On the eve of the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repressions and Famines, 18 documents and over 60 books from the Library of the First President of Kazakhstan and the Archive of the President of Kazakhstan were handed over at the Museum and Memorial Complex "ALZHIR", DKNews.kz reports.
According to the Director of the Library of the First President of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Temirbolat, since 1997, May 31 in Kazakhstan is annually celebrated as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of one of the most tragic pages of our history - mass political repression and terrible famine, which caused millions of deaths and reduced the country's population by a third. In his welcoming speech, he expressed the hope that the archived photographs and documents handed over would contribute to restoring historical justice.
According to Samat Tergembaev, Director of the ALZHIR Museum and Memorial Complex, this complex, as a unique monument to the victims of mass terror, contributes to the preservation of memory about the sad events of the 30-50s of XX century, and the formation of patriotism and moral qualities of the younger generation to avoid repetition of such tragedies in the future.
In turn, Deputy Director of the Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Beisembai Zhumabekov noted that with the opening of the Archive of the Center for the Study of Materials of Political Repression of the twentieth Century, a specialized repository for such documents appeared nationwide, and the work of the State Commission for the Complete Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression received the appropriate official archival support.
The event was also attended by Deputies of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, members of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan, the State Commission for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression, employees of the Akimat of the Tselinograd district, veterans and representatives of public organizations.
In the 1930s-1950s, there were 11 institutions of the Chief Administration of Camps and Detention Centers (GULAG) system operating in Kazakhstan: Akmola Camp for Wives of Traitors of the Motherland (ALZHIR), Karaganda Correctional Labor Camp (Karlag), Dalnyi, Stepnoy, Peschaniy, Kamyshlag, Aktyubinsk, Dzhezkazganlag, Petropavlovsk, Kengir and Ust-Kamenogorsk camps. Many years later ALZHIR and KARLAG were turned into historical memorial complexes.
"ALZHIR is a notorious place where thousands of wives of innocently declared "enemies of the people" were imprisoned. In different years (from 1938 to 1953) in barracks on an area of 30 thousand square meters more than 18 thousand women were kept.
