The monument “Muhammedzhan Tynyshbaev” is installed in the hometown of the Turkestan-Siberian Railway (Turksib) designer in the city of Sarkan of the Zhetysu region. One of the most educated people of the last century was from Sarkan. Talented engineer and public figure Muhammedzhan Tynyshpaev was a deputy of the second State Duma during tsarist Russia, and after the February Revolution, he became one of the activists of the first Kazakh party “Alash” and was elected Prime Minister of the proclaimed “Kokand Autonomy.”
While the consequences of his political career were tragic for him, as a professional engineer, Tynyshpaev became a legend for the Kazakh steppe. It was he who developed the project of the railway called Turksib, and most importantly, it was not just a path connecting Russia with all of Central Asia. According to the engineer’s plan, the road passed through the most disadvantaged areas of the republic to improve the living standards of the residents of the auls – infrastructure began to develop there.
However, the Soviet authorities did not forgive Tynyshpaev’s political allegiance. Immediately after the commissioning of Turksib, he was declared an “enemy of the people” and arrested. Like many other representatives of the Kazakh intelligentsia at that time, he was repressed, and his name was forgotten for many years.
