Askar Akaev, whose biography will be told below, was one of the most atypical presidents in the post-Soviet space. Doctor of technical sciences, mathematician and physicist, he absolutely did not look like an ordinary oriental despot. Kyrgyzstan during the years of his reign became a model for the development of democracy and civil rights in Central Asia. However, the temptation of power turned out to be too strong - all citizens of the republic witnessed the rapid enrichment of Askar Akayev's family members. As a result, the liberality of the regime of the first president of Kyrgyzstan turned against him, and he was forced to leave his homeland, fleeing the revolutionary masses.
Prodigy from Kyzyl-Bayrak
Askar Akaev was born in 1944 in the village of Kyzyl-Bayrak, in the Keminsky district of the Frunze region of the Kirghiz SSR. He grew up in the family of an ordinary collective farmer Akai Tokoev, studied at a rural school. However, he grew up as an inquisitive smart child, was fond ofmathematics, physics, often shocked classmates and teachers with his unexpected inventions.
There is a legend that at the final examination in chemistry, a diligent student carried out laboratory experiments so quickly that one of the teachers, in fright or delight, demanded to immediately give the gold medal to the country boy, otherwise he would blow up their school.
Be that as it may, the coveted gold medal of finishing school ended up in the hands of Askar Akaev, and he set off to conquer Frunze, the capital of the Kirghiz SSR. Here he entered the correspondence department of the mechanical faculty of the Frunze Polytechnic Institute. At the same time, a native of the rural hinterland, who has no relatives in the capital, began working as a car mechanic at the Frunzemash enterprise, where he proved himself from the best side.
Scientist
The level of the Kyrgyz Polytechnic University seemed insufficient for Askar Akaev for his ambitions, and after a year of study he ventured to try his luck in the northern capital of the Soviet state. In 1962, he entered the Institute of Precision Mechanics, considered one of the most prestigious in Leningrad.
Here the Kyrgyz did not get lost among the mathematical prodigies of the entire Union and soon became one of the first students. The imperfect knowledge of the Russian language by Akaev in those years did not even become an obstacle to this. Possessing a monstrous capacity for work and perseverance, in a year he learned to speak the language of Pushkin and Fet much better than 95% of the natives of Russia and even led a circle on the Russian language amongCentral Asian students.
After graduating with honors from the institute with the qualification of an engineer-mathematician, Askar Akayev entered graduate school, deciding to devote himself to scientific activity. In 1972, he defended his Ph. D. thesis with the dizzying title "A New Approximate Analytical Method for Solving Multidimensional Boundary-Value Problems of Heat Conduction and Its Application in Engineering Practice".
Return Home
In 1977, a native of Kyzyl-Bayrak, in the rank of a young and promising scientist, unexpectedly for his Leningrad teachers returned to his homeland. Together with him, Askar Akaev's wife, Mairam, whom he met in Leningrad, and two small children, son Aidar and daughter Bermet, went to Kyrgyzstan. By the way, the first lady of Kyrgyzstan also received a degree, standing out favorably among the spouses of world leaders. After a while, two more children appeared in the family - Ilim and Saadat.
In Frunze, Akayev started as a junior assistant at the local polytechnic institute. However, he continued his scientific activity and was able to gather around him a group of talented students and followers.
In 1980, the young scientist received a doctorate in science for his work on the problems of information storage in holographic structures.
According to authoritative experts in the field of holography, Askar Akayev made a great contribution to the development of this scientific discipline, which stands at the intersection of optics and computer technology.
Beginning of social and political activities
By 1986, a native of Kyzyl-Bayrak was the president of the Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan, a scientist withworld name. However, Askar Akayevich was well aware that the flowering of the creative activity of physicists and mathematicians falls on a period of thirty to forty years, and that he had already developed his most advanced ideas.
Not wanting to get bogged down in administrative academic work, the ambitious professor decided to try his hand at politics.
In 1986 he was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan, became a people's deputy of the republic. Since there was perestroika, the main content of the programs of young politicians, including Akaev, was the need for changes in public life and the economy.
In 1989, Askar Akaev was successfully elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Here, such a rare intellectual in politics makes a swift career, becoming a member of the Committee on Economic Reforms, joining the Central Committee of the CPSU. If not for the end of the Union, who knows, maybe the next president of the USSR would have been a smiling native of sunny Kyrgyzstan.
First President
Meanwhile, in the homeland of Askar Akayevich, the struggle for power was in earnest. In 1990, the post of President of the Kyrgyz SSR was established, and accordingly, a person was needed who could take the chair of the head of the republic. Askar Akaev, who came to politics rather late and stood aside from the disputes of groupings within the party apparatus, and also had serious weight at the all-union level, was perceived as a compromise candidate capable of maintaining the balance of power in the leadership. Everyone shook hands, and in 1990 the doctor of science became the president of the Kyrgyz SSR.
In August 1991, thunder struck in the country in the form of the State Emergency Committee. Having become a far-sighted and far-sighted politician, Askar Akayevich from the very beginning acted in the ranks of the opponents of the State Emergency Committee. Realizing that this was the end of a single state, he soon announced the state sovereignty of Kyrgyzstan.
Out of competition
In October 1991, Askar Akaev was elected president of the young republic. In 1993, a new constitution was adopted, which necessitated confirmation of Akaev's presidential powers in a national referendum a year later. In the same year, the head of state dissolved the former parliament, setting the date for elections to the new supreme legislative body.
In 1995, Oskar Akayev, President of Kyrgyzstan, was re-elected for a second term, winning with an indecently low figure for Central Asia, 70%. The leaders of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, regularly gaining 95-99% of the vote (including infants and the disabled), must have looked with contempt at their colleague-klut.
They once again convinced themselves that an excess of intelligence and conscience is unacceptable for an authoritative statesman.
By 1998, Askar Akaev was seriously stricken by the virus of power and asked the Constitutional Court to allow him to run for a third term. The national leader was allowed to slightly violate the Basic Law of the Republic, and in 2000 he once again took over as head of state.
Success
According to many political scientists, Askar Akaev was too good a ruler for a small Central Asian republic. Unlike their colleagues and neighborsin the region, he allowed the activities of opposition political movements, the work of independent media, under him citizens had all the possibilities of political freedom.
As best he could, Akaev carried out economic reforms, once again standing out against the background of his neighbors. He succeeded in stabilizing the national currency, inducing an influx of investments into the republic, and stimulating the development of small and medium-sized businesses.
Entrepreneurs from neighboring republics looked with envy at their comrades from Kyrgyzstan, who worked without feeling the heavy pressure of the state. There was a saying in use - in Uzbekistan, a rich state with poor people, and in Kyrgyzstan - a poor state with rich citizens.
Failures
Unfortunately, Askar Akayevich could not be completely consistent in his good intentions. Corrosive corruption, clannishness, the growth of we alth and influence of the family of the first person of the state - all these "charms" of the East got tired of people, and in 2005, taking advantage of the political freedoms of the regime, the Kyrgyz started a revolution and ousted Akaev from the post of President.
The children of Askar Akayev during their father's presidency settled down quite well in life, together with their wives and husbands crushing the most tidbits of state property under themselves. This also did not please the freedom-loving Kyrgyz, who decided to restart the system of government in the country.
Unfortunately, democratic rulers in Central Asia do not grow in the garden, and the methods of leadership of new rulersturned out to be a mirror image of the previous order, as a result of which the permanent leapfrog in power and the constant "tulip revolutions" became the hallmark of democracy in the Kyrgyz style.
Refined Soviet intellectuals and scientists were replaced by the nouveaux riches of the nineties, who made themselves and their business by robbing their neighbors.
Today Askar Akaev is in political exile in Russia, doing research at Moscow State University. He defiantly denies any political activity and declares that he has plunged headlong into his beloved mathematics, prudently leaving power ambitions.
