Georgia sends words of gratitude to the Kazakh people
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Rustavi, March 1, 2022 - On Thanksgiving Day in Kazakhstan, words of solidarity and gratitude are sent from Georgia to the Kazakh people.
During the year, teachers and schoolchildren across Georgia, more than 100 people collected and wrote stories - memories of their parents, relatives, close ones about their years spent in Kazakhstan - Akmola camp for wives of traitors, or ALZHIR, about the support of Kazakh people who helped them to survive those difficult years.
Stalin's repressions did not leave the Georgian people unaffected. Eighteen thousand women served their term in the Akmola camp that existed from 1938 to 1953, about 300 of whom were from Georgia. Most of them were aristocrats, repressed members of prominent families: writer Nodar Dumbadze's mother Alexandra Dumbadze-Bakhtadze and his aunt Tamara Dumbadze, writer Boris Pilnyak's wife Princess Kira Andronikashvili, Bulat Okudzhava's mother Ashchen Nalbandyan, and filmmaker Lev Kulijanov's wife Ekaterina Kulijanov, conductor Evgeni Mikeladze's wife Ketevan Orakhelashvili and others.
Millions of ordinary people, representatives of different peoples, were forcibly deported to Kazakhstan in different years. The help of the Kazakhs, despite the punitive measures that threatened them, helped the deported people to survive. Many of them remained to live on Kazakh soil. Each ethnos formed its own cultural centers, has the opportunity to study its native language, promote its culture, customs and traditions.
According to Gary Chapidze, chairman of the Georgian Teachers' Union, which initiated the "ALZHIR" contest, there is one important episode in all the stories about people's attitudes. When the women were out in the fields, children from nearby villages were throwing stones at them, as it seemed at first. But then the women realized that it was dried curd - Kazakh kurt. The peasants, risking their lives, tried to help the innocent convicts.
"So gratitude is the least we can do for the Kazakh people, who, in difficult economic conditions, have managed to welcome all the visiting peoples with their hospitality and patience," said the honored educator of Georgia.
According to Luka Samkharadze, whose grandmother (Nino Mizandari) did not return from the camp, the word "thank you" has a special meaning for the descendants of those who were forcibly relocated to Kazakhstan in the 30s-40s. The hospitable Kazakh people helped them to survive, and gratitude for this is alive in the hearts of many generations of deported people who found a second homeland in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
The participants also expressed their gratitude to the Kazakh people for the preservation of the Memory - the creation of the museum complex "ALZHIR" and the Memorial Day for the victims of political repressions, and noted that they consider important the concept of New Kazakhstan, which was put forward by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev after the tragic events of January 2022, the main achievement of Kazakhstan - interethnic harmony, remains the permanent priority of the country.
The descendants of "ALZHIR" were given commemorative gifts as well as certificates of gratitude from the Ambassador of Kazakhstan in Georgia, Baurzhan Mukhamejanov.