Nurmuhamed

If you have nothing better to do, you surf around vkontakte.ru and look for Chirayliq material... Take a look at this inspiring album called "Isolation", so refreshing in the summer heat, isn't it? The lovely portfolio was created by Almaty photographer Ilyas Sadykov and also includes some nice backstage photos of the artist himself at work.

The model in "Isolation" is singer Nurmuhamed Nussipkozhanov.

Oh, and don't forget: Smoking papirosi is bad for your health...

Мен Казакпын - I am Kazakh

Yerbolat is a Kazakh hiphop/R'n'B artist whose songs have strong elements of Kazakh folk music. The lyrics of this song - Мен Казакпын - are a poem written by Dzhuban Moldagaliev in 1964.

Here is a literal translation of one of the verses (from Kazakh to Russian, then to English by me - thanks to Dzhon at bb.ct.kz for the Russian translation!):

I am Kazakh, I have died and come back to life a thousand times, in order to continue the story through my life.
If I cried, the sun darkened in the sky, and if I laughed - the darkness receded from my eyes.
I am Kazakh, in my own way I am also great.
I am like a new, seventh continent between old Europe and ancient Asia,
but I am used to being with all other peoples. I've wandered around in the night until I was exhausted.
A mighty explosion helped me find myself.
I have arisen from the dark, like an island from the bottom of the ocean,
And I walked to the threshold of the blinding sun.

This poem, and also the video, which is like a smplified crash course on Kazakh history, with some sports heroes thrown in at the end, could perhaps be seen as blatant nationalism.

But Kazakhstan is in the process of decolonization. The Kazakh Khanate was incorporated into the Russian Empire and colonized from the 18th century onward. After the Russian revolution, there was a brief period of autonomy, aligned with the White Army, until the Bolshevik authorities took control over the territory. During its time as a Soviet autonomous republic, people of many different ethnicities were deported to Kazakhstan, and many more voluntarily settled there as Kazakhstan came to be a vital part of the Soviet Union in terms of agriculture and industry. Supposedly, by the 1970's Kazakh SSR was the only Soviet republic in which the eponymous nationality was a minority in its own republic.

When Moldagaliev wrote the poem, there was, since the end of the war and especially with destalinization, a trend in Soviet culture of positive encouragement of the ethnic minorities in the USSR. Many literary magazines in minority languages were founded, and this is also when Chingiz Aitmatov wrote his popular books set in the Kirghiz SSR, drawing on local folklore.

Now Kazakhstan is an independent nation, but the Soviet period has left behind "a dominating class of Russian technocrats, who are necessary to economic progress but ethnically unassimilated" (says Wikipedia). Most people in Kazakhstan, regardless of ethnicity, speak Russian with each other.

There are efforts to build up positive "national self-esteem" among Kazakhs - teaching children the Kazakh language in school is one, and popular music fusing traditional music styles with Western styles is one - dombra, or even overtone singing ...
In the case of rap, hiphop and R'n'B, the counterculture of an oppressed group in another country (African Americans), struggling for a positive, independent self-image, is fused with local culture to form a counterculture of your own - true internationalism?

Anyway, let's see if I can name all the historical images used in this video ...
0:01 - Bronze age petroglyphs, perhaps at Tamgaly?
0:07 - Horseback warriors, symbolizing the ancient nomadic cultures on Kazakh territory.
0:40 - Mausoleum of Sufi Khoja Ahmad Yasavi, erected by Timur in the city Turkestan
0:50-0:53 - People playing the dombra?
1:04-1:08 - Some early 20th century footage
1:20 - Yuri Gagarin lifting off from Baikonur (in Kazakh SSR)
1:24 - Kazakh cosmonaut Talgat Musabayev
1:29 - WWII bombings?
1:33 - Nuclear bomb testing
1:40 - People demonstrating against nuclear weapons? (The sign the lady carries has a crossed out missile or rocket, but I can only discern the word "нет", "no".)
1:44 - This footage really puzzles me - maybe it's related to the demonstrations?
1:50 - In the late 80's, the ethnic Kazakh First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakh SSR was dismissed by Gorbachev, and an ethnic non-Kazakh with no previous experience in the Kazakh SSR was set to replace him. This sparked massive riots.
1:55 - A train - the railroads are very important pillar of Kazakhstan's infrastructure.
1:56 - Oil industry
2:05 - President Nursultan Nazarbayev flies the new Kazakh national flag shortly after independence.
2:08 - Nuri meets his people
2:16 - Wheat fields
2:18 - Oil industry again
2:20 - Views on Astana, with the Astana tower
2:24 - I actually don't know most of the sportsmen and -women here ... But I'll try. 2:46 is probably Assan Bazayev? 2:56 is judoka Askhat Zhitkeyev. 3:00 is Irina Nekrasova, and 3:07 is Ilya Ilin.
3:24 - An eagle hunter, tying the knot back to ancient and still prevailing Kazakh culture.

Horseback Wrestling!

Part of the traditional Vernal Equinox (Nauryz) celebrations in Kazakhstan. Comment from a random YouTube user: "these are the REAL Turks!!!!!!!!"

The president's first love

The Russian newspaper Argumenty i fakty reports in the article "To turn down a president: First love is never forgotten" about the first love of Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

In 1994, Nazarbayev paid a visit to the city Dneprodzerzhinsk in Ukraine. He came by the vocational training school Nr. 8, where he in the late 1950's, in the dawn of his youth, had studied to become a furnace-worker, and met with teachers and old class mates. Surprisingly, he declared: "In your city, I helped two friends get married. But I myself failed. Here, I felt my first love."

Lyudmila Ivanovna Kalnysh, a former classmate of the president, heard this confession on the radio. She had not dared go watch the Kazakh president's visit, because she was afraid that she might faint if she saw Nursultan.

Back in their school days, Nuri had noticed Lyudmila in the gym hall, where he wrestled in one end of the hall and she did rhythmic gymnastics in the other end of the hall.

At some point Lyuda felt the gaze of burning black eyes in her back. She already knew that Nursultan was a straight-A student and the komsorg (komsomol organizer) of the class.
"I remember how the girls and I were sitting in the assembly hall at some boring meeting", Lyudmila Ivanovna tells AiF. "We didn't listen to the speeches. And suddenly Nursultan climbs on the platform. It astonished me how wonderfully he spoke. His words poured out beautifully, freely, without any 'er' or 'well'. And soon, after a gym class, he was waiting for me at the exit. I got nervous and dashed off through another exit on the other side of the building, and ran into the doorway of some unknown house. And there was Nuri: 'But that's not your house!' - 'How do you know?' - 'I know. Come on, let me take you home. It's dark outside - someone might insult you.'"

But then she fell ill, and had to stay at the hospital to have her pneumonia treated. When she was finally able to get up from her bed, she glanced at the street through the window. And there was Nursultan, looking up at the hospital windows. Lyuda hid behind the curtain. An older lady in the bed next to hers smiled at her: "Don't be shy! I can see all the way from here that he's a good young man."

Once Lyuda got out of the hospital, they danced tango for the first time:

"Nuri was so careful with me. He didn't try to press himself against me like other guys. With him I felt calm and like I could trust him."

Afterwards they traded photos with each other. And at some point it was time for him to meet Lyudmila's mother.

"He was terribly nervous, it took him forever to take his shoes off in the hallway. Nursultan plucked at the tablecloth, it seemed he wanted to say something important. But what? After a few days it became clear, when a good friend of mine came to me and whispered in my ear: 'Nursultan sends me. He asks if you'd like to marry him, if you'd like to come with him to Kazakhstan. He is waiting for your answer.'"

But what about my studies?, Lyuda thought.

"I enrolled at the school later than Nursultan, I still had one year left. Besides, with my 19 years I didn't think seriously about boys. I wasn't ready for close relationships. Mum and I lived like two nuns. My father had left us when I was four years old. Mum never married again."

So Lyuda said no. Still, Nuri didn't lose hope, and kept writing to her from Kazakhstan. And Lyuda went through the heavy school of life:

"I graduated from the school as a seamstress. I was assigned to the best dressmaking establishment of the city, but the director hated me for some reason. She kept insulting me in front of the whole brigade. I was constantly running to the toilet in tears. This woman had an effect on me like a boa constrictor on a rabbit."

One day, a young liutenant proposed to her on the street with the words "Marry me, I'll take you away from here!" Those words worked on Lyuda like magic, and there she was with him at the registry office, thinking that they actually hadn't even kissed yet. "That was terrible stupidity", Lyuda says today, looking back.

The young couple moved to the Astrakhan region, where he served. The fresh husband turned out to be a brawler and a scandalist who didn't mind raising his fists against his wife. Lyuda endured for five years, and then she took her little daughter and son and moved back home. She was now 25 years old, her self-esteem completely shattered.

"Somehow, one day as I was cleaning up at home, I found an old suitcase. Inside it I discovered Nuri's letters. I sat down and read them all, tears running down my face. I understood that this was my love. But instead of the pain of loss, happiness came to me. The little seed that Nursultan had sowed in my soul grew into a flower."

Lyuda's self esteem gradually returned, she went to the hairdresser and got new, nice clothes, and walked with her back straight again.

"But I didn't write to Nursultan. I thought I wasn't worthy of him. I prayed to god that he would find a woman who was better than I. I was happy enough with his letters having brought me back to life."

Lyuda found the strength to pursue something she had long been dreaming of - to get a second education as a medical nurse.

For almost twenty years she knew nothing of Nursultan's fate. And then, suddenly, she met his portrait in the newspaper, where it said that Nazarbayev had become first secretary of the central committee of the Communist party of Kazakhstan. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Nursultan Abishevich was elected president of the republic, and in 1994 he paid a visit to Dneprodzerzhinsk.

When Lyudmila Ivanovna heard his love confession on the radio, she finally decided to write him. She didn't know the address, so she just wrote

To:
Kazakhstan
The President

About a month later, early in the morning, the phone rang. She immediately recognised his voice. The president asked: "So, with whom do you live?" - "With my daughter and my grandson!" - "Just the three of you?" - "Just the three of us."
Actually, Lyudmila was married. But it was a marriage of mutual respect, not love. "My husband was not in my heart." And on that day, she left her second husband. "I couldn't betray Nursultan, could I?" ...

Soon, Nursultan paid another visit to Dneprodzerzhinsk. Trusted men came to pick up Lyudmila Ivanovna and bring her to a celebratory dinner party. "We had five minutes to speak alone. And I said the most important thing - that his love had not been unanswered. The feeling that Nursultan is somewhere in the world has helped me cope with life to this very day."

Only once she turned to him for help. Her grandson stood before a complicated and expensive kidney operation, and Lyudmila did not have enough money to pay for it. She sent a telegram to Nazarbayev. And the hospital bills were quickly settled.

Blog Tip!

Moscow Through Brown Eyes is a blog by "Buster", a graduate student and former Moscow resident, who combines experiences as an African-American in Russia with a broad interest in culture, society, literature, history and much more, which naturally results in a Chirayliq-heavy mix (as evident in the collection of attractive faces - Langston Hughes and W. E. B. Du Bois among others* - in the blog's title image).

Like Tinet, Buster has written a lot about migrant workers in Russia and other issues of social concern, but my favourite feature on MTBE is the recurring Russian Rap Friday. The last two videos have been especially sweet:



Rapper Huligan, Russian from Kazakhstan, gets to the roots with «Я провинциален» ("I'm Country").



Rapper-throatsinger Ondar sings for Tuva in Vladivostok, and Buster finds lots of yummy clips of Yul Brynner (Siberian-born Russian-Swiss-Mongolian-Roma, whom we probably should write about more) as side dishes to the main course.

*) Both Hughes and Du Bois, as well as many other African-American intellectuals, visited the USSR in the 1920's and 1930's. Hughes even travelled extensively in Central Asia in 1932, and visited China and Japan. Here's an article about how Langston Hughes' poetry survives in the school curriculum in Turkmenistan. It's also a very interesting re-telling of the chance meeting and ensuing companionship between Hughes and Arthur Koestler in the heart of Central Asia. There's also an incredible twist at the end of the story...

Max Sher, photojournalist

Max Sher, born in 1975 in St. Petersburg, Russia, is a photojournalist based in St. Petersburg and represented by Anzenbeger Agency in Vienna. Publications that have featured his work include Ogoniok magazine, Afisha, Der Spiegel and The St.Petersburg Times.

He has photographed some of the most interesting regions in Russia and the former Soviet Union, among them the Ural river's winding path through the borderland between Europe and Asia in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Two photos from Astrakhan, one of the since ancient times most ethnically diverse regions of Russia:


A young man in the uniform of the commercial fleet on a ferry cruising between the villages Sizyi Bugor and Tumak on the river Bushma in the Ural delta.


Mamed and his son Shavkat, migrant workers from Uzbekistan, in the yard of their house in central Astrakhan.
See more of Max Sher's photos from Astrakhan.

Some photos from the Ural river region:


Kalybek, who is selling sheep at the livestock market in Atyrau, Kazakhstan.


A young man working at a stud farm, also in Atyrau, Kazakhstan.
See more of Max Sher's photos from the Ural river in the post titled "From Europe to Asia and back :)".

The texts are mostly in Russian, but even if you don't know the language, the photos speak for themselves. Well worth a visit are Max Sher's livejournal - abel-djassi.livejournal.com - as well as his space on lightstalkers.org.

Aidar Sunday 2!

Last time, Aidar Galimov, the multiawarded pop singer of Tatarstan and Bashkiria, sang about his childhood and youth, the beginnings of his career. In this song - Kezge jillar - the subject is melancholy love. Ah, those Tatars.

If that isn't enough, I have to post this video for the song Kun men ay by Berkut. There's footage from a Kazakh film in this video, but I can't remember what its name is. Can anybody help me?



Of course, the subject is (again) love. "You are my sun and my moon" - kun men ay. Those Kazakhs!

Aidar Sunday!

Aidar Galimov (Айдар Галимов) is a Tatar pop singer, born in Kazakhstan and educated in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. He has received numerous awards in both republics, such as the official Tatar song festival Tatar zhyry in Kazan. This video for the song Bähet bit ul (Бэхет бит ул) is an autobiographical account of his rise to fame. I especially like little Aidar with the accordion, and young Aidar as a paratrooper.

Kazakhs vs. Turkmens!

Faceoff scene from the Kazakh movie Kek (Vengeance, 2006). The Kazakh tribe Aday and the Turkmen tribe Yomut are locked in a vicious circle of blood revenge. There's a love story, too, if you look closely...
Some more clips with spoilers: A summary of key scenes, and a dramatic dombra moment. The film takes up some important motifs in the Kazakh storytelling tradition: the Turkic legend about the mankurt, and the importance of the dombra for (especially masculine) identity, memory and tradition.
Pity about the Russian dub, though...

Cirayliq rock climbers

I used to do some rock climbing a while ago. I haven't officially quit, but I just haven't done it for a long time now, since I lost my climbing partner and also it's a bit expensive when you live in the city.



Anyway, rock climbing is a sport for which teenagers are the most suited. One of the greatest, albeit aging, stars of rock climbing today is 18-year old David Lama. His parents met in Nepal, where his dad worked as a sherpa and his Austrian mum was mountaineering. They fell in love, and settled in his mum's home country, where they continued to trek on mountains together. When David was born, they soon noticed that he liked climbing around on rocks more than trekking, so they put him in a rock climbing class at the tender age of six.

The rest is, as they say, history. Here David does some tricky bouldering at a competition in Birmingham, 2007:

Both photos in this post are by Rainer Eder. The first one is from David Lama's official website, and the second one is from an interview at Climb and More.

Furthermore, here is a clip from Malaysia (in German and English) - David Lama and a few others among today's top ten rock climbers were invited to the country to explore the rock formations and build new routes (for future rock climbing tourists). Probably for some sexist reason there is hardly any focus at all on the girls, but at least the boys are cute.

Someone who has been around a little bit longer is Serik Kazbekov, 38. He was born in Alma-Ata, but is nowadays competing for Ukraine.



Here is a gallery of photos with Kazbekov (and his daughter with insanely long hair) climbing in the Crimea, by Anna Piunova. Here is his profile at Risk Online.



Serik Kazbekov actually got into rock climbing because of fellow Alma-Ata local Salavat Rakhmetov, who nowadays climbs for Russia. This "ancient" 41 year old family father is still among the world's top climbers! Salavat was introduced to rock climbing by his older brother Kairat, after which he, in his own words, "stopped running 'horizontally' and started running 'vertically' instead". Up until then he had been a professional in light athletics.

In the following video he wins 1st place in bouldering in the rock climbing world championships in Munich 2005.

Viktor Tsoi

Viktor Tsoi (Виктор Цой) (1962–1990) was a famous Soviet rock singer and leader of the cult band Kino. Tsoi's father was originally Korean, and his mother was Russian. He died tragically in a car accident. Even today, he is considered "the last hero of rock" among many Russians (the title was bestowed on him in an obituary in Komsomolskaya Pravda).
Kino's lyrics were interpreted as political messages for the youth, against war and for the perestroika movement, although Tsoi occasionally denied any political inclinations. The band received very little financial support from the state and the fans spread the songs as samizdat.
The above clip features Kino's song Группа крови ("Blood Type") from the soundtrack of Kazakh director Rashid Nugmanov's debut film Игла ("Needle", 1988). The film dealt with the controversial topic of drug abuse in a never-before seen way in the Soviet Union; Tsoi plays a young man involved in shady business who returns to Alma-Ata (Almaty) to find his girlfriend addicted, and decides to take on the drug-dealers himself. Nugmanov's career from taboo-breaking filmmaker to political dissident is colourful enough to warrant its own Chirayliq post, so stay tuned.

Dombra Love

You just have to see this cute photo of a Kazakh father and baby playing the dombra in Mongolia.

Mustafa Shokay

Our reader Netania drew our attention to this video with a song from the soundtrack of a new film about Mustafa Shokay from Kazakhstan.



Mustafa Shokay, born into an aristocratic family in the village Aulie-Tarangyl in the Kyzyl-Orda region and of Kipchak and Kazakh origin, was one of the leaders of a revolt in 1917 against the Bolsheviks . After the revolt was crushed, he fled the country and lived in exile in Europe. During this time, he became one of the leading authorities on the history of Central Asia and was an ardent Turkestani nationalist. He later went on to help form the Turkestan Legion, who allied themselves with Germany during the Second World War, hoping to establish an independent state in Central Asia.


Mustafa is played by Aziz Beyshenaliev.

Anyway, (at least according to this clip) he also had a very dramatic love story with his wife, a Jewish redhead called Maria Yakovlevna ...
The music is by the duo Musicola. The singer, Karina Abdullina, apparently also plays the role of Shokay's wife.

My favourite scene:







*sigh* ...

Here are some more screencaps from this film, and here's a bit more about Musicola.

Apparently, Shokay is buried here in Berlin.

Kazakh Boys

All Давай (All Davai) is a Kazakh boy band with some kind of modern R'n'B sound. Here are two cute music videos. They have so many videos on YouTube that it's very difficult to choose... There's a nostalgic one, one about a love affair gone wrong... There's even one with Nazis in it!

The first is in Kazakh language, and they're mostly just hanging around, being cute: Zhanym


The next is a hymn to their beloved city, in Russian: Алма-Ата (Almaty)



Remember, people, keep your city colourful and clean!

Aygul - Sharayna

We can't get enough of Kazakh music videos. This hot little number by singer Aygul (moon flower!) features a nameless but extremely hunky actor in the smouldering summer countryside. Something about the song reminds me disturbingly of Finland, however...

Dombra Pop - Kazakh Music Videos

Totally AMAZING fantasy music video with unidentified dombra hero! No wonder the ice queen melts!





This is a propaganda video for the Kazakhstan armed forces. Again, I have no info about the artist. The dombra is relegated to a symbolical role. The accordion reminds me of Tatar music (and Russian and Finnish, obviously). Note the final "inspiring" quote by Nursultan Nazarbayev...

And as always when I see footage of soldiers, I think: "Poor boys."
(Though riding through the steppe is strangely tempting...)

The Genghis Craze

This 2007 movie, about the early years of Genghis Khan, deserves a much longer post. The director, Sergei Bodrov sr., is Russian. The film is an international co-production between companies in Germany, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia. The lead actor, playing Temujin, is the (very very chirayliq) Tadanobu Asano from Japan. The film was shot in the People's Republic of China, principally Inner Mongolia, and in Kazakhstan. To top it all, the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film as a submission from Kazakhstan.

(Wait a sec - "Music by Tuomas Kantelinen"? This truly is a pan-Eurasian production... Heart-warming!)

Of course, there's bound to be trouble.

This is not the first movie adaptation of Genghis Khan's life, and I'm sure it won't be the worst (in the fabulous "yellowface" genre, I think John Wayne takes the prize with his incredible line in The Conqueror (1956): "this Tartar woman...is for me...and my blood says...take her!!" Oh my Tengri, there's even one with Omar Sharif), though I understand the Mongolian concerns about historical accuracy and respect for their culture.


Especially the Japanese interest in the ancient warlord has been a bit disturbing. In 2007, a Japanese movie was released under the name Aoki Ookami (The Blue Wolf; a.k.a. Genghis Khan - To the Ends of the Earth and Sea). According to an online review, it was a commercial failure in Japan, and the producers scrapped the plans for a sequel. This film was shot entirely in Mongolia, but the leading actors are all Japanese. Takashi Sorimachi (of GTO o_O and Yamato fame) is kawaii. Check out his pout in the beginning of this video.

Ok, getting off topic there...

If you want to see REAL Mongols dressed up and playing Genghis, check out this gallery by Michel Setboun.

PS: An interesting tidbit of information is the fact that the script writer of Mongol, Arif Aliyev, qualifies as a chirayliq. His name sounds Tatar, but it doesn't really matter as much as his friendly smile.

More about Aliyev

Malen'kye Lyudi - Kazakhstan 2003

Malen'kye Lyudi by Nariman Turebayev (2003) is a movie about "little people", friends Bek and Max, who share an apartment in Almaty and just try to survive on odd jobs and daydreams. Bek (Erjan Bekmuratov) wants to find true love, Max (Oleg Kerimov) wants to move to Germany, where his grandmother lives.

«Max ist ein Frauenheld, Bek ein stiller Brüter, und den Moment, in dem sie ihre Liebe zueinander entdecken, nur um sich sofort wieder voneinander zurückzuziehen, inszeniert Turebayev grossartig.»
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Another film from Kazakhstan distributed by Trigon Film in Europe is Killer / Marat, tueur à gages by Dareshan Omirbayev, 1999. Reluctant assassin Marat (incredibly handsome Talgat Assetov) is captured in the Mafia's net of extortion, lies and violence.

"Dareschan Omirbaew hat in drei Spielfilmen sein leidenschaftliches Temperament gezeigt und ein Kino von einer unleugbaren Poesie."
Thierry Jousse, Cahiers du Cinéma

The Star of SuperStar KZ

Since we in the comments a couple of posts down have somehow come to discuss music and whether it is possible to express your "true self" even with very little resources, it is an appropriate moment to post this quite famous snippet from the Kazakh TV show SuperStar KZ.

As can be seen in the beginning of the clip, the show is about amateurs who in the show might or might not get a chance to stand in the spotlight and show what they can do. The moderators making fun of and laughing at the contestants is apparently an important part of the show. But then, the third guy comes onstage. And the he is so original, so confident and so true, that the moderators can't figure out how to make fun of him.

Racial stereotypes for Soviet policemen

Click to enlarge. This was sent to us by reader Ilshat Nazipov (unfortunately, he didn't include any nice photos of himself ... see his homepage).

It's a diagram of how males of different races in the Soviet Union supposedly look, used by Soviet police to identify nationalities.

It's funny how the 'Tatar' looks just like Lenin, though Tatars weren't such a prominent part of his very mixed ancestry ("Russian, Kalmyk, Jewish, German and Swedish, and possibly others", according to biographer Dmitry Volkogonov.) It's strange that the 'Georgian' doesn't look exactly like Stalin (probably because this was post-thaw, when the Soviet regime had distanced itself from Stalin). I wonder if it's a pure coincidence that the 'Tatar', the 'Jew' and the 'Gypsy' are next to each other. And we suspect that when the artist got to the 'Tajik' and the 'Turkmen', it was already close to deadline or the end of his workday, so he just drew something random - that's why they look a bit more imaginative than the others.

Ainur can't get over how cute the 'Jew' is.