East Kazakhstan Resident Recognized as Victim of Stalin-Era Repressions

A resident of East Kazakhstan Region has been officially recognized as a victim of political repression and granted state benefits, Orda.kz reports.

The East Kazakhstan Regional Court issued the decision recognizing the woman’s status.

She was born in 1953 in Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk) to a Korean family forcibly resettled from the Russian Far East to Kazakhstan in 1937 by order of Soviet authorities. At that time, the NKVD deported about 172,000 people to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The applicant’s father was repressed as part of the mass resettlement, and his wife and children accompanied him to a special settlement. This was confirmed by official documents and archival records. The woman’s sister had previously received similar status, the court ruling stated.

The woman is now entitled to the status of a victim of political repression and to state social support measures. The decision has not yet entered into legal force.

During the Great Purge of 1937–1938, 1,284 Kazakhstanis were convicted, more than 1,100 of whom were executed. Among those persecuted were prominent political and cultural figures such as Oraz Zhandosov, Turar Ryskulov, Akhmet Baitursynov, Saken Seifullin, Ilyas Zhansugurov, and Beimbet Mailin—all of whom were posthumously rehabilitated.

Original Author: Ruslan Loginov