Akhmet Baytursinuli (January 28, 1873 — December 8, 1937) was a Kazakh

Kazakhs

The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....

 intellectual who worked in the fields of poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

, linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

 and education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

.

Baytursinuli was born in what is today Kostanay Province

Kostanay Province

Kostanay Province is a province of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Kostanay City. The population of the province is 900,300. Population living in Kostanay is 207,000 that makes 23 % of the population of province...

, and was educated at the Orenburg

Orenburg

Orenburg is a city on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies southeast of Moscow, very close to the border with Kazakhstan. Population: 546,987 ; 549,361 ; Highest point: 154.4 m...

 Teachers' School. After graduating in 1895, Baitursynov held teaching positions in a number of cities in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

, including Aktobe

Aktobe

Aktobe , formerly known as Aktyubinsk , is a city on the Ilek River in Kazakhstan. With a population of 277,700, it is the capital of Aktobe Province. Aktobe has a mixed ethnic community, including Kazakhs, Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Uyghurs, Chechens, Armenians, Jews and Greeks...

, Kostanay

Kostanay

Kostanay , formerly known as Kustanay and Nikolayevsk , is a city located in the northern part of Kazakhstan at the Tobol River. The population living in Kostanay is 301,317 people. Kostanay is the capital of Kostanay Province.-Public institutions:In Kostanay there are 8 higher educational...

 and Karkaralinsk.

The same year as his graduation, Baytursinuli published his first article, "Kirgizskie primety i poslovitsy" ("Kazakh Omens and Proverbs") in a regional newspaper. While living in Ural city in 1905, he collaborated with other Kazakhs to form the Kazakh wing of the Constitutional Democrat Party. His involvement in politics probably led to his 1909 arrest and exile from the Steppe

Steppe

In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...

 regions. After being exiled, he went to Orenburg.

During his exile, he wrote articles for Ay Qap

Ay Qap

Ay Qap was a Kazakh journal of opinion and debate published in Troitsk from January 1911 until September 1915 under the editorship of Muxametžan Seralin...

. He also served as the chief editor of Qazaq

Qazaq (Journal)

Qazaq was a Kazakh language journal started by Akhmet Baytursinuli , Alikhan Bokeikhanov and Mirjaqip Dulatuli..Qazaq was published from 1913 until March, 1918,, when it was shut down by the Soviet government. Influenced by other Jadid journals, Qazaq was considered to be a medium promoting the...

, the Kazakh

Kazakh language

Kazakh is a Turkic language which belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages, closely related to Nogai and Karakalpak....

 newspaper there, and published "Qyryq Mysal" ("Forty Proverbs"). His other significant publication of this time was a Kazakh translation of Ivan Krylov

Ivan Krylov

Ivan Andreyevich Krylov is Russia's best known fabulist. While many of his earlier fables were loosely based on Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine, later fables were original work, often satirizing the incompetent bureaucracy that was stifling social progress in his time.-Life:Ivan Krylov was born in...

's fables. In 1911, Baytursinuli published his first work of a distinctly political nature — Masa ("Mosquito").

When the Russian Revolution of 1917

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

 occurred, Baytursinuli returned to the steppes and began to work with the Alash Orda

Alash Orda

Alash Orda was the name of the provisional Kazakh government between 13 December 1917 and 26 August 1920.The Alash Party proclaimed the autonomy of the Kazakh people in December 1917. Membership consists from 25 members and 15 member candidates...

 political party. With them, he fought for the Kazakhs to have an independent state. He began to work with the Bolsheviks in 1920 when they established their dominance over the region. He served as a Member of the Committee of Deputies of the Constituent Assembly and as Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kazakh Krai, as well as Commissioner of Enlightenment. In these capacities, he helped to reform education and to establish the first university in Kazakhstan.

Another of Baytursinuli's significant accomplishments was his adaptation of Arabic script

Arabic alphabet

The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...

 for the Kazakh alphabet

Kazakh alphabet

The Kazakh alphabets are the alphabets used to write the Kazakh language. The Kazakh language uses the following alphabets:* The Cyrillic script is officially used in the Republic of Kazakhstan and Bayan-Ölgiy Province in Mongolia...

.

However, in 1937, Baytursinuli was arrested for hiding "bourgeois nationalist sentiments" and summarily executed. This had resulted in an outcry, which was quickly and bloodily silenced. To this day, he is held in great regard in Kazakhstan, but is viewed as somewhat tragic figure, signifying the extent of the numbers of authors, poets and thinkers who have perished due to the Soviet repressions

Soviet political repressions

Throughout the history of the Soviet Union millions of people became victims of political repression, which was an instrument of the state since the October Revolution...

.

Baytursinuli's work is part of the curriculum for high school education system of Kazakhstan.