Nursultan Nazarbayev

On July 6, 1940, a long-awaited boy was born in the family of Abish and Alzhan Nazarbayev in zhailyau Alatau in Zailiyskiy Alatau.

The whole story happened with the choice of the boy's name. Relatives gathered at the holiday dedicated to the child's birth offered a variety of names vying with each other. At last, the grandmother of the new-born, Myrzabala, suggested: “Let my beloved grandson have two names at the same time, Nur and Sultan, let him be Nursultan.”

Like most grandmothers in the world, Myrzabala played a special role in the development of the grandson's personality. Nursultan's mother, Alzhan, recalled how Myrzabala gave advice and admonitions to children, daughters-in-law, told about native folk traditions and signs, and took an active part in raising her grandson Nursultan.

The son of Myrzabala, the father of Nursultan Nazarbayev, Abish, was born in 1903 at the foot of the Alatau mountain in the family of Nazarbay Biy.

Abish Nazarbayev was a cheerful, respected man. He was fluent not only in Kazakh, but also in Russian, Balkarian languages. Abish sang Kazakh and Russian songs sincerely, knew how to listen to the companion, to give sensible advice. Abish Nazarbayev died in 1971. 

Nazarbayev's mother, Alzhan, was born in 1910 in the family of the mullah of Kasyk aul, Kurday district of the Dzhambul region.

Alzhan arrived with her exiled father in Ushkonyr, where she met Abish. No one in the aul sang or improvised better than she did. Cheerful Alzhan raised in her son respect and reverence for adults, instilled love for national traditions, songs and customs. Alzhan Nazarbayeva died in 1977. 

Sultan's childhood, as he was called in his family, fell on the harsh and difficult war and post-war years.
Victory in that war was achieved at the cost of the incredible efforts of a huge state, at the cost of millions of human lives.

The half-crippled country just rose from the ruins, was rebuilt. A few years after the Victory, the USSR was dragged into a new exhausting race, called a “cold war”, which again laid a heavy burden on the shoulders of ordinary people.

It was a hard, half-starved time. But in the childhood memory of young Nursultan, not only the burden and hardships of that time were preserved, but also the warm loving hands of his mother, and the caring attention of his father. Friendly family, brothers and sisters, parents' heart-felt songs. The beauty of the brilliant tops of the Alatau and fascinating boyish games. Such was the childhood of all his peers. 

Nursultan saw that his father never sits idle, and therefore tried to help him in everything. At home, in the garden and in the apple orchard, where he helped his father grow potatoes and apples. Nursultan fettled, mowed hay in the mountains together with his father.

Once, his father Abish brought a family of Balkar special settlers to the house. The Nazarbayev family sheltered them, helped them to find work.  And Abish Nazarbayev became friends with the Balkars and quickly learned their language during this time.

In the multi-ethnic Chemolgan everyone did like this. No one was divided by nationality. Nursultan Nazarbayev later wrote in one of his books that then no one among the boys remembered who you were - Kazakh, Ukrainian, Chechen, or German: “And how to divide, if a house of a Turk-Meskhetian was next to the house of a Kazakh family, and Bogdan, Richard, Oleg lived in the next ones ...” The boyish groups were divided only along the streets on which they lived. Such happened that one street fought with the other one. But friendship and mutual aid were a way of life. 

Despite all the difficulties, boys and girls were drawn into the magical world of knowledge, into a joyful and bright future filled with meaning and intelligence.