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The leading multidisciplinary institution of the higher education system of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, celebrated its 90th anniversary on January 15, 2024.
Another anniversary this year will be celebrated by one of its leading teachers, Chairman of the Specialized Council on Historical Memory of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, professor of political science, academician of the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio, academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, an outstanding Kazakhstani scientist, public figure, writer, member of the Union of Journalists Republic of Kazakhstan, Doctor of Historical Sciences Laila Akhmetova.
She is a well-known researcher of Kazakh journalism and the only woman in Kazakhstan who found more than 15 thousand soldiers missing in the Great Patriotic War. Laila Akhmetova is a supporter and active promoter of good neighborly relations with all CIS countries and for two years now she has been an expert at the Great Altay Scientific and Educational Center for Altaic and Turkic Studies, established on the basis of Altai State University.
On the eve of her anniversary, Laila Seisembekovna gave an exclusive interview to the kz24.news portal to talk about what has been achieved and share plans for the future, touch on important topics and talk about painful issues.
Laila Seisembekovna, this year is a double anniversary for you - your personal and the 5th anniversary of the work of the Great Altay Scientific and Educational Center for Altaic Studies and Turkic Studies, you are an expert at. As a rule, on the eve of such dates it is customary to sum up certain results of one’s activities. What would you name among the important personal results of working with colleagues from the Great Altai SEC?
On January 15, our university turned 90 years old, and I have been at this university since 1971. I have always held some public positions or responsible positions, and have always worked for the benefit and development of higher education in Kazakhstan. The topic of my research is mainly patriotic education. However, my books, brochures, articles are much more extensive on topics. First of all, they are associated with the Faculty of Journalism, where I have worked all my life, and are also devoted to humanitarian, social and other topics.
For about two years now I have been an expert at the Great Altay Scientific and Educational Center for Altaic and Turkic Studies. Initially, the offer to work as part of the team of the Greater Altai Media Space project of the Greater Altai Scientific Center surprised me, but then, having learned how deep, little-studied and very relevant this issue was, I, of course, agreed. Our team, which deals with the topics of journalism, media and all modern communications combined, includes Altai State University, universities of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, including the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Since January 2024 I represent Al-Farabi University.
This is a broad topic that affects not only our countries, but the entire Eurasian and international space. We consider the media space of Greater Altai from the point of view of the interests of each state that is a part of the Center, considering their unity and differences: national, confessional, linguistic. Each country has its own specific scientific developments in this area, but, as a rule, these are isolated studies. The task of the Greater Altai SEC is to bring the results of these works to a common denominator. This is the peculiarity of the Center’s work and its advantage.
“OUR PROJECT TEAM HAS IDENTIFIED A CENTRAL THEME - SLAVIC-TURKIC INTERACTION IN THE MEDIA.”
This topic, in particular, communication in the media space, currently plays a huge role, because today no person can imagine life without interaction and communication in social networks and instant messengers, without news. And as for the Slavic-Turkic interaction specifically, this direction is dictated by time itself. This is a very interesting, but little-studied topic that our project team is currently working on - various specialists: philologists, journalists, historians, lawyers and many others.
Based on the results of studying the media space for three years, based on sociological data, our research group concluded that the word “Slav” has become a rarely used word. More often they say Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, but they stopped mentioning Slavic unity. The same thing, in a sense, happens with the use of the definition “Turkic”. But Slavic-Turkic interaction already has a long history, dating back to the development of the Altai lands. And this is confirmed by archaeological finds. We are exploring this issue in the modern media space.
Your scientific works include works on public relations and journalism. You spent many years working directly in the media of Kazakhstan, training young journalists in universities. You know literally everything about this profession. What, in your opinion, needs to be added to the educational process of training modern journalists so that they become not only highly qualified specialists, but also responsible citizens of their country? In your opinion, what is the measure of a journalist's responsibility for disseminating knowingly false information?
In my opinion, the level of responsibility of a journalist should be the highest and legally formalized. The punishment here should also be quite harsh, because a journalist for ordinary readers, for the population of the entire country today plays the role of a kind of educator, he to some extent educates the people. Therefore, he must convey to people high-quality, conscientious, truthful information.
“SORRY, THE TIME OF REAL PERSONNEL JOURNALISTS IS NOW GOING AWAY. IN THE ERA OF CAPITALISM, IT TURNS OUT THAT WHOEVER PAYS THE MOST, THAT'S WHAT THEY WRITE ABOUT. THAT IS, MONEY SOLVES EVERYTHING.”
Therefore, it is now difficult to talk about quality journalism, although this profession, in my opinion, will always exist. Perhaps it will be called something else, something fashionable, but a person who writes, a person who thinks, a person who knows will always be in demand.
A journalist must be a professional with an encyclopedic mindset, have a good knowledge of literature and the language in which he writes, and, what is very important, he must be a socially responsible person. We try to teach our students this, and by our own example, publishing notes on social networks, preparing materials for serious publications, including online ones, telling the historical truth in books and on television. In this way, we show young people what socially responsible journalism means.
One of your main life tasks is to chronicle the true history of the 20th century. In this case, how do you feel about the fact that pro-Western ideologists are trying to rewrite history, distorting facts and offering to forget such irreparable mistakes of Washington politicians, such as the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What, in your opinion, can such an adjustment of historical events lead to?
I specialize in the history of the 20th century, and now I am delving deeper into the period of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War, after which two warring states emerged in the world - the Soviet Union and the United States of America. This confrontation literally divided the world into two camps: socialist and capitalist. Few countries maintained neutrality, mostly countries stuck to one side or the other. Now we understand that, in principle, all this was correct. But, thanks to the efforts of the West, the Soviet Union collapsed, and many thought that the time had come when, with the end of the confrontation between states, the threat of World War III would disappear. However, the United States, feeling its strength and impunity, began to dictate its terms everywhere, and in order to maintain and develop military power, intervene in all military conflicts on Earth in order to build up military capital. And now, almost thirty years later, the whole world began to understand that it was impossible to live in a state of widespread dictatorship of one state. Because the events currently taking place in the world can already be called a harbinger of the Third World War, which began with a confrontation in the global information space.
We are now on the threshold of major world events. You can now freely read about all the pros and cons of both sides on the Internet. But this should be discussed, first of all, by specialists, and not by some ignoramuses who have filled the information space, often proclaiming themselves experts.
“WE NEED TO IMPROVE OUR PRIMARY, SECONDARY AND HIGHER EDUCATION, WHICH RAISES SMART, THINKING CITIZENS ABLE TO UNDERSTAND FALSE AND TRUE INFORMATION.”
In my life, I adhere to the rule of decency, patriotism and professionalism. For me, these concepts are interconnected and inseparable, and they are complemented by the moral formula of the Great Abai: “Adam Bol! - Be human!". And when I established these rules for myself in the 90s, it not only became easier for me to live, I began to understand people easier.
Once upon a time, I also proposed writing a general history for all countries that were previously part of the Soviet Union. But later I realized that this was impossible to do. Each country pulls the blanket on itself, each makes its own mistakes, but I think that after some time there will come an awareness of the need to create such work. A number of scientists are currently working on individual studies; These are serious works that will continue to be read in the future. And you must also leave the results of your scientific research in the archives. So, I leave my works in the Central State Archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and in the Central State Archives of the city of Almaty. The documents I found on the Brest Fortress, on the I.V. Panfilov 316th Rifle - 8th Guards Rifle Division, is the real truth, it will forever remain in the Central State Administration of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
You are the author of more than 1 thousand scientific and journalistic works, 50 books, a considerable number of which are devoted to the general history of countries - former republics of the Soviet Union. What will your next work be about? What topic are you currently studying and what do you plan to tell us in your new book?
This year I plan to finish and perhaps even publish an anniversary book about my home university, Al-Farabi, and how I lived, worked in different positions, and actively participated in the public life of the university. I wanted to talk about this in the book, because this is not only my personal history and the life of the university at a certain period of time, but it is also the history of the country.
Next, I plan to release the second volume of my book “1941. Brest Fortress. Kazakhstan”, and the second volume of “Panfilov’s Division”. I decided to continue these books because every year new documents are discovered and found, descendants respond, and amazing stories of memories are found. All this must be conveyed to the reader, the memory of this must be preserved, so that people know that there were such heroes.
It would seem that everyone and everything already knows about Panfilov’s division; many books, articles, songs, and poems have been written about it. But when I took 87 books of memories about this division and wrote down the names of the soldiers mentioned in it, I only got a little more than 200 names. But from Alma-Ata, initially 11,347 people were sent to the front in 7 echelons. The dispatch of fighters continued in the future. So, at present, we have restored the names of 16,000 soldiers of the Panfilov division. I think that during the years of the Great Patriotic War, about 30-35 thousand people served in one division, and now we are ready to name them. These are people whom no one has ever heard of or known about except their relatives.
“UNFORTUNATELY, IN OUR KAZAKHSTAN, AS IN MOST OF THE CIS COUNTRIES, THE TOPIC OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR IS NOT A PRIORITY, SO I RECEIVED A REFUSAL TO MY REQUEST FOR GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR MY RESEARCH WORK.”
Then I turned to the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly, where I received consent for friendly support, and after that it was decided to expand the search work, restoring the names of all the fallen soldiers of the Great Patriotic War.
Now, on our specialized pages on social networks, I publish the names of the political instructors of the 1,075th regiment, the 28 Panfilov men came from; we publish the names of the fighters and commanders of the first and other units of the Panfilov division, which will include those who died in the battle of Moscow, about whom no one had ever known before. This is our task for many years to come. This is our truth of life!
At the III International Altaic Forum “Unity of Slavic and Turkic peoples in history and modernity” held in the fall of 2023, it was decided to develop the Concept of the historical and cultural unity of the Slavic and Turkic peoples. How necessary is the adoption of this document at the present time?
The historical and cultural unity of the past, present and future of the Slavic and Turkic peoples is an essential component of the unification of all our countries. It is necessary that our interaction be constant and it must be passed on to the future generation. We have united in the SCO, the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC), and I think that Kazakhstan will join BRICS in the near future. All these associations, as well as the Concept of historical and cultural unity of the Slavic and Turkic peoples, are for the benefit of our states, which have bordered each other for many centuries. We have common roots, we have a common history, and, I hope, the future will be common too.
“AND IF SOMEONE FROM OVERSEAS TRYS TO DRIVE A WEDGE BETWEEN US, WE MUST ALL RESIST THIS TOGETHER.”
You are the daughter of a hero of the Great Patriotic War, a participant in the battle of Moscow, you have written many books on this topic, and you are the only woman in Kazakhstan who found more than 15 thousand soldiers who went missing in that war. And not all those who died in the Great Patriotic War, as they say, have been buried, but Nazi troops are already marching across the planet again. Russia’s resolution on the fight against the glorification of Nazism, adopted in December 2023 by the UN General Assembly, was opposed by our former allies the USA and Great Britain, and 47 other countries. Why do you think this happened? How to protect our youth from the brown plague of Nazism?
I thought a lot about why the revival of Nazism really happened and got acquainted with the opinions of scientists. Probably all this is connected, first of all, with the 90s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The West triumphed, promising that each of the newly formed countries would be independent and rich. But who needs so many self-sufficient countries? As it turned out, in 30 years no one has been able to achieve this; we have only become easily controlled by Western ideologists, thanks to our innocence and faith in human qualities. And therefore, they are trying to revive on the territory of our countries the time-tested ideas of Nazism, which were condemned by international law, and serve to disunite and destroy entire nations and peoples.
All the tools of information wars were used: rewriting history, made-up facts, manipulation, mythologizing. Thus, they try to show the power of one small country (any) through invented moments of the past. Of course, you need to know the past and definitely study it so as not to become a victim of Western ideologists. But who we are now, and what we represent is the main thing!
“WE MUST BE A UNITED FRONT TO RESIST WHAT IS HAPPENING IN OUR DIFFICULT TIMES. THEY TRY TO BREAK US, DIVIDE US, AND DRAW FRIENDLY PEOPLES INTO WAR. OUR TASK IS TO OVERCOME THIS FOR THE MEMORY OF OUR FATHERS AND GRANDFATHERS!”
Based on materials from kz24.news