In the anniversary year for my alma mater, the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University – the 90th anniversary of its foundation, I would like to tell, first of all, for students, undergraduates of the History Faculty of KazNU, for the general public about the famous scientist, the first Kazakh historian and medievalist, whose life and work for more than half a century is associated with Kalkaman Tursunovich Zhumagulov is also his native university.
I met Kalkaman Tursunovich in May of 1987, when a classmate and I came to the History department of KazGU named after S.Kirov to learn about the opportunities for admission. We were warmly welcomed by the dean of the faculty, a young scientist K.T. Zhumagulov, who was only 39 years old. We were advised to apply to the Faculty of History without fail. We were very encouraged by this reception. In those years, the prestige of the Faculty of History was extremely high, perhaps even higher than that of the Faculty of Law, which is explained by the political realities of that time. Graduates of the faculty worked in party organs, defined the ideology of the country.
In the year of my admission to KazGU – 1987, the situation in the republic, as well as in the whole USSR, was still tense, just six months ago the events of December 1986 took place, there was a "rebuilding". Priority for enrollment was given to applicants with benefits: guys who served in the ranks of the Soviet army, who fought in the ranks of a limited contingent in the DRA, the liquidators of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and just people who had extensive experience of party work in the ranks of the CPSU, who received minimal grades on exams. But in the "rebuilding" year, for the first time in the history of the university and the history faculty of KazGU, an additional set was announced. The university did not want to lose the young staff who had passed the entrance exams with high marks.
The "additional set" of students went to the traditional agricultural work – "agricultural farm" to collect tobacco in the Alma Ata region. The first set of students harvested potatoes in the Kostanay region. At the end of the agricultural course, I and three of my classmates from the additional set were ordered to join another group; the four of us went to the dean with a request to study with new friends in the same group. Kalkaman Tursunovich explained very gently that the order had already been approved, but we should not worry, we would all attend lectures together, only the seminars would be separate, but we would make new friends. And so it turned out! After 37 years, we remember and recall our visit with laughter and gratitude for the attention and understanding of our dean. This episode characterizes Kalkaman Tursunovich as a very wise and empathetic person.
The first important subject that Kalkaman Tursunovich taught us was the course "Introduction to the specialty". This course instilled in us an understanding of what history is, introduced us to our future specialty. All 80 people listened with bated breath in the 402 audience to the sonorous powerful baritone of K. T. Zhumagulov. All the years of his five-year studies, students treated Kalkaman Tursunovich with special reverence, his authority was then, as it is now, very high among students.
It was K.T.Zhumagulov who headed the Dissertation Council, in the year of my PhD thesis defense, it was very symbolic and important for me. After the defense, it was Kalkaman Tursunovich who strongly recommended me for the position of Deputy Dean for Research, Academic Secretary of the Faculty of History. In 2019, on the sidelines of the ESCAS conference in the UK, Kalkaman Tursunovich was proud to introduce me to his distinguished foreign colleagues as his talented student. For my classmates and all graduates of the PhD program. Zhumagulov is a legend, a symbol of the Faculty of History. Realizing this, Kalkaman Tursunovich tries to always be at the faculty on KazNU graduation day, welcoming numerous graduates of the Faculty of History who came to the alma mater for memories of their youth, the years spent in the classrooms of the faculty.
Kalkaman Tursunovich Zhumagulov is a leading figure of Kazakh historical science, who has made a huge contribution to the development of world and national history, the owner of numerous regalia as a scientist and as a mentor to young people, who has trained a large number of historians. I wanted to reveal him from a different perspective, so that the students to whom he is currently lecturing would understand that he is a real Lump – both in science and as a person! Because students are interested in knowing about an outstanding scientist and his other human facets.
Saule UDERBAEVA,
Candidate of Historical Sciences,
senior lecturer. Departments of History of Kazakhstan
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