Vladimir Sergeevich Oskolkov, Candidate of Historical Sciences, gave an interview to the KTK Internet portal on the topic: How to say “Thank you” correctly
Kazakhstanis are celebrating Thanksgiving Day since 2016. One of the main messages of this holiday is “Remember and be proud of your history”. The initiative to establish such a day belongs to Nursultan Nazarbayev. The date was not chosen by chance: the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan (ANC) was created on March 1, 23 years ago. Today in our country there are ethnocultural associations of Armenians, Belarusians, Greeks, Jews, Koreans and many other nationalities. Kazakhstan has become a real home for them, and today's holiday is a tribute of respect and gratitude of all ethnic groups to each other, and especially to the Kazakh people, who accepted these people as their relatives.
“This day can become a holiday of mercy, friendship and love of all Kazakhstanis to each other,” said Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Our today's multinational family is the result of migration waves caused by the policies of tsarism and the dictatorship of Soviet power. Over the years, entire nations were deported to Kazakhstan. Only in the early twentieth century, 1.1 million people came to us from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, in the 1930s during the collectivization 250 thousand dispossessed peasants were sent here, later about 1.2 million more people were resettled from all corners of the Soviet Union for the construction of industrial facilities. And the fact that all these people could get settled and survive is a huge merit of all the people of Kazakhstan.
As Oskolkov Vladimir Sergeevich, Candidate of Historical Sciences, the people exiled to Kazakhstan were able to rally, create international families and live in peace and harmony, despite all the difficulties of survival.
“The first nations that were deported here during the Soviet period are Koreans. They were mostly deported in the early 1930s. These were those who settled the north of the Korean Peninsula. I know quite well and a lot about this for the simple reason that my father’s older sister married a Korean — Uncle Kohl, they had a wonderful family! Thanks to this, I am quite familiar with the Korean diaspora. I can't say that they were sweet here: it is difficult to start again when they are removed from their homes. As they say, two moves are equal to one fire. And then no one asked anyone ... I do not think that the authorities did the right thing, but, probably, the state needed it. In our time, it would be a wild crime to relocate this way, ”said Vladimir Sergeevich.
Then Kazakhstan received Germans, Chechens, Turks, Poles and representatives of many other nationalities, the historian noted.
“At first the Germans of the Volga region were sent to Siberia, to the labor army, then they were allowed to relocate to the territory of Kazakhstan. Then, we know, Chechens were resettled to us, this is already 1945. The Meskhetian Turks were resettled. The Poles were resettled, and not only during the war: the first serious resettlement was after the Polish uprising in 1848. As a rule, everyone came unexpectedly — plucked up, hungry, cold — and the steppe inhabitants received them as best they could. It could not be otherwise for them: they helped, they were the last to share and thought it was in the order of things. Such hospitality in the blood. This national trait has evolved over the centuries. Therefore, the people who were resettled here should be grateful to the cultural and historical background that has developed on the Kazakh land, ”the expert noted.
According to Vladimir Sergeevich, this holiday today is really very important, because it teaches the younger generation to show tolerance, to be kind and sensitive to the sorrows of others.