This brand new wooden house on the hill immediately catches the eye, just you entering the aul. It stands right in the middle of the aul. There are four windows and no sheds or other outbuildings - yard is swept clean and tidied up. There are many kids. If you inquires:

“What is that building?”

And a member of aulcouncil Cali will answer to you proudly:

“Bekbergen’s school.”

And now if you, accompanied by the same Cali, come into this school, you will be immediately surrounded by the boys. They would look you in the eye, catching every word; just to find out where you were from and what came with.

And looking at their live cheerful faces, sparkling little eyes, you will defrost and begin to smile.

“Hello guys!”, you would shout to them. “Grace be with you eternal joy!”

And if you come to the class you will see the other: desks, teacher's desk and a large black board on the wall. There is a portrait of Lenin opposite it against the door. A little lower, there is the other portrait or rather, a simple photo next to alphabet. And the most ordinary Kazakh in Malachai looks from this image, sheepskin coat and adamantine boots, and no matter how much you look at this picture, you will not see anything more, just an ordinary aul Kazakh and that is it. You would turn to Cali and ask:

“Who is it?”

And Cali will answer you with the same unchanged pride, that this is our venerable Bekbergen. There is a steep yar at a little distance from the school. Look from it, and you will see everything, as on a palm: steppe in thawed snow drifts, a hollow water. The dark hills, snow has already melted from there, the traveler is making his way along the snowy islands, the cattle is roaming the steppes; children came to the meadow and they are playing asyk, the young gossips are at the waterhole, the revelers in twos and threes stagger along the aul, everything, everything will be in front of your eyes.

Little by little aaulmen are gathering at the yar. The first conversation they have is about the weather.

“Do you see how the snow is melting?” Abish asks. “All hollows has already been flooded.”

“Well, there are not much sense from a hollow water”, they responded to him.

“If Allah would send a rain it will me another matter.”

“Yes, spring seemed to be friendly”, confirmed the others. “We will have, perhaps, hay and bread.”

“That is for sure!” Kairbek exclaimed.

“Really! You were always good at predicting. Foretell to us the harvest now! Or you are done with that”, his buddy instigated him.

“And what could he do now?” another said. “Mullah is from Allah, baksy¹ is from Satan, everyone disowns from all. Remember how he was frightened last year, the police raided for Shonbay-buksy, and Kairbek’ soul was gone immediately, he ran to Jibek.”

Everybody amicably burst out laughing.

“Kairbek, did that happen for real?”

“Oh, quit your nonsense! You are saying devilment. I was not baksy. I was not read the fortune and was not practiced shamanism, and I was not also the mullah. I did not accept and did not make sacrifices, like Shopbay, did not give to anyone poison instead of the drug. I did not drive neither strange nor mine women to the grave, so what the police could want from me?.. It is better to talk about the household, than chew the rag and waste the time.

¹ Shaman.

“I asked for the news from this man, because he came from the center”, Kairbek noticed solid.

And sedate, serious conversation flowed. They talked about the affairs of aul. In other places, it was necessary to open a co-operative, to create a collective. But how?

“If Bekbergen would be alive, collectives and co-operatives would exist long ago in the neighborhood”, someone sighed.

Here is this name again. Well, who is it, this mysterious Bekbergen? I just cannot wait to find out about it.

“Yeah, who is that Bekbergen?”

Everyone looks at you with bewilderment, and even with a clear rebuke: “What kind of man is this, who even does not know our Bekbergen?” Cali moves in a circle, sits more comfortably. Teasing, stroking his beard, looks up, and begins to speak with calm voice.

“You've come from afar and, of course, cannot know. We had so venerable man...”

“It is clearly, that he does not know”, someone assents. “Fellow is in our region for the first time.”

“His name was Bekbergen”, Cali continues.  “He is our countryman, from this aul. We had one blood. He was a poor man, but so alive, seasoned. What he just did not survive, did not see?! He vegetated as a farmhand. His eyes were opened under the Soviet regime. Hey gradually attracted him down to business. First, they chose him to the village council, then to the loan assistance. Then he became aulnay, deputy chairperson of the volost councils. He began to go to the district and provincial congresses. Over time he licked into shape, learned life and became an active. And he tried enforce everything new in the auls...

At the beginning we did not really approve him. “He is seeking for the sake of his selfishness”, some said. However, from all his troubles Bekbergen did not draw any crumbs of benefits and did not got rich on any hair. I am saying this not because he died, but because it was for real.

Day and night, he was on the road, in the troubles, but never asked anybody even a skein of thread. He traveled all at his own expense. He was simple-minded, kind. He said more than once: “The worst had happened, and even then I did not grieve. And now I have a horse and a cow. So what else do I need? From now on, all my forces and works will dedicate to the benefit of fellows...”

It was three years ago, he was going to the province. Then he still was working in to volost council. He stacked, gathered all of us, who is sitting here, and begun to persuade: “Join the artel, create a collective, it is necessary to build a school!” No one objected, and the artel was organized. Now it – “Kaindy-sai” – is the first in the whole county. We recently received diploma...”

This school also bears the name of Beekbergen. You have seen his photo. We would not have school without him.

Ten auls of the four families belonged to the fourth aulcouncil. But not all of these families were equal. Tansyk family owned the five auls, he was the richest and most respected. He was doing what he wanted. All volost chiefs and aulnay took place from there. He was literate too. So their words have always been the law. However, the Soviet government came and the new wind blew. Poor people began to raise their heads. Before, we did not even dare to come close to these auls to leeward, and now we sit among them freely. Even sometimes we climb in the place of honor. That is how! Previously, Tansyk auls decided all the cases, but now everything is solved together.

But not for nothing this we got, no, not for nothing. People of this family sat in all offices, and so cleverly they did their business, that many of the hands went down.

Then Bekbergen showed himself. He boldly spoke out against these rich people. They tried to work around it, but he did not give it to them.

He made them exposed to all the people, unraveled all thieves plans, and under his leadership, poor people took the necessary decisions. And the authorities always maintained them.

Our aul was the poorest in the fourth aulcouncil. For ages it could not get out of poverty. And it happened that its poor people wandered each his own way in search of food, throwing their homes. And if aul still did not die out, and we now live like human beings, it is only because of the new government.

At that time Zhaken was aulnay. The son of a poor man, when he got the power in his hands, he forgot about everything and in a flash went to the side of rich people. Everywhere he tried to appease family of Tansyk. If some help came from the state, aulnay was hurry to do much good especially for Bai's auls, and the poor people did not get anything. Often he even did not consult with anyone and did what he wanted. So happened with the school. Authorities allowed opening a school in the fourth aulcounsil. And Zhaken-aulnay concocted such paper that the school was opened in the aul of Tursun. And Tursun is the first rich man in the family of Tansyk. Today we confiscated his property and sent him away. So this Tursun gave the hall for the school and even began taking monthly fee.

We found out about the opening of a school too late. We suddenly realized: “How that had happened? If authority is for the poor man, then the school should be for the poor. Why was it opened in the house of Bai Tursun? Or they think that our children do not need a literacy?” Grumbled together, we have rebelled, and no one did not say anything in the open. We heard that the study begins, and took the kids to the Bai aul...

There was Tobakabyl. He was from the Tansyk family too. he was a biyah for nine years. His son, Salim, was going to be a mullah.

They had a mosque in their aul. Salim served in it. And suddenly, that Mullah was appointed as a teacher to a new school! We were taken aback when we found out about it. We even doubted: “Is it a school? Perhaps he will teach the sacred book?” We walked around, asked. No, they said, this is a real school...

Did you notice at the school entrance round-face, swarthy kid? This is my son. He is twelve now. He has just graduated from elementary school. I brought him then to Salim-teacher. Some Ibrai agreed to take the boy to his house. It remained to arrange him to school. We came to school and the class was full. And the kids were sitting on their laps. Well, exactly like we used to sit in front of a mullah. And again I thought: “Well, what kind of school is this if it is all the old fashioned way?..”

“Dear Salim”, I began. “Here I bring you my baby...” He might not know me or did not recognize. Frowned and stared out the window.”

“You see, a complete set. We cannot take anyone else.”

I was scared. I looked around in confusion. I did not understand anything. The school was opened in the fourth aulcouncil. So, first children from nearby auls must study here. So where they must study if not at home?

“How that could be, my dear”, I said. “We are neighbors. Who are you going to take to school, if not our children?”

“Ah, honorable, leave your laws”, snapped Mullah-teacher. “I told you. Really not clearly?”

By nature I have a violent temper, and I got so angry that barely-barely controlled myself, I wanted to grab Salim by the collar, pull out into the street and beat from the heart...

I came back home with my son, and Bekbergen just arrived to the aul. I ran up to him and started to cry:

“You sit on the boards, praise yourself, like you have power, but what good have you done? Tell me! You even cannot open a school for our children!..”

The dead man was flexible and patient. I screamed, and he laughed. Then, when I calmed down a bit, he said:

“Cali, you noticed by yourself, that our institutions still lack of some evil spirits. Scoundrels, minions assorted by rich men sit everywhere... However, every day we gain strength. Ugliness, about what you have told, is a trick of one of these rascals. Skip it! Tomorrow we will gather the people and talk.

The next day aulmen really gathered. They began to talk about the school, that it was opened in an inconvenient location, and the teacher was really wrong. A row was raised. We've been called the class of poor people. And the poor can sometimes say the devil knows what. This is what happened on this meeting. And the general voice of the people was so:

“The school is in the right place. We cannot open it anywhere else. We do not have a suitable home.”

Bekbergen boiled over with anger:

“Well, you are stupid people! You do not understand your benefits. Cannot we live without Bai? Are not we humans without Bai?... Fiddle-de-dee! If you need a home, than take mine. I am giving it free of charge! Take it, transfer into the school!”

However, the school was not transferred to our aul. Bekbergen went somewhere, fussed, all in silence, and once in early spring came to our aul, gathered everybody and asked:

“Do you need a school?”

“Yes we do!”, we respond unanimously.

“Well, if you need it”, Bekbergen says, “we will open it in your aul. I achieved that Salim was removed. And the government allocates funds to us for construction the school.”

Apyrmay, and we were happy then! The whole aul were excited... We began to work. We began to drive up wood towards the mount. We swarmed a whole year with all the aul and nevertheless build this building. So now it stands, our school.

Cali, finishing his story, fell silent. All thoughtfully were silent. Someone sighed:

“And in fact in the same year our cell was formed...”

“That is true. In the same year... A week before the school opening the first meeting of the cell held on and Bekbergen was elected as a secretary...”

People came to life, began to talk about school, about the farm, party and Komsomol, about the affairs and concerns of the aul and aulcouncil. Many of those present were members of the party. Students of Bekbergen. Bekbergen now has gone, but the school remained as a memory of him. The school named in his honor.

Aul is updated. It crossed the threshold of a new life. These people in hardened fur coats, in teg tymak-treukhas are the core of the new aul, convinced supporters and builders of new order. They passed with flying colors through a variety of trials, overcame many obstacles and now with confidence of hardened fighters sought to new achievements...

1929