October 25, 2019, Director of Rukhaniyat Research Center A.U. Aupenova, historian-localist of “Bolashaq” Academy, made a report “Kazakhstan is G. Belger’s second homeland” at the Republican scientific-practical conference “G. Belger: borders of creativity and life” devoted to the 85th anniversary of the great figure Gerold Karlovich Belger (28 October 1934 – 7 February 2015).
In the list of Kazakhstani intellectuals G.K. Belger takes a special place. Love of Gerold Karlovich Belger to the Kazakh people was exceptional. The house, which was found by the Belger family, became Kazakhstan. Now I. Ibrayev village (former collective farm named after Lenin of Oktyabrsky district), where in 1941 the Belger family was deported. “I was under seven years old when I found myself in a Kazakh village on the bank of the Yesil River. Since then, the countdown of my conscious life begins. “I consider myself almost native Kazakh. All my life, creativity, thoughts, deeds and hopes are connected with Kazakhstan. I have never cheated on him. To paraphrase a well-known proverb, we can say: “I was not born here, but here I came in handy”. The river Yesil, coastal tugai, forests, birch stands, wrought iron steppe, expanse, blizzards and downpours of fertile Northern Kazakhstan I perceived as native, as something original. They entered my consciousness, my flesh”, writes G.K. Belger about myself.
Many people were surprised when Gera-aga talked in pure literary Kazakh. G.K. Belger wrote: “I am German, but I knew Goethe through Abay”. The life and creativity of this truly great man is a combination of culture and literature of three nations. His creative path is a rich world, which requires in-depth research. He is a writer, critic, translator, publicist, literary researcher and public figure.
G.K. Belger’s life path is a selfless example of serving for the good, for the name and for the sake of the Motherland. The young generation of Kazakhstanis is brought up on the works of Gerold Karlovich, and people of different ages turn to them. And the reader, at a certain moment, who for the first time has touched the writer’s work, will feel the real call of the heart and will constantly turn to him for answers, revealing his true attitude to his native land, to the people around him, to what is valuable and dear for everyone.
Director of “Rukhaniyat” Center A.U. Aupenova
