TAGAN BERDYEV. FIRST TURKMEN ACADEMICIAN, PRESIDENT OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF TURKMENISTAN

More recently, scientists, professors and students of the planet have celebrated World Science Day. Discoveries, achievements, successes were the subject of discussion, controversy and, of course, pride in the work done. On this day, many remembered those who stood at the origins of this or that direction of scientific activity. The views of many were turned to the past. And this is true. It is not for nothing that they say that he who does not know the past has no future.

In Turkmenistan, in connection with this, there is also someone to remember. One of those who stood at the origins of the country's education and science was Tagan Berdyevich Berdyev.

This year, the first president of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan, academician Tagan Berdyev would have turned a hundred years old. And then, at the beginning of his ascent to the Olympus of Turkmen science, a young man from a simple daikhan family of the Daina village of the Kara-Kala (now Magtymguly) region did not dare to dream about it. He was motivated only by a great desire to learn.

First, in the Bakharden school, then in the newly opened Ashgabat Pedagogical College, he studies literacy and literature of two peoples - Turkmen and Russian. After studying for two years from 1929 to 1932, Tagan Berdyevich himself teaches children to read and write in the Kara-Kala region.

Thirties of the last century in the republic, work was actively carried out to introduce universal compulsory primary education. First a seven-year, then an eight-year. Hundreds of new schools were opened, there was an acute shortage of teaching staff. Tagan Berdyev, who already had pedagogical experience by that time, enters the Ashgabat Institute of Pedagogy, completing his studies in which opens up new paths for him for pedagogical and scientific growth.

In the difficult thirties, he was the head teacher, director of the pedagogical school. After a year of study in courses in Moscow, he was entrusted with the post of deputy people's commissar for education of the republic, and then the people's commissar.

The election in 1951 to the post of President of the Academy of Sciences becomes for Tagan Berdyev both a new challenge and a huge responsibility. Nevertheless, in this position during the difficult period of the formation of many branches of science in Turkmenistan, he successfully worked for five years. There was also a period in his life when, due to health reasons, he was forced to leave organizational, scientific work and go on a well-deserved rest. However, upon urgent requests, he returns to his native scientific environment and for another long three years - from 1970 to 1973, he headed the Central Scientific Library of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan.

Berdyev's scientific works on literature and languages, numerous monographs are still used by scientists, students, graduate students and workers of the country's libraries. Famous scientists M. Annanepesov, T. Hydyrov, A. Yazberdyev, A. Stepanov and many others devoted their essays to his life and scientific research.

This is what Doctor of Sciences A.B. Yazberdyev:

- A scientist who has plunged into the scientific atmosphere of the republic, one way or another, necessarily comes across scientific works and gets acquainted with the biography of Tagan Berdyev. My monograph, published in the early 80s of the last century by the Ylym publishing house, is also devoted to his scientific and labor activity.

A public figure who was elected a deputy and held public office, the great scientist Tagan Berdyev left a bright mark on science and the history of the country as a whole.

Tagan Berdyev. First Turkmen academician, President of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan