A single database of veterans was created in Kazakhstan. Every citizen of the country has an opportunity not only to get acquainted, but also to share information about their relatives who fought in World War II.
Residents of Aktobe also plan to immortalize the memory of the heroes on the Batyrlarga Tagzym website. 122,000 people went from the region to the front, and 35 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for courage and bravery. Among them is Malkezhdar Bukenbayev. His family honors the memory of their father and grandfather. Bukenbayev commanded a rifle platoon on the First Belorussian Front. He distinguished himself in the battle near the Polish city of Chelm. In hand-to-hand combat, he killed a German officer and captured five soldiers. He was wounded, but did not leave the battlefield.
“This is our history and we need to know it. Nowadays, everything is transformed to an online format, online media, online cinemas, online education. Therefore, the creation of such websites is really important. Anyone can find out about their relatives or fellow countrymen who participated in the Second World War,” said Dina Bukenbayeva, Grand daughter of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
After the war, for many years Malkezhdar Bukenbaev worked in law enforcement agencies. Aktobe Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was named after him. In the establishment there is a museum named after the Hero of the Soviet Union, which stores rare photos and documents. According to the staff of the university, materials were collected from archives throughout Kazakhstan and Russia. All of this was included in the book, which was published at the initiative of the teachers.
“Every year we tell the cadets and visitors of the museum about our hero and show a film about Malkezhdar Bukenbaev. One book has already been published and we plan to publish another one,” noted Zina Nurysh, Associate Professor at Aktobe Law Institute of Kazakh Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Overall, 381 veterans of World War II, and 98,000 citizens, who contributed to the victory in the war, reside in Kazakhstan.
Translation and editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova
