Hero of the Kyrgyz Republic Razakov Iskhak Razakovich

Iskhak Razakov — First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan.

Razakov Iskhak Razakovich was born in 1910 in the village of Koroson in the Leilek district (now Batken region).

Named Isak at birth, he was later mistakenly recorded as Iskhak in documents. He lost his parents early: at the age of 3, he lost his mother, and at 10, his father, a miner. He was raised first in an orphanage in the city of Khojent, and then in a boarding school in Tashkent. In 1931, he graduated from the Tashkent Pedagogical Technical School, and in 1938, from the Moscow Institute of National Economy. He was fluent in Kyrgyz, Russian, Uzbek, and Tajik. After finishing his studies and returning to Tashkent, he began working in planning bodies: from 1939 to 1941, he served first as deputy (at 29 years old) and then as chairman of the State Planning Committee of the Uzbek SSR.

From 1941 to 1944, he was the People's Commissar of Education (at 30 years old) and deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the republic. In 1945, he was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Uzbek SSR.

For the next 16 years, he held leadership positions in Kyrgyzstan: from 1945 to 1950, he headed the Council of People's Commissars, and for the following 11 years, he was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

In 1961, he was transferred to work in Moscow. Due to health reasons, he refused to go abroad as an ambassador. He was appointed head of the food industry department of the State Economic Council of the USSR. In 1965, he was transferred to the apparatus of the State Planning Committee of the USSR, from where he retired.

He died on March 18, 1979, in Moscow. He was reburied in Bishkek.

I. Razakov showed particular concern for the development of the scientific and educational potential of the republic. During that period, the Academy of Sciences, Kyrgyz State University, Polytechnic Institute, Kyrgyz Women's Pedagogical Institute, and Osh and Przhevalsk Pedagogical Institutes were established, along with many scientific and educational institutions. Under the personal initiative and active participation of Iskhak Razakov, national cadres were prepared. Knowledge-hungry, talented young men and women were sent to higher educational institutions in Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, and Omsk. This was particularly emphasized by the prominent scientist Academician K. I. Skryabin, who headed the Kyrgyz branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from 1943 to 1952.

During I. Razakov's leadership, significant results were achieved in the development of culture and mass media in Kyrgyzstan. In the 1950s, works were created in all genres of literature and art in the republic. The decade of folk artistic creativity, held in 1958 in Moscow, glorified the Kyrgyz people and their culture throughout the Union. Contemporaries of I. Razakov recount how he sincerely rejoiced at the success of artists and akyns who represented the Kyrgyz people and their cultural heritage at this decade.

During his leadership, 20 major industrial facilities of the national economy were put into operation. Among them were the Lebedinovskaya, Alamedin, and Przhevalsk hydropower plants, the "Kyrgyzavtomash" factories, the Osh Electromechanical Plant, and a shoe factory. A large agricultural engineering plant named after Frunze and the high-altitude road from Frunze to Osh were built.

Since 1936, he was involved in state and party work:
1939—1940 — Chairman of the State Planning Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR.
1940—1944 — Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR.
1941—1944 — People's Commissar of Education of the Uzbek SSR.
1944—1945 — Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Uzbekistan.
1945—1950 — Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kyrgyz SSR.
1950—1961 — First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Kyrgyz SSR. He was relieved of his duties as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan "for significant mistakes and shortcomings in the leadership of the party organization of the republic."
1961—1962 — Member of the State Economic Council of the USSR
1962—1965 — Head of the Department of the State Scientific and Economic Council under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
1965—1967 — Head of the Department of the State Planning Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

He was a member of the VKP(b) since 1940. Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1952 to 1961. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd to 5th convocations.

The Kyrgyz State Technical University is now named after I. Razakov.

In 2015, a historical film was produced by the government of the Kyrgyz Republic dedicated to Iskhak Razakov. The director of the film is Alim Toktorov.

Awards and Titles

He was awarded four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Red Star, and the Order of the Patriotic War I class, as well as medals.

Hero of the Kyrgyz Republic (December 29, 2010, posthumously).