The exhibition «Mustafa Shokai – tauelsizdik zharshysy», dedicated to the 135th anniversary of the birth of Mustafa Shokai, was organized in the hall of periodicals.

Mustafa Shokai (Chokaev) was born on December 25, 1890 in a Kazakh village on the Syrdarya River near Petrovsk (now Kyzylorda). His ancestors were steppe aristocrats. Mustafa's grandfather was the ruler of the Syrdarya region from the Khanate of Khiva, and his father was a respected judge among the people. Their family had a good library of ancient manuscripts.

Mustafa Shokai graduated from Petrograd University with honors in 1916, then worked as a secretary and translator of the Muslim faction of the State Duma of the Russian Empire. After the February Revolution, M. Shokai headed the Muslim Center, formed at the Congress of Muslims in March 1917 in Tashkent. Under his editorship, the newspaper «Birlik Tuy» began to be published, at the same time the newspaper «Free Turkestan» in Russian, on the pages of which democratic ideas were promoted. The emergence of the Turkestan National Movement was an inevitable result of the stagnant policy of the Bolsheviks. In March 1917, Mustafa Shokai joined the government of Alash Orda. Having emigrated on the instructions of the leaders of Alash-Orda, M. Shokai headed the external branch of the Turkestan National movement. The purpose of the «internationalization» of the Turkestan issue was to form world public opinion about the nascent totalitarianism in the USSR.  M. Shokai brilliantly copes with the task: his bold speeches on the pages of the periodical press, an accurate analysis of the situation in and around the USSR, fruitful cooperation with like-minded people in the anti-Bolshevik movement «Prometheus».

While in emigratіоn, M. Shokai organized the publication of newspapers and magazines, which published articles about Central Asia, theoretical studies, and political reviews.

Since 1926, Mustafa Shokai has been a member of the editorial board of the «Prometheus» magazine, the national protection body for the peoples of the Caucasus, Ukraine and Turkestan.

In 1927, he organized the «Zhana Turkestan» magazine in Istanbul. Since 1929, he started publishing the «Yash Turkestan» magazine in Berlin and became its editor-in-chief. The magazine was published until 1939, 117 issues were published.

Humanist, thinker, democrat, encyclopedist, educator Mustafa Shokai covered the problems of history and culture of the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, was fluent in English,French,German,Turkish and Arabic.

He devoted his whole life to fighting for the truth, protecting the honor of the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan.

The exhibition from the fund of the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan presents materials about the life and difficult work of Mustafa Shokai, works written in different years, articles by public figures and memoirs of poets, writers about him, published on the pages of periodicals.

We invite everyone to the exhibition!