Sagadat Nurmagambetov

Sagadat Kozhakhmetovich Nurmagambetov (, Sağadat Qojahmetūly Nūrmağambetov; ; 25 May 1924 – 24 September 2013) was a Soviet and Kazakh general who served as Chairman of Kazakhstan's State Defense Committee in 1991-1992 and Kazakhstan's first Minister of Defense following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, holding the office of Defense Minister from May 1992 to November 1995. He was an adviser to Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1995–1996.

Nurmagambetov began his military career as a machine gun platoon commander in the Red Army in World War II. He was promoted to machine gun company and infantry battalion commander, earning the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union in February 1945. His battalion went on to storm the Reich Chancellery at the Battle of Berlin in April 1945. Nurmagambetov graduated from the Frunze Military Academy after World War II and rose to become one of the highest-ranked Kazakh officers in the peacetime Soviet Army, attaining the rank of colonel general. He retired from the military of Kazakhstan as an army general in 1995. Nurmagambetov was named a Hero of Kazakhstan in 1994, becoming the first Kazakh to receive this honour.

Biography

Early life and war service Nurmagambetov was born on 25 May 1924 in the settlement of Kosym in the Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of the Russian SFSR (later Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic), now in Aqmola Region in Kazakhstan. He joined the Red Army in 1942. He received accelerated machine gun officer's training at the 1st Turkestan Machine Gun School in Kushka, Turkmen SSR (now Serhetabat in Turkmenistan) and was sent to the front lines of the Eastern Front of World War II in April 1943. He led a machine gun platoon, a machine gun company, and infantry battalion and was awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union (medal no. 5214) and the Order of Lenin by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 27 February 1945. He fought in the Battle of Berlin and led his battalion's troops in the storming of Berlin's Reich Chancellery in April 1945.

He was awarded Kazakhstan's highest official award, the newly established honorary title of Hero of Kazakhstan, in 1994the first Kazakh to attain the honor. He was an adviser to Nazarbayev from 1995 to 1996.

Family He had two children. His son Talgat (1952–2020) was a major general in the reserve. A museum in his honor was opened in the city of Aqköl on 19 July 2007. On May 25, 2019, a monument to the first Minister of Defense of independent Kazakhstan, Army General Sagadat Nurmagambetov, was unveiled in Almaty. In September 2022, a monument to Sagadat Nurmagambetov was opened in Ust-Kamenogorsk.

Honours and awards

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Hero of the Soviet Union Honour of the President of Ukraine Medal "Defender of the Motherland" Jubilee medal "60 years of Ukraine's liberation from Nazi invaders"

Bulgaria

Order "September 9, 1944", 1st class with swords.

Poland

Golden Cross of Merit Medal Pro Memoria

Mongolia

Medal "30 Years of Victory over Japan's militarists"

Honorary Citizen of Astana, Almaty and Donetsk.