Ybyray Altynsarin and the newspaper "Orenburg leaf"

The articles of Y. Altynsarin were notable for the importance of the issues raised and for the piquancy of every problem; he always got to the essence of the problem and described the events with an accessible and understandable language.

In his anniversary article, devoted to the "Turgay newspaper", N. Ivanov indicates that the printing house in the Orenburg region was opened in the city of Ufa in 1903, a few years earlier, in 1830, the "Orenburg province news” was officially printed, which was published in 1832 ”Orenburg periodicals”, they were closed after the first volume and were opened again only forty years later, thanks to the efforts of I.I Yevfimovskiy-Mirovitskiy.

This newspaper, which was published in Orenburg between 70 and 80 years, became the first newspaper in which the chronicles, essays and articles about the life of the Kazakh population were published. The newspaper editor Yevfimovskiy-Mirovitskiy finished the literary faculty of the St. Petersburg University, and earned his Ph.D degree in jurisprudence. In an obituary dedicated to him, it is noted that the articles and essays, covering the pressing problems of the Kazakhs as well as the materials about the Torgay region in the “Turgay newspaper”, were printed during his tenure as the newspaper editor.

The "Turgay newspaper" was published in a partly circulation, because there were very few literate people and scientists from the Kazakh sphere, who understand the essence of the newspaper publications. On June 24, 1887, educated people, who knew the history and life of Kazakhs, wrote materials about the life and the nomadic way of life of the people. Ybyray Altynsarin was one of the first people in this sphere.

On December 2, 1879, I.I Yevfimovskiy-Mirovitskiy wrote in the newspaper: “… we need a man, who knows his people, who loves his nation with all heart and who knows the Russian language. It is known that only the brother of Sultan Zhanturin and two others collected materials about music. Among them, only Ybyray Altynsarin was engaged in the educational work in the desert, giving all his talent and courageous to this activity, thus he created the first Kazakh alphabet, using the Russian letters. Ybyray Altynsarin belonged to the Kipchak race, he lived in Torgay, he had ties with the population, he used each of his trips for business, and with the help of his skills he created the speller-book and the Russian-Kazakh grammar namely: “A Guide to the initial training of Kyrgyz people towards the learning the Russian language with the use of the Kyrgyz language assistance”.

Clearly, the reference of I.I Yevfimovskiy-Mirovitskiy to Sultan Zhanturin is not accidental: the Colonel Ahmed Zahanturin used to be in charge in the  in the western part of the Orenburg region, but his brother could be the elder son Seithan Zhantorin, because in the Russian magazine “Horse-breeding” for the 1883, in volumes 7 and 8, were published his scientific works "Essays of the Kyrgyz horse-breeding”. In addition, he collected the Kazakh folklore. In 1885, he published his book in the Orenburg publishing house “The samples of the Kyrgyz poetry in songs of epic and lyrical content, which were arrangement in the Russian poetry”. In this book he did an oral word translation of the Kazakh epic and lyrical works, and then he handed it to Raspolanov for the poetic treatment in Russian.

  Ahmet, Mukhambet and Mahmoud Zhalrotin were born from the sister of the khan of the Bokey Horde Zhangir, Mahmoud, his cousin Omar and the eldest son Seithan were trained in Orenburg Neplyuevsk Cadet Corps. Mahmoud and Omar do not engaged in literature, so we think that we are talking about Seithane.

  Noticing a tendency of Y. Altynsarin to educational work and his boundless love for his people, Yevfimovskiy-Mirovitskiy often gave him a place for his articles on the pages of his newspapers. They covered the current situation in relation to transmigration Russian people to the Kazakh land, due to the reduction of pasture plowing. In particular, during the jute1879-1880, there were a lot of materials on the subject, which served as a proof of his article "On the jute in the Kazakh steppe."

Altynsarin was on friendly and respectful relationship with the editor of the newspaper. Perhaps the editor was impressed by the asceticism of Ybyray, his concern and love for the people, selfless attitude, honest look at the life, and Altynsarin skills as a journalist.  Therefore, his materials were often found in the newspapers. In "Orenburg sheet" were published the first materials of Altynsarin such as “On the Russian Cossacks”, “The settlers on the indigenous Kazakh land” and about the herdsmen’s pasture reduction, unfortunately, the jute of  1879-1880 alerted him, if forced him to fell about this events with pain, it could be seen from his publications.

In the spring of 1880, he published his article about the cruel and harsh last winter, about the mass death of cattle, about the hunger among the people, about the fact that there was no piece of cattle or hay in the end of that spring. The publicist stated that the way out of this situation is the transition of the breeders to the sedentary life, with building the winter huts, and preparing the fodder for the winter. In this regard, it will clearly bring the reduction of the rangelands and of course there will be no place for the mindless approach to this issue and dealing damage.

In the second article, Altynsarin describes how he was forced to stay at the lonely house on the road by the fierce snowstorm. It was casually stitched yurt with the numerous holes which is blown through by the heavy wind. He pulled all his clothes on, almost dragging his feet, roamed the hungry old man and woman. “The wind clocked an acrid smoke at the yurt, and four children sitting around the fire with the teary eyes from the smoke, stretching their arms and legs towards the fire, are begun to be recognizable. Theblizzardishystericallyhowlingoutside…”

At the end of the article the author describes, that there were only 60 of the 1300 horses left from the beginning of the winter until the February 28, along with them about 35 people died from the cold.

In the third article, the author reveals the causes of jute: "The reason for all the ills of the Kazakhs was that they were moved from the former land of nomadic pastoralists to the sedentary life.” At the end of the article: "He was witnesses of all the ills that were experienced by the Kazakhs, he grew up in the steppe and saw all the outcomes, in this matter, we express our disagreement with the draft of Mr. Voronitsky and if we they consider it necessary to listen to the voice of the steppe man in the leading circles, we think of no harm "- he concluded.

This was confirmed in a letter of Ybyray to V.V. Katarinskiy dated from April 4, 1880. In this letter, a great teacher, described the situation at the school, and made the postscript on the status of the population: "I’ve recently sent an "Orenburg leaf "article about the problems of Turgai Kazakhs. Boggles the mind, I spoke frankly that if you unfamiliar with the proper conduct of affairs, then the hoping for a brighter future Kazakhs will simply die and then it will be impossible to rectify the situation. After reading these lines, you could be disheartened. Not thinking about the consequences, I decided to speak against it".

Committed it as the honor of every citizen, he wrote about the hunger and cold, without thinking about the consequences of newspaper publications for himself. From the letter we could see the traits of great educator, such as the high culture, inner purity, honesty, and most importantly love for the people.

The first two materials were signed incognito "IA", the rest were unsigned. However according to the category and location descriptions of events, we can guess that they were written by Altynsarin. We could also understand why he wrote incognito, the materials, full of the bitter truth, were not good for the governor and officials.

The first researcher of the journalism of Altynsarin, M.I. Fetisov, noticed this fact, as it is evident from a letter ro V.V. Katorinskiy, many Orenrburg officials have not forgotten his true essays and articles about the surveyor A.N. Pleschev and vicissitudes of the royal policy towards the Kazakhs. He draw a conclusion from the consequences of jute in the winter 1879-1880, in Torgay, and then opened a sharp and pressing problems of the society to the developing history of the Kazakh people. “Ybyray is smart publicist, he revealed the numerous problems in this article “About the jute in the Kazakh steppe”, he is a model of the Kazakh democratic journalism” – that is how M.I Fetisov described him..

When he published the first ethnographic materials in Kazakh newspaper"Orenburg leaf", he became familiar with the Orenburg branch of the Russian Geographical Society, honing his skills as a journalist; he then became familiar to readers of the newspaper.

In 1873, a commission was created on the creating of the Kazakh alphabet; it included two Kazakhs who were good in Russian language. Erjan Sholakov was included from the Ural region, Ybyray Altynsarin was included from the Turgay region. .I.I lminsky choose him for the sharpness of the pen and for a series of articles in the newspaper.

The articles of Y. Altynsarin were notable for the importance of the issues raised and for the piquancy of every problem; he always got to the essence of the problem and described the events with an accessible and understandable language. MI Fetisov: "The journalism of Ybyray has its own inherent culture, literary artistry, and it complements with all of the descriptions of the items, and national character."

The Kazak reading book of the great educator was created in the “Orenbugskogo sheet” publishing house. After the book was published in the newspaper, the reviews and comments are begun to be published, the high mark was given to this work for its relevance. There is no doubt that the first news titled "The Bibliography news” was written by Yevfimovskiy-Mirovitskiy. Although the author does not have his last name and initials, but wrote that the book came out in the Kazakh language in its typography and in the review: A solid foundation was created in the Kazakh literature, although in the past there were enough songs in the poetic genre, but now with the help of books they can meet with all the richness of the spiritual development of mankind".

On June 7, 1880, during a party in honor of the opening of the monument to A.S Pushkin in Orenburg, P. Raspopov, in his speech, marked the birth of "The Kazakh anthology", and that the poems of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin are published in this book, he said they were translated to the Kazakh language by Y.Altynsarin: “The textbook for the foreign people was created in Orenburg, it opens with the poems of the poet. Now Kazakhs and Bashkirs, studied the Russian language and got acquainted with the works of the great Russian poet."

The translation of “Kazakh anthology" was published by Y.Altynsarin in the newspaper on December 16, 1879, it opened wide road for the representatives other people for dating and thereby it raised the educational work to new heights.