The Russian Defense Ministry declassified a document about the father of the President of Kazakhstan

The Russian Ministry of Defense has declassified an archival document about Kemel Tokayev, the father of Kazakh President Kassym—Jomart Tokayev. This is reported by Sputnik Kazakhstan.

According to the Russian military department, Kemel Tokayev was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War II degree for courage and heroism shown in January 1945 in Poland.

"On January 21, 1945, in the area northwest of Eglijevec (Poland), the Germans counterattacked our positions at night. The machine gunners steadfastly guarded their tanks, and then went on the attack and pushed the Germans back. Comrade Tokayev was the first to break into the enemy's location and destroyed 5 Germans with his machine gun and captured one wounded German. Returning to the location of his unit with a prisoner, Tokayev was wounded by an explosive bullet in the leg ... Overcoming the pain, bandaging the wound, he reached his tanks," Sputnik quotes an excerpt from the award list signed by unit commander Afanasy Povarov.

As it turned out, that day a bullet from a fascist sniper shattered the shin of Kemel Tokayev. The fighter was evacuated beyond the Urals. In the hospital, the doctors were going to amputate the leg. However, among them was a young doctor Gavriil Ilizarov, who later became an outstanding orthopedist. It was during the treatment of Kemel Tokayev that he applied his first sketches of the future invention — a unique apparatus for the treatment of bone deformities.

Kemel Tokayev was drafted to the front in 1942. Soon he became the commander of the 226th Infantry Division. After being wounded, he served in the 7th Guards Tank Regiment.

In addition to the Order of the Patriotic War II degree, he was awarded the badges "For Courage" and "For the Defense of Stalingrad."

After the war, Kemel Tokayev became a famous writer, the founder of the detective-adventure genre in Kazakh literature.