In this archive is kept the criminal case of Izbay Koshchanov, the editor who only a few months supervised the newspaper "Ekpіndi kurylys", repressed in 1937. For the first time about Izbay Nurzhigitovich the historian Kylyshbay Sundetuly wrote.
"Not enough journalists ..."
"On August 1, 1937, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (b) sent the following information to Moscow:
"Especially in the West Kazakhstan regional newspaper is not enough for 15 people. In the regional newspapers are vacant 5 editorial seats. During the reporting period, 14 literary workers and 4 editors were fired from the regional newspaper for their hostility. 7 editors of regional newspapers were exposed. As it turned out, all of them, as enemies of the people, were in collusion with the Trotskyites and counterrevolutionaries ... from April to May, 759 letters were sent to the editorial office of the newspaper "Ekpіndi kurylys", of which only 288 were published, the rest are in the editorial office. The editor of the newspaper and the deputies showed indifference, the department of letters does not interfere in this important matter." The editor of the newspaper I. Koshchanov was instructed "to eliminate silence in the struggle of party organizations with the enemies of the people and national fascists." But arrested in a few days Koshchanov was convicted on November 13, 1938, the same day he was shot. He was rehabilitated on April 23, 1969.
These data are stored in the Archives of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan in case No. 541, list No. 1, fund No. 708, they are listed in the book of the Candidate of Historical Sciences Kylyshbay Sundetuly "Ordadan kanat kаkkаn unparaktar" (Uralsk, 2008).
Information of the National Security Committee
In the Regional Department of the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan there is a lot of information about victims of political repressions of the 1930s. The employee of the Department Saule Abitova rendered a great help in the preparation of the book dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the newspaper "Oral oniri". She assisted in acquaintance with the criminal case against Izbay Koshchanov, in copying his photo.
Criminal case No. 2463 "On the accusation of Izbay Koshchanov on points 2, 7, 8, and 11 of article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR" was opened on January 11, 1938. But in the case there were recorded testimonies of some witnesses from 1930, it seems that long before the arrest, I. Koshchanov was on the NKVD's sight.
Koshchanov was arrested on January 13, 1938 in the house number 59 on the street Baturin, in the city of Uralsk. The search record contains the confiscated property of his "Sauer" hunting gun, four rings, three cartridge cases, 24 pieces of empty cartridges, 25 grams of gunpowder." "He was born on September 20, 1906 in the city of Fort Aleksandrovsk, Mangistau, Guryev district, West Kazakhstan region. Education: primary, specialties - no, the last post is an inspector of the regional department of education, the origin is a working one, since 1925 a member of the All-Union Communist Party (b), but on January 7, 1937, he was excluded from the ranks of the party "for support, covering up counter-revolutionary nationalists". Previously, he was not tried. Not military liable. He is single. Father – Nurzhigit Koshchanov, 67 years old, lives in the city of Fort Aleksandrovsk." That's all the information. On one of the pages of the criminal case they pay attention to his belonging to the “Adai”.
Charge
In the records registered in the criminal case, it is clear that, Izbay Koshchanov was officially interrogated only two times. The first time was the day after the arrest, that is, on January 14. He was accused as an "anti-Soviet nationalist, member of a subversive and terrorist organization, in the occupation of anti-Soviet activities," demanded "to confess freely to a crime." Koshchanov "voluntarily confessed" that, "from the end of 1936, he was in the group of the then first secretary of the WKO Party Committee Izmukhan Kuramysov, and until the day of his arrest he deceived the party, engaged in anti-Soviet activities." But the investigator says: "This is a lie. We know that you have been engaged in nationalist activities for a long time." The convict was forced to "admit" that "when he was secretary of the Komsomol of the Adai Uyezd in 1927, he was in the group of nationalists Baiboz Kilibayev, Igenov Ibat and others, he provided services to the rich." "I was in that organization until the end of 1928, and then broke off ties with them, and until the end of 1936 I was not a member of any organization," says Koshchanov.
The investigator accused I. Koshchanov that, he was actively engaged in anti-Soviet activities, covered up the crimes of Kuramysov Sahipkerei, who before him was the leader (until 1935). All these accusations laid down the "crime of the century" "pursuing the overthrow of Soviet power, separating Kazakhstan from the USSR, and with military assistance from Japan, establishing a bourgeois-democratic state in Kazakhstan."
For the second time, Izbay Koshchanov was interrogated on February 28. Then the prisoner was asked to fully admit the "crimes" that he committed in Mangistau in 1927-1928. Koshchanov justified "I was then 20-22 years old, in political work was little aware, really could not distinguish between where the white and where the black." Then he is shown the protocols of interrogations of Zhalmagambet Kyzylbaev and Karabay Janshubakov dated 1930, and they present that "he participated in secret meetings".
Investigation in the criminal case of "enemy of the people" Izbay Koshchanov ended March 2, 1938. The case with the attachment of two testimonies of the accused, additional testimony of 16 people was sent to Alma-Ata. On April 17, 1938, the 4th Department of the State Security Directorate of the NKVD of the Kazakh SSR acquainted with the criminal case, and ruled that "the crimes of the accused are fully proved." He was even considered as part of a "group headed by Ryskulov, Nurmakov, Kozhanov, Kulymbetov, supported by German-Japanese spies Shokaev and Marsekov."
The visiting session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on November 12, 1938 in Alma-Ata sent the case of Koshchanov to court. The next day in a closed court session (started at 12.00 hours) Izbay Nurzhigitovich does not recognize the charges charged him, declares about the refusal of previously given "testimony." In his last words he said: "I honestly lived, honest and would stay." The "just" Soviet court sentenced Koshchanov to the highest penalty - execution. The sentence was carried out on the same day.
Rehabilitation
Koshchanov Izbay Nurzhigitovich was rehabilitated on April 23, 1964 by the decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR "for lack of corpus delicti in actions". In conclusion, signed by the Deputy Prosecutor General of the USSR A. Mishutin, it is said that the "witnesses", "accomplices" who were the basis for the prosecution of Koshchanov, were later rehabilitated, their innocence, the groundlessness of the accusations against Koshchanov, and that the defendant did not recognize incriminated charges.
The reader, of course, wants to know about the family, relatives of Izbay Nurzhigitovich. Our hero was a married man, his daughter died of a disease in the Horde. His wife also had tuberculosis, and died from a serious illness shortly before the arrest of Izbay Koshchanov. The Koshchanovs lived in Uralsk in a two-story house at the intersection of the former streets of Baturin and Plyasunkov. The neighbors, who were brought as witnesses at the time of the arrest, in 1961, were again testified.
"In this house lived 5 families. Two of their windows looked at the side of Baturin Street, 4 windows on Plyasunkov Street. This apartment belonged to the regional committee of the party. They lived here only about one year. His wife was sick, bedridden. And her husband was tall, dressed very cleanly, expensive. For the fact that he looked harsh and pale, we called him Kashchei the Immortal. In the autumn, but there was still no snow, his wife died. I saw how he suffered, he cried. I felt sorry for him, calmed him down, and said: "You knew that she was very ill, that she would die, but it was necessary to be ready." And then he said: "Ah, if she did not worry about me, she would still be alive!" Then he turned to my husband and said: "Sasha, I'm not guilty, they accuse me for nothing!" A little later he was taken," said Anastasia Ladygina. These testimonies were confirmed by the other tenants of the house, Anisya Filippova, Alexandra Semenova, they said that they had an old man living with them, young guys, but they do not know who they were. Kazakh carpets, Kazakh chest, gramophone with records, shelves full of books and other things were in their flat.
Search
We thought that, the case of the fate of Izbay Nurzhigitovich, shot at 32 years old, did not leave the descendants after him, with this was over. And even in the photo taken before the execution, there is no light in Koshchanov’s eyes; a person who has lost hope is visible.
However, it turned out that there is a man searching for Izbay.
November 26, 1964 Smagul Baykulov, who lived in the Turkmen SSR, in the town of Takhta-Bazar, in the house number 10 on Murgab Street, sent a letter to the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Kazakh SSR, in which he sets out:
"Younger brother of my father, Izbay Koshchanov was arrested in 1937 in the city of Uralsk. The property was confiscated. At that time I lived with my uncle. I called him "daddy". After the death of my father in 1935, he arrived in the district named after Shevchenko, Guryev region, and took me to his place. At that time he was the first secretary of the district committee of the Horde district. Then he was transferred to the city of Uralsk in the regional committee, 1-2 months before his arrest he worked as an editor of the regional newspaper. His wife died before his arrest, he had no children of his own, only I was his son. In the house was a Tartar maid. Her name was Fatima, she was from the Horde. She had children - Maria, Sofia, Dauletzhan. Dad was taken at night. In the morning, Fatima and I went to see him to the NKVD. They said: "He is not here." The next day we went to prison, and again they said that "here he is not here." So I never saw him ... I went to the Shevchenko district, because there could not exist. Not long before my arrival, my mother died. The remaining five children were taken to an orphanage. In 1943, I was 18 years old, and went to the front. In 1945, I was seriously wounded and returned to my homeland. In 1946 I moved to Turkmenistan. The brother of my father, Koshchanov Sisengali received a concussion in the war, he lies in the hospital".
Smagul Baikulov wanted to know the fate of the confiscated property of an innocent victim and what help would be given to the offspring. In this regard, a special commission was set up, and the cost of confiscated weapons and gunpowder was determined, it was valued at 110 rubles 79 kopecks. The author of the letter was informed, since the last post of the deceased was an inspector of the regional education department, compensation would be paid from this institution in the amount of two months' salary. The head of the KGB of the Ural region in his letter sent to Turkmenistan on December 22, 1964 says: "Just do not forget to produce a document on inheritance." How ended this story is not known to us. This concludes the last pages of case No. 2463 in the KGB archives.
P.S. I was looking for a crossroads of the former streets of Baturin and Plyasunkov to look at the house where the editor of the newspaper "Ekpindі kurylys" once lived. This intersection is now named after Yhsanov and Zhunusov, today there is a school number 21. An old man walking there, said that before 1970, there were merchants' houses, later they were destroyed, and new buildings were built in their place. School children, clamoring in the turmoil of the last bell, do not even guess about the tragedy that has taken place here. And God forbid that, such days never happen again!
Translated by Raushan MAKHMETZHANOVA
