Abai in Alash heritage

Abstract The Alash movement preserved the national-cultural code of Kazakhs under imperial rule. To understand this code, it is important to study not only the heritage of Alash , but also how it popularised the image of the ‘father of the nation’, Abai Kunanbayev. The aim of this article is to determine the place of Abai Kunanbayev and his work in the ideology of the Alash movement and the creative, scientific heritage of its individual representatives. Using the historical-comparative method, the study considers Alash activists’ views on Abai's role in Kazakh literature and national identity. The results are valuable for further research on the Alash movement and Kazakhstan's early twentieth-century national liberation. They highlight Abai as central to the semantic and aesthetic content of the Kazakh national-cultural code.