This appeal was made in December 1986 by key state bodies of the Kazakh SSR. This was their response to mass protests by young people outraged by the appointment of Gennady Kolbin to the post of head of the republic. The appeal was issued on behalf of all the key officials of that time – for example, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who was then the head of the Council of Ministers.
Individual officials have also criticized the protesting youth in the most blatant terms. For example, former head of the Kazakh KGB Zakash Kamalidenov called them “a rabidly nationalistic mass driven mad by drug and alcohol abuse,” while the chairman of the Supreme Soviet Presidium, Salamat Mukashev , said that “rumors about alleged casualties among students and young people are a provocative fabrication.”
Nazarbayev, the future president of Kazakhstan, tried to persuade the protesters to disperse on the square, later calling them "extremist-minded youth" and "a socially unhealthy part of the student population." He also said: "What tragic events? The real hooliganism happened on the 18th."
Overall, the authorities' response to the protests was comprehensive and harsh. Special directives were sent to all government agencies, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB to universities and factories. Their leaders were required to respond immediately: hold meetings with employees, suppress "nationalism" among subordinates, conduct information work with young people, organize vigilantes and squads, and establish "discipline and order."
Naturally, the violent suppression of the protesters was also organized . Both the police and the army were involved. They detained more than 8.5 thousand people.
As a result, the authorities brought about 900 protesters to administrative responsibility, 99 people were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, and more than 600 were expelled from universities or fired from their jobs. Officials officially recognized only two as dead – one protester and one volunteer.
Over the following years, the interpretation of events did not change. Only in 1989, under the leadership of Mukhtar Shakhanov , a special commission was created, demanding an investigation into the events and the acquittal of the unjustly convicted young people. And a couple of years later, Nursultan Nazarbayev also expressed his new opinion – now he said that he realized that the youth who came out to protest were right, and therefore "went with them at the head of the column."