Salyk Zimanov

Salyk Zimanov (1921–2001)

Salyk Zimanov was a prominent public and statesman figure, a distinguished legal scholar, Doctor of Law, and Professor. He was an Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan and an Honored Scientist of Kazakhstan (1971). He was the recipient of the Peace and Spiritual Accord Prize of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2001).

From 1990 to 1995, Zimanov was elected People’s Deputy to the Supreme Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan. He served as a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations and Interparliamentary Cooperation, and Chairman of the Committee on Veterans and Persons with Disabilities. As a highly qualified legal expert, he actively contributed to the legal establishment of Kazakhstan’s international relations after the country chose the path of sovereignty and independence, to granting state status to the Kazakh language, to introducing the institution of presidential governance, and to implementing legal and democratic reforms.

In 1992–1993, he was a member of the Consultative Council under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the National Council on State Policy.

Zimanov’s research works were primarily devoted to the history and theory of state and law, the formation and development of national states in Kazakhstan and other regions of Central Asia, the state independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and other pressing issues. He also published several scholarly works on legal theory, traditional Kazakh legal culture, and Sharia law.

During the December 1986 events, he demonstrated civic courage. He firmly opposed the offensive statements made by high-ranking representatives of the imperial center against the Kazakh people and defended national dignity and honor with clear and compelling arguments.

After the establishment of the Republic of Kazakhstan, a new and fruitful stage began in Zimanov’s scientific and socio-political activity. The Supreme Council of Kazakhstan was tasked with adopting numerous new laws. During this critical historical period, Zimanov distinguished himself through his scholarship and statesmanship. He headed the commission for drafting the “Declaration on State Sovereignty of the Kazakh SSR” (October 25, 1990), which played a decisive role in the history of Kazakh statehood and the Kazakh people. He was also one of the leading members of the commission that drafted the Constitutional Law “On the State Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan” (December 16, 1991), another highly significant political act in the nation’s history. He served as a member of the Constitutional Commission for drafting the new Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan within the Supreme Council, where he led the expert group.

His research work “The Theory and Practice of Autonomization in the USSR” (1998) generated considerable resonance among the scientific community of the CIS countries. In it, he analytically substantiated the collapse of the powerful USSR and the formation of new independent republics on the basis of its former autonomous territories.

Zimanov served as the scientific editor of the ten-volume encyclopedia “Ancient Laws of the Kazakhs.” He was a laureate of the Peace and Spiritual Accord Prize of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (1993) and the State Prize of Kazakhstan (2002). He was awarded the Order of Parasat (2002), the Order of the Patriotic War (twice), the Order of the Red Star, and numerous medals.