There in the reading hall of the Department of periodical editions is organized the exhibition dedicated to the centenary of the first all-national newspaper “Kazak”.

   The first number of the weekly newspaper “Kazak” appeared on February 2, 1913 in Orenburg city. From 1915 it started already to be published twice a week and it at once won wide recognition. The people subscribed to it in all the corners of Kazakhstan which was then called Stepnoi and Turkestan lands, or nine regions and one guberniya (the Astrakhan one) as Alikhan Bukeikhan wrote about it in the article dedicated to the population number of the Kazakhs at that moment.

   The Kazakh students who studied in the higher educational establishments of Russia – from Kiev to Kazan, from St.-Petersburg to Tomsk also subscribed to the newspaper “Kazak”, the testimony of which are their multiple letters published on its pages. It became the all-national edition for the five-million people and was conducive to the national consolidation of the Kazakhs.

   The newspaper “Kazak” which was published from 1913 to 1918, expressed the liberal-democratic ideas. Its founders and authors were the prominent Kazakh enlighteners and public figures: A.Baitursynov, M.Dulatov, M.Zhumabayev and others. In the main agrarian issue they claimed the abolition of state ownership for land and its transference to the ownership of the Kazakhs, and the abolition of selling of land. On the whole regardless of the different views on the development of social-economic and public-political life of the region, the newspaper “Kazak” upon its pages managed to express the all-national ideas and interests of the Kazakh people in the conditions of being a colonial outskirts of the Russian empire.

   By publishing the newspaper «Kazak”, its founders put before themselves not only the scientific goals and tasks but also the political ones which were enumerated in “The Karkaralinsk petition” in 1905. One of the important goals of the newspaper was to defend the ethnical name of the people. This purpose was laid in the name of the newspaper “Kazak”. Alikhan Bukeikhan in his serial article named “Kazak tarikhy” (“The history of the Kazakhs”) under the pseudonym “Tyurik balasy” (literally – “The progeny of the Turks”) defined the goal: “We must strive towards light, enlightenment and preserve our original national tradition; we must create the modern “Kazakh culture” and “Kazakh literature” on the basis of the past tradition. And then we can preserve our real name, the name “Kazak”.

   The newspaper “Kazak” was published for more than five years. No other preceding publication could compare with the new newspaper in quality, diversity of themes and circulation. During the first year the newspaper “Kazak” was published with the circulation of three thousand copies, later on its circulation exceeded eight thousand copies.  Altogether in five years’ time there saw light 265 numbers of the newspaper “Kazak”.

   There at the exhibition is presented literature from the fond of the National library of the RK: books, scientific editions, articles from magazines and newspapers, illustrations.

   We invite everybody to visit the exhibition!

   The exhibition will last till the end of the year.