Former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev is both a Soviet official and a legendary leader. There are many stories about Nazarbayev, who lived through the Soviet Union and was both a major member of the ruling side during the Soviet union and a figure that all sides wanted to win over after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The main impression Nazarbayev made on the outside world was that he was smart. To be able to work all the way from the bottom to the leader of a country, it is necessary to have both ability and Bole. Nazarbayev rose all the way from the grassroots to senior leading cadres, thanks to the then Kazakh leader Kunayev. Without Kunayev's recommendation, Nazarbayev had a hard time getting into the leadership.
After Nazarbayev became prime minister, for Kunayev, he felt a strong sense of accomplishment, choosing a young and capable leader for Kazakhstan. But Nazarbayev's subsequent performance has made Kunayev very angry, and he also has opinions about Nazarbayev.
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According to Abikayev, Nazarbayev's assistant
Nazarbayev dared to ask the Soviet top brass for power, wanting Kazakhstan to have more decision-making power.
Nazarbayev had criticized Moscow's leaders for exploiting Kazakhstan as a source of raw materials for the Soviet Union, and Nazarbayev told the Soviet hierarchy directly that 95 percent of Kazakhstan's minerals were sent to other republics, while Kazakhstan took very little money, while those countries that obtained Kazakhstan's mineral products made a lot of money through deep processing.
Nazarbayev has expressed this view many times, and he has even openly questioned the planned economy of the Soviet Union. Of course, this situation is already during the Gorbachev administration, which is relatively relaxed, otherwise Nazarbayev would have been marginalized long ago and could have been imprisoned. From Nazarbayev's call for the Soviet high-level, it can be seen that at the end of the Soviet Union, the various republics demanded power and were dissatisfied with the unfair distribution of benefits. This was rare before Gorbachev, and it also shows that the Soviet Union has reached the eve of disintegration.
By the time the Soviet Union came to power at Gorbachev, a dangerous inertia had been formed. The subordinate fools the superior, the superior fools the superior, and it is Gorbachev who is finally fooled. Therefore, the truth at the grassroots level is not understood by the Soviet high level. High-level officials like to be fooled by subordinates, and the louder the horse's ass is patted, the more those officials are comfortable. They could not listen to the negative opinions, suppressed officials who spoke the truth, and promoted officials who were fooled, which became the biggest hidden danger of the Soviet Union.
Nazarbayev's opposition to top Soviet officials made some officials uncomfortable, believing that Nazarbayev could not be reused. It is said that two Soviet ministers heard Nazarbayev's criticism and immediately called Kunayev and asked him to tell Nazarbayev not to blame the Soviet high level, the Soviet leadership knows how to do it.
Judging from this case, at that time, the Soviet top brass could no longer hear different voices, and the following flickered from above, layer by layer of deception, and there were too few officials who could perform the work, which also laid the groundwork for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Kunayev is also helpless and embarrassed about this, after all, Nazarbayev was selected and appointed by him, and is now criticized by the upper echelons, so Kunayev is worried that the upper echelons also have opinions on him.
Kunayev used to be very serious about Nazarbayev, and he wanted to recommend Nazarbayev to succeed him, but now Nazarbayev has been named by the top, which makes him very embarrassed.
Kunayev was a prominent politician who had been a close confidant of Brezhnev and a leading figure in Kazakhstan.
During his reign in Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan became a trusted member state by soviet leaders. But after Nazarbayev became prime minister, he dared to say and do it, and even dared to criticize the Soviet high-level, so that the Soviet high-level view of Kazakhstan was different from before.
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Relations between Nazarbayev and Kunayev are increasingly strained. Later, after serving as the leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev visited the northern Kazakh city of Zelinograd. Kazakhstan received the new leader's visit with great solemnity, and at the welcome luncheon, Kunayev and Nazarbayev brought Kazakh officials to welcome Gorbachev and his wife Raisa and a large number of entourage.
But at the luncheon, Raisa chattered. It is reasonable to say that on such informal occasions, as a lady, she can only listen, but Gorbachev, the wife, is not the case, and actually steals the limelight of Gorbachev. Nazarbayev was disgusted, and in the end Nazarev was overwhelmed by Raisa's chatter.
For this matter, Nazarbayev once recalled,
Raisa knew everything, and had her own advice, as if there was nothing Raisa didn't know.
When Raisa became the main figure in the meeting, Gorbachev was very concerned about Raisa's advice. Nazarbayev said,
Raisa's view is somewhat absurd. When Raisa said that Kazakhstan did not produce wine, Nazarbayev immediately refuted Raisa.
Nazarbayev said that Kazakhstan's wines are delicious and he can let everyone taste a glass. Nazarbayev's statement was bold at the time. Raisa was the first lady, and Gorbachev obeyed Raisa's words.
Moreover, after Gorbachev came to power, the first reform introduced was the prohibition of alcohol. In order to cooperate with her husband's prohibition, Raisa also gave a speech calling on the public not to drink alcohol.
But Nazarbayev did not heed Gorbachev's prohibition order, and Kunayev kicked Nazarbayev under the table. He motioned to Nazarbayev not to mention the wine. Nazarbayev did not care, and he also asked people to bring local wines, brandy, vodka and other wines to taste.
Nazarbayev told Raisa that the kazakh vodka was better, and when he finished, Kunayev was angry, but he did not dare to squeak. Under the persuasion of Nazarbayev,
Gorbachev drank vodka. Although the news of Gorbachev's drinking did not go out, Gorbachev himself punched himself in the face, his initial reform was to ban alcohol, and now he takes the lead in drinking, and the whole Soviet Union must know.
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In the past 3 months, The incident of Nazarbayev "forcing" Gorbachev to drink was reported, and Nazarbayev continued to criticize the Soviet high-level, especially in the construction of Almaty, he believed that it was "too luxurious" and should not waste a lot of financial resources.
In fact, some of Nazarbayev's criticisms are correct, but this corruption at the end of the Soviet Union was too serious to be solved by Nazarbayev's criticism.
If the Soviet Union did not collapse, Nazarbayev would have been abandoned by Gorbachev.
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