Bilal Aspandiyarov (bom 1886, Karabalyksky District, Kostanay Region — died 18th September 1958, Alma-Ata).

 

Enlightener, prominent scientist, historian and linguist. Ameritus school teacher in Kazakh SSR (1945). Finished a two-year Russian/Kazakh school formed by Ibray Altynsarin, then graduated from the Orenburg Normal School in 1909 and then the History and Economic Department of the Kazakh Teachers’ Training Institute (1931). He taught at a number of schools in Kostanay Region; in 1923-1925, he organised the teachers’ training vocational school in Kostanay and was its first director. Since July 1925, Head of the Zhetysu Province Public Education Department. He worked closely with A. Baitursynov, M. Dulatov, S. Sadvakasov and S. Asfendiyarov. Delegate to the 6th All-Russian Congress of Heads of Provincial Public Education Departments (Moscow, 1926). Was active in the formation of the general education system in Kazakhstan, as well as in organisation of schools and training of teachers in Zhetysu.

 

In the 30s and 40s, B. Aspandiyarov engaged in scientific and teachers’ training work under the auspices of the People’s Commissariat for Education and at a number of higher education institutions in Alma-Ata; in various years, he lectured in history, economic geography, logics and psychology (at the Mining and Metallurgy Institute, the Kazakh Teachers’ Training Institute, the Institute of Journalism, the Zoology and Veterinary Institute, the Law Institute, the Women’s Teachers’ Training Institute, etc.). He contributed greatly to the development and publication of the first Russian textbooks for Kazakh schools. Since the late 30s, he worked for the Kazan Branch of the USSR Academy of Science (the Sector for Language, Literature and History) and participated in the preparation of Russian/Kazakh, Kazakh/Russian and other dictionaries, while during the World War Two he published the first Russian textbook for Kazakh conscriptees at the Institute of Marx, Engels and Lenin (1942) and acted as translator. Since April 1945, he was Senior Scientist at the Institute for History, Archaeology and Ethnography under the Kazakh SSR Academy of Science.

 

Having found the enormous mass of archive documents and literary sources, Bilal Aspandiyarov carried out the first in the history of Bukei Horde comprehensive study and revealed in his monograph on Formation and Liquidation of Bukei Horde (1947) a full picture of the evolution, development and liquidation of Bukei Horde (the thesis is held at the National Academy of Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan).

 

In 1948 and 1949, he continued writing a collection of documents on History of Bukei Horde. In 1949, historian B. Sanzhiyev and archivist N. Kireyev joined him in this work. In 1952, this collection of documents (950 typed pages) was completed by the 150th anniversary of Bukei Horde, edited and prepared for printing.

 

In July 1948, during a discussion of Y.B. Bekmakhanov’s book, Kazakhstan in the 1820s to the 1840s, B. Aspandiyarov openly expressed his opinion that it would have been impossible to form an independent state and for Kazakhstan’s ethnic groups to develop had they not fought for Kazakhstan’s independence.

 

In the late 40s, this researcher started working on a complicated subject: Formation of Kazakh Zhuzs. He wrote a number of papers on critical issues pertaining to the Kazakh history that were never published in his lifetime (Etymology of Some Toponymic Names (1950), Some Data on Areas Inhabited by Kazakhs in Ancient Times (1952), Critical Notes on the Origin of the Name of the Kazakhs (1952), publications on historical toponymy etc.

 

During the purges of the early 50s, it was officially forbidden to work on the topics B. Aspandiyarov researched, while he was subjected to purges, unjustified persecution and was expelled from the Institute for History, Archaeology and Ethnography under the Kazakh SSR Academy of Science.

 

In 1953, he was transferred to the Institute for Language and Literature, where he took part in the development of the Thesaurus of the Kazakh Language in two volumes. He took part in the inter-republican co-ordination meeting on grammar of Turkic languages (1956) and was the first to translate the textbook on Logics into the Kazakh language (1949). He was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honour(Honour (1950).

 

B. Aspandiyarov’s legacy comprises numerous handwritten manuscripts in a number of fields of knowledge.

 

Publications: Formation and Liquidation of Bukei Horde, Alma-Ata, 1947 (manuscript, Central Science Library under the National Academy of Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan); Russian Book for Kazakh Schools, Alma-Ata, 1931; Russian Lessons for Kazakh teachers on a correspondence courses, Alma-Ata, 1931; Russian ABC Book, Alma-Ata, 1932; Teach Yourself Russian: for Kazakh Grown-ups, Alma-Ata, 1932; Russian Textbook for Primary Schools, Alma-Ata, 1934; Russian Textbook for Kazakh conscriptees, Alma-Ata, 1942; Russian/Kazakh Dictionary. In Two Volumes, Almaty, Publication of the Academy of Science of Kazakh SSR, 1946 (one of the authors); Discussion of book by Y.B. Bekmakhanov, Kazakhstan in the 1820s to the 1840s, Shorthand Record, 14-19 July 1948, Almaty, 2000, pp. 90-94; Logics, textbook for secondary schools, Alma-Ata, 1949; Collection of Documents on the History of Bukei Horde (one of the authors), 1950,950 pages; Some Data on Areas Inhabited by Kazakhs in Ancient Times, Prostor, 2000, Issue 11; Critical Notes on the Origin of the Name of the Kazakhs, Prostor, 2000, Issue 11; A Publication That Needs to Be Reworked (on the Kazakh/Russian Dictionary by G. Musabayev and K. Makhmudov), Sovietsky Kazakhstan, Issue 10, Alma-Ata, 1955.