“I will try in order.
The first and most important thing. People who speak exclusively Kazakh in our country are exercising their constitutional right. It doesn’t matter who they talk to – foreigners, Russian speakers or among themselves. Constitutional law.
I recently flew to Lithuania. Everyone there also speaks or at least understands Russian. But I downloaded a Lithuanian phrasebook, in case they don’t understand me in English. There have been such cases, you won’t believe it. There is also constitutional law there.
Second. In many families of Kazakhstan, people are faced with the fact that their identity has been destroyed for decades. This was the policy in the Soviet years. My family is like that. The endings were stuck on the surnames, patronymics were introduced. Kazakh was translated into Cyrillic. And then once, and decided not to worry at all – they found everyone talking in Russian. And, if you inadvertently thought, “but thanks to this regime, Kazakhstan settled and civilized,” then no, not “but”, no one asked anyone, and it was quite lively before the regime.
Let’s return to recent history. My Kazakh-speaking mother lived in an aul, did not touch anyone until she moved to Almaty. And there the conductors didn’t punch her ticket until she “gives birth” to at least one word in Russian, and then she was settled in a dorm on the “Kazakh floor” – it was the first or the last. One was leaking, the other was cold. Let me remind you, this is all because mom spoke her native language. Can you imagine?
Mom is 56 years old, she learned Russian, really badly, and still speaks with an accent, but it’s a pleasure to listen to Kazakh 
. But Soviet policy left a huge imprint on the minds of our ancestors.
My mother sent me to a Russian school so that I would not suffer as much as she did, so that I would get an education and a job. Thank God I know my native language. I write and there are tears in my eyes. You know, we are people who have been “stitched” very much the Russian language, but we have not changed the culture and national identity. So, all is not lost.
All these years, the Kazakh language has been like water – it has been making its own way and finding meanings. It’s time to help him.
You remember that colonial thinking still prevails in our people. And I still have it. And every day I want to wash it off sometimes until it bleeds, but it doesn’t work yet.
The third. People who understand, but do not want to speak Russian, also have a moral right to do so. They are here forever. They have no other option.
If, God forbid, something happens in the country, all Russian-speakers can leave the country, wait out, and Kazakh-speakers will lie here in the dust of the Kazakh steppe to the last. I do not claim that all Russian-speakers will leave – there is just such an option.
Fourth. Statistically, among the poor and uneducated population, Kazakh-speaking prevails in our country. Do you know how difficult it is for a Kazakh-speaking specialist to get a job, with the exception of several professions? Surveys show that the Kazakh-speaking population most often goes to various kinds of financial pyramids. And yes, there are most Kazakh-speaking people in marginal groups.
Ask me why? You won’t believe it, again the same phenomenal colonial thinking! Inability to fully realize their rights, goals.
Hopelessness and unequal opportunities with the Russian-speaking population.
And you and these marginal groups are on the same line, but on different sides. You think you’re better than them because you know Russian, and they think it’s true.
We want you to feel with every cell of your brain, body, soul at least a little bit what the Kazakh-speaking population has experienced and is still experiencing.”
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