Gerold Belger monument unveiled in Almaty (PHOTO)
The monument was erected on the territory of "Kensai-2" cemetery. The monument was designed by a creative team of Amangeldy Baygatorov. According to Ak Zhaik newspaper, Gerogeld Belger was born October 28, 1934 in Russia's city of Engels. In 1941, when he was seven, his family was forcefully moved to Kazakhstan, like thousands of other Volga Germans, who had been living in Russia for two centuries prior to WWII. In Northern Kazakhstan, Belgers found a shelter in a Kazakh village. Grown up among Kazakhs he finished a Kazakh school, and the Kazakh language became his third native after German and Russian. After graduating from a pedagogical institute, his career started with teaching in a Kazakh village school, and then he worked as a script editor and translator with a magazine of Kazakh prose. Later he started writing verses in three languages. Kazakh lifestyle, folklore, traditions, behavior, habits and tastes he absorbed in childhood made him the first outlander to thoroughly understand the very essence of Kazakh people and think the same way. Thanks to his all-round education, natural nobleness and firm commitment to principles he won the respect that gives him the right to speak on behalf of Kazakhs, at that, to voice things that may be perceived otherwise if said by any other non-Kazakh. For a reason, people call him Gereke, Belgibai, "the last Kazakh".
G. Belger authored over 40 books including the novels "Dom skital'tsa" (House of a wanderer), "Tuyuk Su", "Razlad" (Disorder) and 1600 publications in periodicals. He translated works of B.Mailin, G.Musrepov, A.Nurpeisov into Russian. February 7, 2015 Gerald Belger died in Almaty at the age of 81.
