprisoned and then lived in exile in Samara until 1917. Appointed the Provisional Government’s commissioner for Turgay Oblast in 1917, he broke with the Kadets over Kazakh autonomy, founded the Alash party and that year was elected head of the Alash Orda government. He sided with the White governments of Siberia until late 1919, then came to terms with Soviet power, worked in publishing in Moscow and was shot in 1937. He was rehabilitated in 1989.
Also known as: Alikhan Bokeikhanov · Alikhan Bokeikhan · Älihan Bökeihan
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1895–1897Mathematics teacher at the Omsk school for Kazakh children
- 1906Member of the First State Duma
- 1908–1917Exile in Samara
- 1917Provisional Government commissioner for Turgay Oblast
- 1917–1920Head of the Alash Orda government
- 1922–1927Literary staff member of the Kazakh section of the Central Publishing House of the Peoples of the USSR