Sakin Begmatovna - Life as a Legend

Her life was full of events and meetings, and each day was scheduled down to the minute. But it is unlikely that Begmatova would have been Begmatova if she hadn’t found time to sit with a bowl of tea in a shepherd's yurt, visit a music school opening in a distant village of the Tian Shan, which can only be reached by helicopter or on horseback along narrow caravan trails. She was welcomed at the high-altitude cosmic ray research station and at the oncology center in Bishkek, in the architectural workshop where projects for theaters in Osh, Naryn, and Karakol were developed, and in university buildings. Once, when she went to the opening of the Kant cement plant (1964), she brought a small bag of cement and enthusiastically talked about the huge rotating kilns, the mills, and the brands of cement, rejoicing that construction in the republic would develop rapidly.

She had a large, wonderful family. Her husband, Tursunaly Maitukin, was the Minister of Forestry of the Kyrgyz SSR. Unfortunately, he passed away early. He tragically died in a car accident in 1954. Sakin raised their beautiful daughters, Kulyash and Ainuru, on her own.

Having held high positions for many years, Sakin Begmatovna was very modest in her daily life. When her mother fell seriously ill, she asked to be taken to her native village of Koy-Tash. And when her mother died, she requested to be buried next to her father, Sakin. Throughout the years, their two-room adobe house with a reed roof had not been repaired. Fulfilling her mother's request, Sakin Begmatovna managed to cover the roof with felt and lay a wooden floor a week before her death. On the day of the funeral, November 27, 1966, it was snowing wetly. Contrary to Muslim customs, Sakin Beshatovna went to the cemetery surrounded by women. The village roads were terrible, with mud everywhere.

Many involuntarily exclaimed: “Oh, Sakin, you worked for so many years as a high-ranking official, a deputy, with an asphalt-concrete plant and a gravel-sorting plant nearby, but you were afraid to fix the road...”

Yes, in those years, all leaders worked, worked, worked, and any deviation from accepted norms was considered “abuse of official position” and was strictly punished through party channels.

In 1980, Sakin Begmatovna retired, but she did not stop her labor activities, serving as the deputy chair of the Kyrgyz Republican Society for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.

On June 28, 1981, Sakin Begmatovna Begmatova died in a car accident, just like her husband.

The life and work of Sakin Begmatova were entirely devoted to the development of the economy and culture of Kyrgyzstan, strengthening its cultural and international ties.

And in conclusion – here is another poem preserved in Sakin Begmatova's papers, found by Professor Bolzhurova. These lines testify to Begmatova's bright poetic talent:

“At sunset in the abandoned garden

As a farewell, shake my hand.

All that was good between us,

Take it with you on your journey.

There’s little use in sorrow and pity.

Do not take them with you on the road,

And on the journey, I ask you, please,

If you can, be cheerful.”

In the Kyrgyz Republic, there have always been more educated and intellectual women than in many developed countries of the world, with an adult literacy rate of 97%. A large part of the faculty, teachers, doctors, and cultural workers, as well as those in higher education, are women, and Sakin Begmatova made a significant contribution to this and has an invaluable legacy.

Head of the Foreign Affairs Department S. Begmatova