Sagadat Nurmagambetov

Who was Sagadat Nurmagambetov?

Sagadat Kozhahmetovich Nurmagambetov was a Soviet and Kazakhstani general who served as Chairman of Kazakhstan's State Defense Committee in 1991-1992 and Kazakhstan's first Minister of Defense following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, holding the office of Defense Minister from May 1992 to November 1995. He was an adviser to Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1995-1996.

Nurmagambetov began his military career as a machine gun platoon commander in the Red Army in World War II. He was promoted to machine gun company and infantry battalion commander, earning the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union in February 1945. His battalion went on to storm the Reich Chancellory at the Battle of Berlin in April 1945. Nurmagambetov graduated from the Frunze Military Academy after World War II and rose to become one of the highest-ranked Kazakh officers in the peacetime Soviet Army, attaining the rank of colonel-general. He retired from the military of Kazakhstan as an army general in 1995. Nurmagambetov was named a People's Hero of Kazakhstan in 1994, becoming the first Kazakhstani to receive this honor.