Всем, кто клеймен был статьёю полсотни восьмою,
кто и во сне окружён был собаками, лютым конвоем,
кто по суду, без суда, совещаньем особым
был обречён на тюремную робу до гроба,
кто был с судьбой обручён кандалами, колючкой, цепями,
им наши слезы и скорбь, наша вечная память!

Every year, Kazakhstan citizens mark the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions in Kazakhstan on May 31. This is a day of remembrance of the intelligentsia, their wives and children, who innocently died in the era of the Stalinist regime. In the 20th century, the largest camps of the Gulag structure were located on the territory of Kazakhstan - ALZHIR, Steplag, Karlag. The republic has practically turned into one big prison. Over 5 million people were exiled to Kazakhstan camps during the years of repression. 

Mass deportations of entire nations to Kazakhstan occurred in the 1930s and 1940s. In the fall of 1937, hundreds of thousands of Koreans, Turks, Iranians, Kurds and Azerbaijanis were resettled in the republic. Germans, Greeks, Chechens, Ingush, Karachais, Balkars, Crimean Tatars and other peoples were deported to the country during the Great Patriotic War. The number ofpeople was 1 million 200 thousand. 

The people who were deported to Kazakhstan did not break down. The older generation of graduates of the Kustanay Medical School remember their teachers who were in Kustanay on political charges, but the spiritual core of the intelligentsia helped them to bring the light of knowledge and culture to the people in the new conditions.