Chokin
Early life
editChokin was born on 1 October 1912 in the Pavlodar uezd of the Russian Empire. He was the youngest child in a poor family with eight children. His family was part of the Suyindyk clan of the Middle Juz. His father understood the importance of education and sent the eldest son Riza to get an education, who then helped his siblings after their father died, allowing Shapyq to get an education too. Riza slaughtered the only cow the family had so that he could send Shafik to Karkaralinsk sto study at the pedagogical college, which he graduated from in 1930. From 1931 to 1933 he attended the Central Asian Institute of Irrigation Engineers and Technicians. In 1934 he entered the Omsk Agricultural Institute named after S. M. Kirov, which he graduated from in 1937. As a student he was the deputy chairman of the Central Asian Bureau of Proletarian Students.
Early career
editAfter graduating from the institute in 1937, Shafik Chokin was sent to work at the Kazakh Republican Trust for the Electrification of Agriculture of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the Kazakh SSR (Kazselhozelektro), where until 1939 he held the positions of engineer, senior engineer, and department head. In 1939, he was appointed chief engineer and deputy director of the trust for technical affairs. In the same year he became a member of the Communist Party.
Due to World War II, the Presdium of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was evacuated to Alma-Ata, along with many of the Soviet Union's best scientists. He met Gleb Krzhizhanovsky, who Chokin came to view as a role model.
In 1944 Chokin founded the Kazakh Research Institute of Energy, which became the first scientific research institute in Kazakhstan.