Name of the monument: grave of Sh. Berseeva and “Tower of Glory”
Typological affiliation : Urban planning and architecture
Dating of the monument: 1947
Location of the monument: Aktobe region, Uilsky district, cemetery of the village of Karasu
Historical information : Shyganak Bersiev is a famous master of millet cultivation, the author of world records. He was born in 1881 in the aul of Ashchi, Uilsky district, Aktobe region. His father Berce was engaged in various crafts and taught his children to work. Shyganak at the age of 9 took up haymaking on his own, then, not finding work in his homeland, he left for Guryev to work in the fishing industry. Two years later, having returned to Uil, he served the bayam for several years , then began to work in a teahouse at the Kokzhar fair. Having experienced all the difficulties of life, having a great desire to learn , but not being able to get it, he decides get away from this trade and go into agriculture.
In 1919, Sh. Berseev’s family and four other families received 2800 poods from 3.5 hectares. It was in Karakalpakstan and Turkmenistan during the years of the terrible famine (1920-1922).
In 1938, Shyganak Berseev was elected as a manager of the state farm named after I. Kurmanov. He was assigned to lead the first link of the prospectors. During these years, he achieved his first record. First, 32 hectares of land receive a yield of 25 to 70 centners per hectare. In 1939 he took part in the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow. He focused on improving the seeds of millet, as a result of the selection of grain for several years, the well – known variety of the Uilsky region “Ak tary” was born
In 1941, 150 centners per hectare, in 1942 – 175 centners from an area of 40 hectares, in July this year, the defenders of the besieged city of Leningrad, Sh. Berseev handed over his 325 poods of grain received as a payment for overfulfilling the plan. This year Sh. Berseev was awarded the badge “Excellence in Agriculture” and was recorded on a government bond in the amount of 30 thousand rubles. In 1943, he received 201 centners per hectare, thereby setting the fourth world record. His labor success, a world record achieved in irrigated lands, became known to everyone. In the same year in Moscow, when he visited the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, he got acquainted, exchanged opinions with Academician T. D. Lysenko and other scientists.
Sh. Berseev died on May 28, 1944 in the village of Karasu of the Kurman collective farm (now the village of Sh. Bersieva). In 1947, a pyramid was erected , dedicated to the noble prospect Shyganak Berseev. The author of this project is the first Kazakh architect Toleu Basenov.
Description and characteristics of the monument : the monument on the grave of Sh. Bersiev is a gravestone made of adobe bricks, plastered with cement mortar and covered with marble tiles. In the upper part of the tombstone, there is a bronze memorial plaque with the text “Noble prospector Shaganak Bersiev (1881-1944)”. The tombstone has a rectangular shape with dimensions of 1.2×2.5 m, oriented along the west-east axis. The grave of Sh. Bersiev is surrounded by a fence along the perimeter. On the front side of the tombstone there is a bronze memorial plaque with the text “The noble prospector Shaganak Bersiev (1881-1944)”. The tombstone is fenced with a baked brick fence, on the northwest side of which an obelisk is installed. The entire monument is surrounded by a metal fence. Not far from the grave, away from the cemetery, there is a mausoleum built in honor of Sh. Bersiev. This is a rounded structure made of baked bricks, which in its appearance resembles Kazakh mud-brick mausoleums of the Uytam type. The circle of walls rises to the level of 1.30 m, then immediately the laying of a false-vaulted dome begins. In the southwestern wall of the mausoleum there is a slightly protruding portal with an arched passage. At the edges of the portal there are bypass stairs, the left of which leads up to the dome where the platform is located. A panel with niches runs through the interior, and the surface of the dome is decorated with reliefs in the form of millet ears. The entire surface of the monument is plastered and whitewashed. Outside, the mausoleum is fenced with a metal fence. The outer diameter of the walls is 5.2 m, the maximum height is 4.4 m.
The mausoleum was built in 1947.