Forgotten Kazakh WWII hero finally honored after 83 years
A long-forgotten Kazakh soldier from World War II will soon be honoured in his homeland. Mätqali Däurenbayev, a school principal turned senior sergeant, vanished near Brest Fortress in 1941. His story has resurfaced thanks to historian Laila Akhmetova, who uncovered 45 of his wartime writings. Mätqali Däurenbayev was born in what is now Kazakhstan and worked as a school principal before the war. Educated with a university degree, he spoke Kazakh and Russian fluently and could read Arabic, Cyrillic, and Latin scripts. In 1939, he was conscripted as a private but quickly rose to senior sergeant within a year.
During his service, he joined the Communist Party and wrote for the army newspaper *Chasovoy Rodiny*. His articles mentioned 108 fellow soldiers—historian Laila Akhmetova later traced their fates. Her research revealed that only three percent of those men survived the war. Däurenbayev went missing on June 22, 1941, near Brest Fortress, one of the first major battles of Operation Barbarossa. His remains were never found, and his grave remains unknown. He was among nearly 1.2 million Kazakhs sent to the front, with 636,000 killed—half of them, like him, listed as missing in action. Decades later, Kazakhstan continues efforts to uncover the truth about its lost soldiers. A state commission now investigates prisoners of war and those missing in action. On May 8, a street in Uzynagash village, Almaty Region, will bear Däurenbayev’s name in recognition of his service.
The naming of a street after Mätqali Däurenbayev ensures his legacy endures. His writings and military career provide rare insight into the experiences of Kazakh soldiers during World War II. The ongoing state commission aims to clarify the fates of thousands more who never returned.
