International Conference ‘Returned Names of Victory’ in Almaty

On April 28-29, Almaty hosted the International Conference ‘Returned Names of Victory’ organized by the Eurasian and African Peoples’ Assembly, the EAPA Council on Historical Memory, the International Centre for the Rapprochement of Cultures under the auspices of UNESCO and the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio. The participants of the plenary session talked about the study of fates of the participants of the Great Patriotic War and home front workers with the involvement of children and young people, the creation of information exchange between researchers from different countries, the work with media resources, as well as the embodiment of the truth about the war and victory in cinematographic art. The main point of agreement among the participants was that the contribution of each nation of the Soviet Union was enormous, and it was the shared struggle and shares victory that shaped the pan-Soviet identity.

The plenary session was moderated by Valery Ruzin, Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian and African peoples’ Assembly, President of the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio, and Laila Akhmetova, Chair of the Council on Historical Memory of the Eurasian and African Peoples’ Assembly, Professor at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Republic of Kazakhstan).

Global Crisis and the Power of Public Diplomacy

Opening the conference Valery Ruzin emphasized the importance of such events:

‘Public diplomacy is a real force that influences politics. I now remember how in 2019 at a press conference in Baku, we, together with Olzhas Suleimenov, expressed the idea of creating an international title of the City of Labour Glory. This proposal was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the CIS Executive Committee, other departments. In October 2024, an Appeal of 8 heads of CIS countries to the world community in connection with the 80th anniversary of the Victory was adopted, one of its results is the creation of this title. First awarding will take place on May 9.’

He also quoted the words of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev from his speech at the 34th session of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan:

‘To this day, the great Victory is a lesson and a reminder to all nations and especially to politicians of the tragic consequences to which irresponsible policies based on xenophobia, racial and national superiority and disregard for the basic principles of international law can lead’.

Andrey Belianinov, Secretary General of the Eurasian and African Peoples’ Assembly, sent greetings to the participants of the conference.

‘Research and projects related to the study of the Great Patriotic War are our duty, both to the generation of the victors and to future generations, to whom we must pass on the historical truth and the memory of it. Because the lessons of history are the most important, and the preservation of peace depends on how we teach them. Our goal is not only to expand research work on preserving the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, but also to strengthen public diplomacy, creating bridges between peoples, between our joint past and future,’ -the greeting says.

Also, Banu Nurgazieva, President of the Civil Alliance of Kazakhstan, member of the General Council of EAPA, addressed the conference participants with a greeting.

‘There are only days left to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, which determined the fate of the world. The victory was won at the cost of incredible trials, suffering, courage, unity, selflessness of the entire Soviet people. This victory has gone down in history as a feat that proved to the world the strength of spirit and unyielding faith in life. The light of the ancestors’ velour became the basis of national character and support for future generations,’ - the speaker noted.

Valery Zhandauletov, Chief Scientific Officer of the International Centre for the Rapprochement of Cultures under the auspices of UNESCO, Vice-President of the International Anti-Nuclear Movement ‘Nevada - Semipalatinsk’, conveyed Olzhas Suleimenov's greetings and assessed the significance of the Victory for the Soviet people and the whole world.

‘All progressive humanity is on the eve of the main holiday - the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory. Much will be said about sacrifices and contributions, about how the home front worked, many names and surnames will be heard - all this is needed. A holiday that takes place in the midst of a global crisis sets the tone for our actions, for the actions of each of us. In the Soviet Union, one in five people died; in Kazakhstan, almost half did not return from the front. Another 700,000 people carried their burden on the labour front,’ - he noted.

Ilya Demkin, a leading specialist of the Gorchakov Foundation, is convinced that preserving a common memory helps peoples to better understand each other and wished the conference participants productive and meaningful work:

‘The Foundation considers it important to support an event aimed at preserving the shared memory in our minds, our souls and our hearts. The shared memory of the exploits of the Soviet people, who coped with threats not only to our country, but also to other states and peoples, still helps us to understand each other better.’

Common Victory

The report of Salamat Yubalaev, Associate Professor of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Kyrgyz State Technical University named after I. Razzakov (Kyrgyz Republic), was devoted to data from surveys of schoolchildren, who often do not know basic facts about the Great Patriotic War. He also emphasized that the victory was truly shared - the Panfilov Division included fighters of 14 nationalities. He also noted the feat of Uzbeks in the Amerfort concentration camp, the feat of Belarusian pilot Alexander Mamkin, who saved children at the cost of his own life, and others.

Inomdzhon Mamadaliev, Professor of Khujand State University named after Academician B. Gafurov (Republic of Tajikistan), presented a report on how teachers, employees and students of the university (during the Great Patriotic War - Leninabad State Pedagogical Institute named after S. Kirov) took part in the war. On June 23,1941 they held a rally. More than 150 teachers joined the front.

‘We are beginning to distance ourselves from the momentous history of the Great Patriotic War, we are becoming strangers to this history, and this leads to falsification and distortion,’ - Inomdzhon Mamadaliev said.

Igor Gorodnichy, developer of the media platform ‘History Network’ (Russian Federation), presented the resource on which the Eurasian Book of Memory is formed. According to him, the work to create a unified system began three years ago, it is based on the search for biographies that help to see all the events of the war. A special project ‘Heroes of Central Asia in the Great Patriotic War’ was prepared for the conference on the media platform; it contains archival and contemporary photographs, as well as a number of biographies of WWII participants drafted from the Central Asian republics. As an example, Igor Gorodnichy showed the biography of Bauyrzhan Momyshuly. The People's Hero of Kazakhstan commanded a battalion of 1073 rifle regiment of 8 Guards Panfilov rifle division, the colonel was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He participated in the Battle of Moscow, the defence of Volokolamsk, Operation Polar Star and other important operations.

Dehumanisation destroys compassion. How historical memory is preserved in museums and cinema

Daniel Sitter, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Researcher at the International Research Centre for World War II Studies (IRC Maribor), Lecturer at the European University ‘Alma Mater Europaea’ (Republic of Slovenia), spoke about the scientific work and memory conservation activities carried out at Stalag XVIII D. He said that he comes from the part of Slovenia that was annexed by the Third Reich and spoke about the tragic fate of Soviet prisoners of war in the Stalag concentration camp.

‘More than 80 per cent of the losses of the Nazi forces on the Eastern Front are due to the fighting Red Army, which decisively stopped the Nazis and drove them back from Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Kursk, Kharkov to the original nest of the Nazis. There were many Central Asians in the Red Army who defended key sections of the Eastern Front as part of the 316th Rifle Division.’

The historian showed rare archive photographs: the building, which was intended for Soviet prisoners of war, was surrounded by many rows of barbed wire, isolated and heavily guarded. The deliberate purpose of the ‘Russian camp,’ as the Nazis called it, was to exterminate Soviet prisoners of war.

‘It was carried out by methods of planned and deliberate atrocities, crimes, sadistic torture, ill-treatment by guards who inflicted cold, starvation, physical destruction, labour slavery.’

To date, Daniel Sitter noted, at least 2,300 dead Soviet soldiers have been identified. From personal cards historians know the dates of birth and death of soldiers, places of their capture, occupation and even hair colour. For example, there are known natives of Kazakhstan who died in Stalag XVIIID: Private Vasily Platonov from 71 rifle regiment of 30 division, who was born in 1913, was captured on September 4, 1941 near Kakhovka and died on January 27, 1942, and Private Ivan Zhikharev from 535 rifle regiment of 134 division, who was born in 1919, was captured on August 15, 1941 and died on March 5, 1942. Both are buried in the cemetery in Maribor.

Daniel Sitter said that the hygienic conditions in the camp were disastrous and everything that happened there was a flagrant violation of international norms and the laws of war. At the same time, just 100 meters away from the ‘Russian camp’, Allied prisoners of war were playing rugby, football and other sports games.

Today, the building of the former Nazi camp houses the International Research Centre for World War II Studies and a museum, where scientific research is conducted, historical truth is preserved and the crimes of Nazism are told through museum means, including to younger generations.

‘What must have been going on in the heads and people that they not only allowed but arranged such inhumanity - putting food or water in front of prisoners and killing those who reached for it... The worst thing that happened in the camp was the dehumanization that reduced compassion and allowed people to be destroyed with cold bureaucratic efficiency,’ - Sitter noted.

Director and poet Bakhyt Kairbekov spoke about the film, which he made as a term project and dedicated to his father.

 - Why are you telling me about my older brother? - asks the hero of his father.

 - He spoke in me, and then I will speak in you,’ - the father replied to his son....

Already after the death of Bakhyt's father, People's writer of Kazakhstan Gafu Kairbekov, it was learnt that his elder brother fell at Stalingrad. Bakhyt's cousins travelled to the mass grave and brought the earth from there to his native Kazakhstan. Bakhyt dedicated his poem ‘My uncle fell at Stalingrad; my father did not know exactly where...’ - to this family story.

Film director and screenwriter Sergei Azimov also spoke at the plenary session.

‘I think we are all united by one thing: memory. And I would divide films about the war into those that were made as they should be, and those that were made about the way things were. There are very few ‘as it was’ films, and they were not widely shown - these are films in which the truth about the war takes precedence over ideology’. 

He told about the film ‘In Search of a Hero’, which was shot without a script, because the script was written by life itself. It all started with filming an episode of transporting Kazakh land to Slovenia, and then thanks to long work in archives it was possible to find the name of a Kazakh buried in a mass grave. Sergei Azimov also raised the issue that the historical truth is worthy and prisoners of war, who, returning from the front, became outcasts or were convicted under Article 58. ‘I urge everyone just to be honest before the memory of the dead,’ - the director concluded his speech with these words.

Igor Krupko, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Deputy Director for Science and External Relations of the International Centre for the Rapprochement of Cultures under the auspices of UNESCO, executive editor of the scientific journal ‘Bilgamesh’ (Republic of Kazakhstan), dedicated his report to the film ‘Land of the Fathers’, shot in 1966 from a script by Olzhas Suleimenov.

‘The art created by Olzhas Suleimenov can be characterised as self-consciousness of culture’, - said Igor Krupko and stressed that both literary, scientific and cinematographic works of Suleimenov, who brought up several generations of readers of the entire Eurasian continent, are aimed at acquiring historical subjectivity.

The film ‘Land of Fathers’ reflects the memory routes of Kazakhstan in the second half of the XX century. The film tells how, a year after the Victory, an elderly Kazakh, together with his grandson, goes to the grave of his dead son, meeting different people and learning about the world of the big Soviet Motherland. In the carriage they find themselves together with a Russian soldier, a Leningrad professor-archaeologist, and on the roof a deported Chechen returns to his native land to die there. Two worlds meet in the film: Kazakh and all-Soviet, and these worlds go from lack of communication to mutual understanding, ‘to the formation of a single socio-cultural space of conscious unity’. The film asserts the superiority of the ethical over the ethnic. Its scenes become lighter and lighter - from the first meeting in a dark carriage, from the darkness of distrust to the light of knowledge of the big world. The image of the earth is a profound plot line that refrain appears in different images - from the dug grave and the earth glimpsed outside the train window to the excavation of a medieval hill fort.

‘In many years Olzhas Omarovich will say about the Great Patriotic War the words with which I want to end my speech. In historical perspective, that war was a war of conscious internationalism with conscious Nazism. In those years we felt unity, brotherhood, because our grandfathers and fathers lie in mass graves,’ - said Igor Krupko.

Film director Andrei Yakunin, who also spoke at the plenary session, noted that he went through the war in Afghanistan and knows not from words what a feat is, and documentary, which he began to do at the age of 50 - the theme for him is not accidental, but natural.

Making films about valiant Panfilov's soldiers, the creative group finds many facts unknown before, multiple feats become known - 17 riflemen from Tolgar (a town in Almaty region) in November 1941 stopped 25 German tanks. Only two fighters survived. He also noted that in Western Kazakhstan there was also fighting and air battles and recalled that according to the plan ‘Ost’ the entire territory of Central Asia, which was called ‘Greater Turkestan’ was to be wiped off the face of the Earth, and the population of the republics the Nazis were going to turn into slaves.

‘On May 9, we should come out with portraits of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers and commemorate them. This is our Victory,’ - the filmmaker urged.

A cemented identity

Kairzhan Abdykhalykov, PhD, professor at the Kazakh-British Technical University and chairman of the Almaty Civic Alliance (Republic of Kazakhstan), spoke of the problems associated with different interpretations of the war, because there are no longer those who saw it with their own eyes. For example, there are 22 World War II veterans living in Almaty today.

‘We must present our victory to the youth in the right way. It depends on us whether there will be no gap between generations and whether the historical truth will be preserved. Because, unfortunately, there are even questions about why we should celebrate Victory Day,’ - he said.

Kairzhan Abdykhalykov believes that the memory of the Great Patriotic War should become a priority, it is necessary to study the biographies of heroes, and heroes, in his opinion, all - not only those who were honored with this title, but all those who fought, who were on the home front, wartime children who helped to collect spikelets, were on duty on the roofs in Leningrad. In his speech he spoke about the great contribution to the Victory of the inhabitants of Kazakhstan, emphasizing that the Victory is common:

‘One remembers famous factories that were evacuated, famous actors, but there were hundreds of thousands of evacuees - the Kazakh people accepted everyone. Many children who came were adopted. It is important for us, as representatives of social and political movements, to make the right accents. Children will read about battles in textbooks, but we need to talk about people and their fates - humanism will influence the younger generation more. Civil society should be ahead of the curve, and work in this direction constantly, not from date to date’.

Kulgazira Baltabayeva, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Executive Director of the Alumni Association of KazNU named after Al-Farabi, told about scientific work and preparation of a publication on the history of Kazakhstan, including the participation of the republic in the Great Patriotic War. She urged her colleagues to rely on historical sources. She noted that during the war the Soviet Union's religious policy changed, the Central Asian Spiritual Muslim Board was established in 1943 and that the war gave a common identity.

‘Policies changed, the war participants themselves, the home front, there were defeats and victories, offensives and retreats - the people in them acted in different identities. When we study the war, we see and must remember that the Soviet identity cemented everyone together.’

She also noted that new archival data is now becoming available, documents that were previously classified are becoming known, and now every researcher can contribute to making history complete and profound.

Konstantin Cherepanov, historian, candidate of historical sciences, leading researcher of Valikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology (Republic of Kazakhstan), told in his speech about the role of the leaders of the CPSU of Kazakhstan in the victory. According to him, an important role in the victory outcome played the first secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Kazakhstan Nikolai Skvortsov, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan Zhumabai Shayakhmetov, Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Kazakh SSR Dinmukhamed Kunayev.

He noted that preserving the memory of the Great Patriotic War is very relevant, and not only in the year of the 80th anniversary of the Victory, and emphasized that the pan-Soviet identity was one of the reasons for the Victory and the post-war geopolitical rise of the Soviet Union.

‘Victory became a new ground for identity on the basis of joint sacrifices and efforts’, - Konstantin Cherepanov emphasized.

Galina Smirnova, president of the Foundation for the Memory of Fallen Soviet Soldiers in East Prussia ‘Memory’, founder of the regional public organization ‘Kazakh National-Cultural Autonomy in Moscow’, presented a book of documents ‘People's Batyr’, published for the 115th anniversary of the birth of Hero of the Soviet Union Bauyrzhan Momyshuly. She noted that in Moscow the initiative group came out with a proposal to the Mayor of the city Sergey Sobyanin to perpetuate the memory of Bauyrzhan Momyshuly, to name a street in his honor and to erect a monument. This initiative was supported.

She gave one of the copies of the new book to the Museum of Military Glory of the General Education School № 32 from Almaty. Pupils of the school also spoke at the conference: the guys recited poems, told about the combat path of ancestors of pupils and graduates, one of the participants also performed ‘Sevastopol Waltz’ on saxophone. Zukhra Berdigozhina, the head of the museum, spoke about how museum pedagogy influences the attitude of children to the study of the history of the Great Patriotic War.