Ermukhan Bekmakhanov: following in the footsteps of history

Ermukhan Bekmakhanov is a historian, the first Doctor of Historical Sciences in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, and a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR. 

He is the author of the monographs, including “Kazakhstan in the 20s-40s of the 19th Century”, “The Annexation of Kazakhstan to Russia”, “Essays on the History of Kazakhstan of the 19th Century”, as well as textbooks for secondary schools. He also founded the Department of Kazakhstan History at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.

Ermukhan Bekmakhanov’s life and work serve as an example of courage, self-sacrifice and scientific dedication, and he tragically became an innocent victim of the totalitarian regime.

In order to foster patriotism among high school students by studying the life and work of E. Bekmakhanov through the analysis of historical sources, Örken East Kazakhstan Regional Scientific and Methodological Center for Informatization and Education Development of Education Administration of East Kazakhstan region, jointly with Svetlana N. Varakina, a teacher of history of Secondary School No. 18 of Education Department of Ust-Kamenogorsk city of Education Administration of East Kazakhstan region, a research teacher, conducted an interactive lesson on the topic “Ermukhan Bekmakhanov: following in the footsteps of history”, dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the Doctor of Historical Sciences E. Bekmakhanov.

As part of the preparation for the lesson, students visited East Kazakhstan Regional Archive and interviewed an expert on how to preserve the heritage of historical figures.

The interactive lesson was attended by 11th graders from schools of the region. The students actively participated in the lesson, learning about the heritage of the outstanding historian, who left a worthy legacy: more than 100 works, including three substantial monographs, and school textbooks on the history of Kazakhstan.