# Baitursynuly Reforms the Kazakh Alphabet (1912)

URL: https://allhistories.com/kazakhstan/timeline/1912-baitursynuly-reforms-the-kazakh-alphabet
Location: Orenburg
Themes: Language, Education

In 1912 Akhmet Baitursynuly, born around 5 September 1872, reformed the Arabic-based Kazakh alphabet, adapting it to the sounds of the language. He also developed the basics of Kazakh grammar and its terminology. In 1911 he had published Masa ('Mosquito'), his first distinctly political work, and he had spent eight months in Semipalatinsk prison without trial in 1909. Educated Kazakhs saw literacy in the native language as the key to cultural survival under Russian rule, and rival reformers debated Middle Eastern and Western models. Baitursynuly's alphabet was meant to serve schools, books and the press. It was used in the newspaper Qazaq and in the first Kazakh textbooks. He co-founded Qazaq in 1913 as chief editor and helped create the Alash party and the Alash autonomy of 1917–20. He was executed on 8 December 1937 during the Great Purge. His alphabet was used until Soviet script changes, and he is honoured as the 'teacher of the nation'. At this point in the timeline (1912), the Kazakh steppe, part of the Russian Empire under Emperor Nicholas II, was administered by Evgeny Schmidt, governor-general of the Steppes (1912 – 6 June 1915). Other contemporary rulers included Alexander Samsonov, governor-general of Turkestan (1909 – 1914). The main location of this event lies outside present-day Kazakhstan.

## Why it matters
The reform gave Kazakh a standard written form for schools and the press, the technical basis of the national awakening.

Ruler at the Time: [Evgeny Schmidt](https://allhistories.com/kazakhstan/rulers/evgeny-schmidt)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Akhmet Baitursynuly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhmet_Baitursynuly)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Kazakh literature](https://www.britannica.com/art/Kazakh-literature)
- [Wikipedia — Qazaq (newspaper)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qazaq_(newspaper))