40 years ago, on the night from 1 to 2 August 1959, in the city of Temirtau, Karaganda region, unrest began among the Komsomol members - the builders of the Karaganda metallurgical plant - the famous Kazakhstan Magnitogorsk.
The unrest continued for three days. In their suppression, troops from Moscow (Dzerzhinsky division) and Tashkent were involved, guarding the notorious Karaganda camps (Karlag). According to official data, during the clashes between the builders and the troops, 16 people were killed, over 100 were injured. According to unverified data, about 10 thousand cartridges were used to suppress the unrest by the troops.
The events in Temirtau occupy a special place in the modern history of Kazakhstan. The decision to build the Karaganda metallurgical plant in Temirtau was made at the height of World War II in 1943. Even earlier, in the first years of the war, Germany occupied a large territory of the European part of the USSR, and the Soviet leadership had to transfer thousands of industrial enterprises to the east in a fire order. After the loss of the coal and metallurgical base in the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih basin in Ukraine, the USSR had only one base for metallurgical production - in the Urals.
Then the Karaganda coal basin with its unique coking coals was considered as a reserve base for creating a new coal and metallurgical base in the deep rear of the country. By 1959, construction took on a huge scale. The whole country was building the plant. The Central Committee of the Komsomol announced the construction of Karmet as one of the first Komsomol construction projects. Thousands of Komsomol members from all over the country (from about 80 regions of all the republics of the Soviet Union) arrived in Temirtau and settled in tent camps in the eastern part of the city, not far from the construction site. In addition to Soviet Komsomol members, a large group of Bulgarians from the youth movement of brigadiers, the Bulgarian analogue of our Komsomol, came to the construction site. Bulgarians were settled in hostels, our houses were not enough. Living conditions were terrible. Hundreds of army-style tents stood in the hot steppe. There was practically nothing: no shops, no places for recreation. But most importantly, there was an acute shortage of water. In addition, the Komsomol members had much more real work front. A lot of people were not busy. The construction was carried out using an extensive method. The unskilled labor of a huge number of Komsomol members brought from all over the Union was used extremely unproductively.
Anyone who has been to the Karaganda steppes in the middle of summer knows what heat and lack of water are. There were several cisterns in the tent camp, the water from which was used simultaneously for cooking, drinking and washing. Under the sun, this water looked more like boiling water. The enthusiasm of the Komsomol members who came from more fertile regions - Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Russia - vanished before our eyes. The situation in the tent camps was gradually heating up.
The immediate reason for the beginning of the Temirtau events was the incident with water. In one of the cisterns, the water for some reason turned out to be spoiled. Then they said that some pranksters had poured ink into the tank. Perhaps the water is just rotten. Nevertheless, the accumulated irritation immediately found its way out. A crowd gathered and demanded an explanation. The police arrested several of the most active participants in the protest. Then on August 1, 1959, an angry mob stormed the building of the district police station in the eastern part of Temirtau, demanding the release of the arrested Komsomol members. However, by that time they had already been transferred to Karaganda, 30 kilometers from Temirtau. They demanded to return it back.
The situation was becoming completely unmanageable. Thousands of young builders-Komsomols from the tent camp on the night of 1 to 2 August 1959 riots throughout the eastern part of Temirtau. A store near the ROVD building was taken by storm and plundered. The crowd rushed to the building of the Kazmetallurgstroy trust (KMC). There were clashes with the police. Control over the situation was completely lost. Crowds of builders smashed the city. The second secretary of the Karaganda regional party committee, Enodin, was captured. He escaped by claiming that he was a simple engineer. The Komsomol activists of Karaganda were collected by alarm and guarded the dynamite warehouse, which was located halfway from Temirtau to Karaganda.
It should be noted that the riots were mainly attended by visitors on Komsomol vouchers from different regions of the Soviet Union. The local population and Bulgarian Komsomol members did not participate in the speeches.
On August 2, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Brezhnev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan Belyaev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Kazakhstan Kunaev, Minister of Internal Affairs Kabylbaev arrived in Temirtau. Ultimately, it was decided to use force. The decision was made by Brezhnev. Soldiers of the Dzerzhinsky division from Moscow and soldiers from Tashkent, who had arrived by this time, opened fire. ROVD buildings and shops seized by young builders were taken by storm. Killed, according to official figures, 16 people.
The events in Temirtau became the only and most large-scale spontaneous unrest on the basis of everyday life in the history of the Komsomol and in the history of the USSR. The movement of the All-Union Komsomol construction projects subsequently took on a huge scale. Student construction teams, various groups of Komsomol members built the Baikal-Amur Mainline, mastered virgin lands, erected facilities throughout the country. The youth were the cheapest labor force. In addition, the state has always economized on social and living conditions. In the Far North and BAM, people lived in trailers.
The lessons of the Temirtau events as a whole were obviously taken into account. In the seventies and eighties, the state skillfully supported and controlled the enthusiasm of the Komsomol movements. Never before in the history of the USSR were there Komsomol riots similar to the events in Temirtau. Much attention was paid to ideological support, the creation of a leisure system, the general cultural and social activity of the Komsomol members. The idea of Komsomol romance developed intensively. This allowed the state to save on social and household programs for new construction projects, but to prevent a repetition of the Temirtau events.
In Temirtau itself, immediately after the suppression of the unrest, the most active participants were tried. Several people were sentenced to capital punishment. At the same time, a landing of Komsomol and party workers from Karaganda, Alma-Ata, Moscow was landed in the city. The construction of social and cultural facilities began. Then, in particular, the Rodina cinema was built.
The events in Temirtau did not prevent the completion of the construction of the Karaganda metallurgical plant. With the completion of its construction, Karaganda became one of the main coal and metallurgical complexes of the country. The only problem was that it was a complex that successfully functioned for the needs of the USSR as a whole. After its collapse, Kazakhstan inherited the former pride of the Soviet industry - the Karaganda metallurgical plant, built through the incredible efforts of the entire Soviet Union, and the coal mines of Karaganda, having no real opportunity to use their potential.
Kazakhstan itself can consume only five percent of the production of Kazakhstan's Magnitogorsk inside the country. Everything else he has to sell for export. The Cold War is over. The defense complex of the former USSR both in Russia and in Kazakhstan turned out to be of no use to anyone. We have witnessed the enormous tragedy of entire generations of Soviet people, their colossal superhuman efforts without any compensation from the state for the creation of the industrial complex of the former USSR.
The events in Temirtau in 1959 are remarkable for another reason. In fact, they were the beginning of the long-term political career of the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Dinmukhamed Kunayev.
Eyewitnesses
Khristenko Mikhail Mikhailovich.
In August 1959 he was a driver of a motor depot of the Kazmetallurgstroy trust (KMS).
- I remember those events well. I then worked as a chauffeur at the CCM. There were a lot of Komsomol members from different regions of the country at the construction site. They all lived in tents. I remember that the tents read “Odessa-mama”, “Vitebsk on the Dnieper”, “Greetings from Tbilisi”. True, they lived badly. Bulgarian builders - there were a lot of them too - lived in dormitory houses, and ours are more and more in tents. I don’t remember how many there were, but there were many.
On the evening of August 1, 1959, I was returning to Temirtau by truck. There were several women in the back with me. When we passed the tent city in the eastern part of the city, we began to come across different groups. They started throwing stones into the car - they broke glass and headlights. We barely got out. The women shouted - take us to Karaganda, they say. And on the highway - the police, no one is allowed. And these Komsomol members are walking around drunk. Our motor depot was smashed, I think 18 cars were stolen; mud was poured into the fuel tanks. In general, the horror that happened. The soldiers were still standing at the building of the KMS trust, so they were shooting at them on the sly. They seem to have taken some kind of weapon from the ROVD, which they later destroyed.
Details
Kenzhebaev Sagandyk Zhunusovich.
In 1959 - the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Kazakhstan.
- During the Temirtau events, I was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Kazakhstan and a member of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Komsomol. At the beginning of the events, I was not in Alma-Ata and in Kazakhstan in general - I was then in Vienna at the World Youth Festival. I learned about what had happened upon arrival. Immediately from Moscow, I flew to Temirtau and began to understand the reasons for the performance of the youth.
The fact is that now some leaders ascribe a political character to the Temirtau events and interpret it as a political action of the Temirtau working class. I believe that such an assessment does not correspond to historical reality. The fact is that it was a spontaneous demonstration of youth on the basis of indignation at the inconveniences created by the local administration and, in general, by the leaders of the city and the region of Karaganda. Before leaving for the festival, I went to the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU Nikolai Ilyich Belyaev with a special note. I visited Temirtau, walked around all the tents, workers' quarters, was in workshops, at a construction site - everywhere I talked with young people. And everyone was indignant at the disorder of their life and work.
The plan for recruiting labor for the construction of Temirtau was overfulfilled by about 30-40%, in the absence of a proper work front. In addition, the entire infrastructure was not ready to receive such a number of people: there were no retail outlets, catering, housing, and sufficient drinking water. People lived in tents, in cramped conditions, and the leaders did not pay due attention to these inconveniences.
After my trip to Temirtau, I wrote a large note to Belyaev and was at his reception. I said that this situation is fraught with serious consequences. He promised to take emergency measures. I left - and exactly what we talked about with Belyaev happened. This note saved me when the corresponding organizational conclusions were made.
From among the Karaganda leadership, only the first secretary of the Karaganda regional committee of the Komsomol Nikolai Davydov survived. The first secretary of the Karaganda regional committee, Pavel Nikolaevich Isaev, was expelled from the party, he was put on trial, he went to Sverdlovsk, where he worked as the head of the shop. Then he went blind on the basis of nervousness and died suddenly. The chairman of the Karaganda Economic Council Dmitry Grigorievich Anik was expelled from the party, removed from his job, put on trial, but he was not convicted.
Sagandyk Zhunusovich, how many people were involved in the construction of the Kazakhstan Magnitogorsk?
- Up to 100 thousand people from all over the Soviet Union. At the time of the Temirtau events, about 15 thousand people lived in tents from the center. Moreover, there was such a practice that each time Isaev or Anika went to Moscow and asked to send more young people. And the CPSU Central Committee has always satisfied their requests.
It turns out that this is one of the first Komsomol construction projects in the Union and the only mass demonstration of Komsomol members?
- Yes, it was one of the first construction projects and the only performance of young people. After that, there were events in Novocherkassk, but workers were already speaking there. Moreover, the opening of fire in Temirtau was ordered by none other than Brezhnev. Then he was the secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. He was accompanied by Belyaev, and Kunaev, and Isaev, and Anika. When the youth took to the streets and, in the opinion of the leadership, the movement became uncontrollable, it was Brezhnev who gave the order to open fire on the speakers.
And although the order to open fire belongs to him, then he did not admit it. And the responsibility for this decision was taken by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan, Major General Shyrakbek Kabylbaev. The question is, where is the logic? How could an ordinary Republican minister in those days give an order to open fire on the working class? Now, many years later, I think why did Brezhnev show cowardice then and did not admit his responsibility? And I come to the conclusion that then there was a struggle for power in the top leadership of the party. Brezhnev was only taken to the Central Committee of the CPSU, he is a supporter of Khrushchev. Khrushchev had not yet really strengthened his position, and there was a struggle between factions for power. If Brezhnev had said that he had given the order, this could damage Khrushchev's prestige - in the sense that it was the Khrushchev side that opened fire on the workers.
Sagandyk Zhunusovich, who, in your opinion, could then force Kabylbaev to admit his responsibility for such a decision?
- Kabylbaev could have been pushed into this by both Brezhnev and Kunaev. Kunaev was then the chairman of the Council of Ministers. A few years later, already under Brezhnev and Kunaev, Kabylbaev returned to the post of Minister of Internal Affairs. This means that Kunaev and Brezhnev did not forget this. And in 1959, Kabylbaev was fired from his job and convicted.
And you were at the plenum when Belyaev was removed?
- Oh sure. The fact is that the events in Temirtau served as a pretext for filming Belyaev. For this purpose Brezhnev came specially. Brezhnev replaced Belyaev with Kunaev. Interests always coexist in politics.
And Belyaev was not considered a member of the Khrushchev group?
- When he came to us, he was the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. He found himself in disgrace, and he was actually exiled to Kazakhstan. When the so-called Khrushchev's struggle against the anti-party group of Molotov-Malenkov and others was waged, Belyaev sided with Khrushchev. As a result, he became a member of the Presidium. But then the alignment of forces there changed, and he was sent to us.
Sagandyk Zhunusovich, and to whom was the Komsomol organization in Magnitogorsk subordinate?
- Formally, according to the Komsomol Charter, we. But the real control was in the hands of Moscow.
