A fundamental study that intertwined the artistic reality and the historical search

Despite the fact that there are many historical works in Kazakh literature, works that convey a forgotten wound in the memory of the people in a subtle, sensitive, reasoned and artistic language are rare. The book «Капустин Яр әскери полигоны: қазақ депортациясы» is not just a scientific study, but a new literary form in which artistic reality and historical search are intertwined. This work is one of the first in the history of Kazakhstan to systematically study the fact of internal deportation, which has not been studied before.

The book begins with historical facts that the Second World War ended and the United States and the USSR were preparing for the "Cold War", under the influence of which the first school, the first publishing house, began, became a military training ground and formed the phenomenon of the "destroyed district". It turns out that at the Kapustin Yar test site there were 11 air explosions, 65 times more powerful than the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. The reason for the writing of the work was the father of Baktyli Boranbaeva, who witnessed trouble at the age of 12 at the same test site, and his longing cry «Елім-айлаған».

The author leads the reader not only to the archive, but also to the fate of a person, to the inner world, to the sad soul of a Kazakh who said goodbye to his native land. For this reason, although the scientific nature of the book prevails, its internal structure, narrative style, and language expression have the artistic power of a real literary work. In places where the stories of the victims of deportation are cited, the author reduces the additional interpretation and gives the word to the history itself. This approach gives the reader the impression that they are witnessing an event. The author's language is both scientific and artistic at the same time. When historical data is presented clearly, accurately, vividly, the emotional power of the text increases through the stories of witnesses.

The literary value of the book lies in the details taken from life: the cries of children loaded on a train; the fact that people who died on the way pile up on top of each other; fellow countrymen killed by thirst and disease in the heat. For example, "until my grandfather, who was approaching the age of seventy, moved from the same five hundred kilometers," my God, do not shed the soil of another land for me!.."I was crying. Whether that wish came true, when getting out of a large military car, my grandfather fell, broke his leg and died a month later", critical memories allow the reader to see the real picture without eyes. The writer, rummaging through the archives, compares Kapustin Yar with Semipalatinsk and Baikonur landfills.

In conclusion, Baktyly Boranbaeva's book «Капустин Яр әскери полигоны: қазақ депортациясы» is a fundamental study aimed at restoring historical reality, Rich in data, with a mature methodology, with a clear scientific novelty, of national importance.

Binur ZHUMAGALIEVA 3rd year student of the specialty Kazakh language and literature