I devoted my life to the party, and it turned against me (a serious challenge in Kemel Tokayev’s creative path)

Abstract

The article examines the creative path of Kemel Tokayev, one of the founders of the detective genre in Kazakh literature. The author draws attention to the peculiarities of developing a new literary trend and creates a connection with the writing activities of the person under study. In the study, the author primarily describes a brief biography of the person, the war period and difficulties in the creative path. It shows that the writer worked on writings with historical overtones in the detective genre, using secret documents. As a result, they emphasized that representatives of the higher leaders of government agencies persecuted him. When studying the topic, using Kemel Tokayev as an example, one can see that there are specific problems in the society and power structures of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, despite the cultural boom and communist ideology. The author provides new information about the writer’s life, based on Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s memoir work and personal correspondence between his father and son. The article uses archival documents, photos from the private fund of Kemel Tokayev of the Central State Archive and the National Academic Library, and materials from the periodical press of Independent Kazakhstan. The scientific work pays special attention to the significant contribution by Kemel Tokayev to Kazakh literature. It evaluates him as a worthy representative of the liberal community of his people, who deserves a decent place on the pages of a challenging test history. The author concludes that the emergence, formation and development of a new adventure genre in Kazakh literature are directly related to the name of Kemel Tokayev.