Astana can become Nursultan

The personality cult of the President of Kazakhstan is gaining momentum

Renaming the capital of Kazakhstan Astana to the city of Nursultan, a bill with its own image and a genetic connection with Genghis Khan. How Nursultan Nazarbayev builds his own personality cult

On Tuesday, November 23, in Kazakhstan, an extraordinary joint meeting of both chambers of the parliament was held in Kazakhstan, at which the country's Secretary of State, the head of the presidential administration, all the deputies of the Senate and 104 out of 107 deputies of the Mazhilis unanimously adopted the proposal to rename the capital of Kazakhstan in honor of the current president Nursultan Nazarbayev. Deputy Kuanysh Sultanov addressed the appropriate initiative.

“The great path of independence should be immortalized. We propose to note in the Constitution of the country an outstanding contribution to the construction of our state of the first president - the leader of the nation Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev. Reflect the name Elbasy in the name of the capital and other important objects of the country. Our unified goal, rallying around Elbasy, strengthen the values ​​of Mugilik ate, carefully preserving and transferring the most expensive that we have - sovereign and independent Kazakhstan with our descendants. Independence was, is and will be our main consolidating goal, ”Sultanov quotes a little dumbfounded Kazakhstani media.

I must say that this is not the first such proposal: in 2008 and 2013, they already wanted to rename Astana into the city of Nursultan, but Nazarbayev himself spoke out against. However, now another thing: if they adopted a special declaration for the 25th anniversary of Independence (and it was adopted, all factions, including communists and businessmen) have expressed in support)-the process can be considered neglected. “In the coming days, most likely, the shaft of appeals in the press from representatives of labor collectives, the public, and the creative intelligentsia in support of this undertaking will begin,” the historian and political expert Aidos Sarym is ironic. - with a probability of 97% (the result of Nazarbayev in the last presidential election. - Approx. "New" ) The city will be renamed. "

According to Sarym, a lot will depend on the position of Nazarbayev himself, who could change since past years. Theoretically, next week, Nazarbayev during the celebration of the day of the first president on December 1 (this is a public holiday) can say: joked - and enough. “It would be a supervision for the entire thinking layer of society,” says Sarym. “And this would allow the president to show that he is the only actor in this country and, as they joke on the network, the only adequate actor.” But at the same time, Sarym himself does not particularly nourish hopes for this scenario: so far everything "slides to the primitive cult of personality."

In general, a short history of Astana is only continuous renaming before the transfer of the capital to this city. In tsarist times, it was Akmolinsk, in Soviet times, Nikita Khrushchev called the city the capital of the virgin land and renamed Tselinograd, then, when the capital of independent Kazakhstan was transferred here, he became an acomola. And already in 1998, they decided that it was worthwhile to be called the “White Grave” (namely, this is how it was translated from Kazakh to Russian “Akmola”), and the city was selflessly called Astana (which means “capital”). The current renaming, if it occurs, can also be inappropriate, experts clarify, since history shows that such names based on flattery and official reverence are rarely durable.

“It will be a monument to human vanity,” says journalist Sergei Duvanov. “But sooner or later, all this bronze will simply fly away.” In general, I do not think that all this came specifically from Nazarbayev. His environment tried, which in this way wanted to knock out some benefits or loyalty. But when they constantly tell you that you are great, and alternative information is carefully filtered, you yourself will begin to believe it. ”

The politician and former leader of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Serikbolsyn Abdildin, on the contrary, believes that the deputies only broadcast what they were told from above, and it is not worth blaming them of this. “Back in 1998, when the capital was transferred, I said that this was done specifically for the city to then rename to Nursultan,” he says in an interview with a new correspondent. “There were absolutely no economic grounds to make 15 million, two capitals in a country where the population is a population.” Abdildin believes that sooner or later Astana will still be renamed.

But is Astana only? The fact is that according to the document, the mention of Nazarbayev should be reflected in other facilities throughout the country. Without waiting for the decision of their president, the wits have already begun to try on the names. For example, in Alma-Ata there was Furmanova Street, the only name of the Bolshevik figure (the rest are all renamed), according to which the president travels from the airport to his residence-she seems to be specially waiting for his hour, and she is not called the name of any Kazakhstan batyr or writer. This year, Kazakhstan announced the construction of a new city called Nurkent - supposedly it should become a territory of prosperity and universal happiness (while military and railway workers live there, and they are allowed not to even pay for utilities). And throughout the country, a bunch of universities and schools are named Nazarbayev, and he himself is captured during his lifetime in the monument, which is installed in the Park of the First President in Alma-Ata.

It is not entirely clear what edits will be introduced into the Constitution, since the document adopted in 1995 with numerous amendments already exalt Nazarbayev to the level of the leader of the nation, gives him super -presidential powers, and his opinion actually becomes the only right. Perhaps we can talk about consolidating the status of the founding father of present-day Kazakhstan-like Ataturka in Turkey or Washington in the United States. By the way, some have already spoke that since there is the city of Washington in America, why is it impossible in Kazakhstan?

But that's not all. Two days before the initiative of deputies on the Internet, the 2013 documentary was posted that Nazarbayev, they say, the direct descendant of Genghis Khan. And last week, the National Bank presented a bill with a face value of 10 thousand tenge (about 30 dollars) with the image of Nazarbayev himself. The bill is considered souvenir, but at the same time - it is an official payment tool, and in total 100 thousand copies of new money will be issued. The chairman of the National Bank Daniyar Akishev, presenting the fresh 10 thousand, said that Churchill and Lee Kuan Yu are also on money. But everyone remembered, of course, a lifetime portrait on the bills of Kim Ir Sen, Saddam Hussein and Ogosted Bokass from the Central African Republic.

The politician and former Minister of Agriculture Baltash Tursambaev, repeatedly intersecting with Nazarbayev, believes that now deputies skillfully play at his age. “In the 90s, Nazarbayev himself would have repaid this conversation in the bud, and those who talk about it would have punished,” says Tursambaev. - Here the emphasis is on the traditions of the East: the leader of the nation, from scratch, built everything, and it is customary to read such people during life and perpetuate them. From this point of view, everything seems to be normal, but from the point of view of a democratic country, this is the simplest cult of personality. ”

In the meantime, the authorities prefer not to notice the arguments against. The Minister of Information and Communications Dauren Abaev (former presidential spokeswoman) publicly stated that what was happening is “not the cult of personality”. The Constitutional Council also stated that the current step is true in every way. “Deputies today have adopted a very important document that has historical significance,” the Vlast of the Chairman of the Constitutional Council Igor Rogov quotes the Internet magazine. - If you personally speak, then we all come abroad, and when to the question: “Where are you from?”, You answer: “I am from from Kazakhstan.” Immediately, in nine cases out of ten, the interlocutor says: "Oh, Nazarbayev, president." And the proposals of deputies to secure the relevant norms in the Constitution have a legal and political basis. ”

The economic calculation of all kinds of renaming was not carried out, but, according to the logic of events, for the president, who proclaimed “building a democratic legal secular state, whose highest values ​​are a person, his life, rights and freedom,” nothing is a pity. Of course, everything will be served as the aspirations of the people, although so far the people are just joking over all this. The expression of the opinion of the intelligentsia may well be a short remark of human rights activist Victoria Tyuleneva on Facebook: “Nurnberg. Only Nurnberg. "