Mullayan Khalikov and his role in the bashkir national movement (Муллаян Халиков и его роль в башкирском национальном движении)

In 2017 we commemorate the 100th anniversary when bashkir people began to struggle for their national autonomy. My work is devoted to one of the remarkable leaders of the bashkir national movement in 1917 — 1919s, our compatriot Mullayan Davletshinovich Khalikov.

The aim of my work is to show a great role of our compatriot Mullayan Khalikov in the organization of the bashkir people’s national movement after 1917. We set ourselves a task to learn the Khalikov’s family history, track his career, meet Mullayan Khalikov’s descendants who live nowadays in his native village of Aktau.
While working on this subject I studied some materials from the book «Memorials» by Zaki Validi, scientific works of our outstanding local historians M.M. Kulsharipov, F. Sharipov, G. Gataullin and also I watched the documentaries about Mullayan Khalikov.
Mullayan Khalikov was born on 23 January, 1894 (4 February according to the new calendar) in the village of Aktau of Bogadinskiy volost, Belebeevskiy uyezd, Ufimskiy province (nowadays it is the village of Aktau, Busdyakskiy district, the Republic of Bashkortostan) in the family of bashkir‑patrimonial.
The leader and main ideologist of bashkir national movement Zaki Validi expressed a high opinion of Mullayan Khalikov’s social and political activity: «This man became one of the major figures in the struggle of Bashkortostan for its autonomy. When we fled abroad in 1923, he stayed in his motherland and suffered a lot from the Committees and then he was executed in 1937».
Since the first days in the Bashkir government Mullayan Khalikov had been conducting an active diplomatic activity. It was he who established friendly relations at first with the Samara Committee of Constituent Assembly members and then with the Siberia government.
On 19 February, 1919 a meeting on Bashkortostan’s autonomy agreement was held in Ufa. On 20 March, 1919 a final variant of «The Agreement of the Russian worker‑peasant government with the Bashkir government about Soviet autonomy of Bashkiria» was signed in Moscow. Mullayan Khalikov as a member of the Bashkir government also put his signature to this important document.
After the Civil war M.D. Khalikov was appointed as a chairman of the Taman‑Kataysk Canton. Later he took up the posts of the People’s Commissar of social security and the People’s Commissar of education in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1921 Mullayan Khalikov was appointed as a Chairman of the Bashkir Council of People’s Commissars.
In 1921 he began complicated negotiations on creating of the «Big Bashkiria». The result of these negotiations became an edict of the all‑Union Central Executive Committee on 14 June, 1922 «About the boundaries expansion of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic», also about the abolition of the Ufimskiy province and including its four uyezds in the BASSR. The capital of the republic became Ufa. Mullayan Khalikov became a Chairman of the «Big Bashkortostan’s» Council of People’s Commissars. In 1923 a commission on implementation of the Bashkir language was created by the BASSR Council of People’s Commissars, which was headed by Mullyan Khalikov. His efforts were not vain: next 1924 the Bashkir language together with Russian was accepted in all state institutions ‑ village councils, cantonnee institutions, people’s committees, the highest national authorities. This was the last victory for Mullyan Khalikov while he was the Chairman of the BASSR Council of People’s Commissars.
Mullyan Khalikov’s great popularity caused his recall to Moscow in 1925. In bloody 1937 he was accused in «bourgeois nationalism» and «validovschina» as one of the bashkir national movement leaders. According to the military Collegium of the USSR Supreme court verdict on 27 September, 1937 Mullyan Khalikov was executed by shooting. In 1958 the military Collegium of the USSR Supreme court reversed a guilty verdict against Mullyan Khalikov. He was posthumously rehabilitated.
In Buzdyaksky district a lot of things are done to keep a good memory of our great compatriot. One of the Buzdyak streets is named after Mullyan Khalikov. An exposition devoted to Mullyan Khalikov’s life and activity is made in Buzdyaksky district local history museum. The local historian Gali Gataullin has published a book «I’m going to Aktau...» based on documentary sources where the hero’s life and political activity is shown.
In 2009 the Regional public Fund of Mullyan Khalikov was established. Its aim is to study his heritage and historical contribution to the Bashkir republic formation. Mullyan Khalikov did not have any children but his generation was not suppressed. The Khalikovs live in the village of Old Aktau even today, the descendants of one of Mullyan Khalikov’s brothers – Khalil Khalikov with his family.
I met Khalil Fanuzovich and his wife Liza. They gave me the materials connected with their famous relative, introduced me with the Khalikov’s family tree.
With the results of this work I took part in the scientific‑practical conference devoted to Mullyan Khalikov. Also I introduced the students of Buzdyak secondary school №1 with our great compatriot’s life and activity.
While working on this subject by the example of Mullyan Khalikov I have become sure that history restores the good name of a person even after some years or decades of undeserved oblivion. A close associate of Zaki Validi, one of the bashkir national movement leaders Mullyan Davletshinovich Khalikov today takes a well‑deserved place in the history of our Motherland Bashkortostan.

А. САКАЕВА, учащаяся X класса школы №1 с. Буздяк Буздякского района;