14 Facts About Sagadat Nurmagambetov

Sagadat Nurmagambetov was promoted to machine gun company and infantry battalion commander, earning the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union in February 1945.

Sagadat Nurmagambetov's battalion went on to storm the Reich Chancellery at the Battle of Berlin in April 1945.

Sagadat 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.

Sagadat Nurmagambetov retired from the military of Kazakhstan as an army general in 1995.

Sagadat Nurmagambetov was named a Hero of Kazakhstan in 1994, becoming the first Kazakh to receive this honour.

Sagadat Nurmagambetov was born on 25 May 1924 in the settlement of Kosym in the Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of the Russian SFSR, now in Aqmola Region in Kazakhstan.

Sagadat Nurmagambetov received accelerated machine gun officer's training at the 1st Turkestan Machine Gun School in Kushka, Turkmen SSR and was sent to the front lines of the Eastern Front of World War II in April 1943.

Sagadat Nurmagambetov fought in the Battle of Berlin and led his battalion's troops in the storming of Berlin's Reich Chancellery in April 1945.

Sagadat Nurmagambetov was elected to serve as a deputy of Kazakhstan's Supreme Soviet from 1971 until 1994, and chosen to lead its committee on the disabled and military veterans' affairs in 1989.

Sagadat Nurmagambetov was appointed to head Kazakhstan's State Defense Committee by Nursultan Nazarbayev in October 1991.

Sagadat Nurmagambetov was named Kazakhstan's first Defence Minister following the State Defense Committee's reorganization as the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan in May 1992 and remained as Defense Minister in Nazarbayev's cabinet until retiring from the armed forces as an army general in November 1995.

Sagadat Nurmagambetov was an adviser to Nazarbayev from 1995 to 1996.

Sagadat Nurmagambetov's son Talgat was a major general in the reserve.

Sagadat Nurmagambetov was born in Tashkent while his father served as an officer for the Turkestan Military District.