ALASH

Source

Conversation about the Alash era is traditionally built around its men, the martyrs and patriots of the Alash party. We share this view: they are, without doubt, the central figures of the era. But we wanted to shift the focus.

Continuing KRI’s line as an academic institute, we looked for an element that carries an archival aura, a culture of preservation. That element became journalism. Journalism is the core of the Alash era: it stood at the front line of the enlightenment ideas that inspired the Alash members. The newspapers «Қазақ» and «Айқап» are its clearest witnesses.

Alash is not only a party and not only the tragic year 1937. It is an entire generation of the Kazakh intelligentsia, formed at the junction of two eras: on one side, imperial Russia, its universities and revolutionary unrest; on the other, the receding steppe, the oral tradition, the nomadic world. The people caught at this junction, Alikhan Bokeikhanov, Akhmet Baitursynov, Mirzhakyp Dulatov, Mustafa Shokai, were the first to pose to the Kazakh people the modern question about themselves: who are we, where do we come from, and where can we arrive.

Journalism in this era was not merely a sphere of culture but an infrastructure of self-knowledge. It is the continuation and the Kazakh branch of Jadidism, the Muslim reformist movement that rethought education, language, and print. «Қазақ», published in Orenburg from 1913 under the editorship of Akhmet Baitursynov, becomes the main tribune of national thought: it is there that the programmatic texts are published, texts that would later form the basis of the Alash-Orda autonomy. The 265 issues of the newspaper are 265 attempts to speak to the people in their own language about their own future.

For this reason the newspaper (not the rally, not the decree, not the rifle) is the most precise archival sign of the era. The newspaper is the first draft of history; and for Alash it is also the first form of a national voice cast in print. Any conversation about this era that leaves journalism aside misses the essential thing: the moment when Kazakh thought learned to record itself.

Interpretation

We needed an object in which the journalism of its era can be read.

For the image we turned to the journalists of that time themselves. In photographs of the Alash members, the white shirt is a constant everyday detail. Next we needed direct references to the craft, and so the pocket appeared, intended for the journalist’s main weapon: the pen. Above it, a stamp with the 1913 ornament taken from the «Қазақ» newspaper. These are the fruits of their labor, the result of pen and thought, the publication that helped the Kazakh people keep pace with the march of history.

Object

Shirt «265». The name refers to the total number of issues of the «Қазақ» newspaper: 265 issues were published in all.

A light working longsleeve polo with a minimalist cut and a turn-down collar. The silhouette is drawn from the urban clothing of the early 20th century, the dress of typesetters, editors, and publishing-house staff.

The construction is clean and utilitarian: no chest pockets and no excess graphics. The main functional element is a vertical pen holder on the lower part of the front panel. It references the working practice of a journalist or proofreader and is intended for real use. The ornament and the figures 1913 are taken directly from the «Қазақ» newspaper and indicate the year the newspaper was founded.

In the lower left a neutral textile patch is placed in the format of an archival tag. On the sleeve, a small embroidered emblem of the Alash party, rendered at reduced scale, with simplified and thickened contours for technical correctness.

The object is not a reconstruction of a historical uniform. It is a contemporary interpretation of the working shirt of the urban intelligentsia of the Alash period, expressed through functional details and restrained graphics.