Today, the Day of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan is being marked in Kazakhstan. The history of the holiday started in December 2011, when the parliament adopted the Law on Holidays in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Day of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan appeared in order to recognize the outstanding achievements in the country of the first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. The historical precondition and the basis for such a choice of date was the event which took place on December 1st 1991 – as a result of the first all-national elections, Nursultan Nazarbayev was elected the president of the Kazakh SSR.
What are Kazakhs celebrating on the day? Primarily the day of the country, the day of the state, as the history of independent Kazakhstan is closely connected with the name of the first president of the republic. The logic of reforms, the Kazakhstan path toward a strong and stable state, was connected with the specific nature of the political style of the RK leader – Yelbasy – advancement, the reasonableness of decisions made, and striving for working proactively, thinking in categories of decades in politics and economics.
Not only Kazakhstan itself, but also many international experts who attentively study the experience of modernization in the Central Asian countries highlight the features of Kazakhstan's reforms.
A Russian expert, Yuri Solozobov, states that “a well-thought chain of strategic measures on reformation of the political system has been implemented in Kazakhstan in recent years. Nursultan Nazarbayev could afford modernization of the political system of the whole country without a hurry, for future decades.”
What reforms are connected with the name of the first president of Kazakhstan? First of all, there is the system of strategic planning which is reflected in the Kazakhstan-2030 and Kazakhstan-2050 programs. The Kazakhstan model of inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony is a role model not only for the post-Soviet space, but also for the countries of Southern and Eastern Europe. There is the foundation of the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan, which is an effective instrument of providing harmonious relations between the more than 140 ethnic groups living in the country. It is a unique body which has a guaranteed representativeness in the lower house of the parliament, according to the Constitution.
If we look at the foreign political course of Kazakhstan, we will see a projection of important decisions which were made by Nursultan Nazarbayev at various stages of the existence of the Kazakh state. However, there are two extremely responsible steps in plenty of these thoughtful decisions – the rejection of nuclear weapons and the development of the concept of practical Eurasianism, which logically led to the appearance of an integration entity of a new level – the Eurasian Economic Union.
Recent years have not been easy, either for the post-Soviet space as a whole or for Kazakhstan. However, crises are not only a challenge for the authorities, but also a search for new opportunities.
Today, ahead of the holiday, Nursultan Nazarbayev addressed the nation of Kazakhstan and stressed that the country would be stronger after overcoming all the difficulties. And one of the main conditions for maintaining stability is trust in the leader. From this point of view, the mandate which was given 24 years ago is still in strong hands.
