1906

The First Kazakh Freemason

Alikhan Bökeyhan is elected to the First State Duma and initiated into Freemasonry at Saint Petersburg. He is the first Kazakh Freemason.

1913

Qazaq: The Voice of Liberty

At Orenburg, Akhmet Baitursynuly, Alikhan Bökeyhan and Mirzhaqyp Dulatuly publish the first issue of the newspaper Qazaq.

1918

Alash

The Alash intelligentsia gathers at Semipalatinsk. Few of the men in this photograph survived the decade that followed.

1937

Exile

Bökeyhan is executed. The Craft he entered in 1906 will not be lawfully at labour in his country for another seventy-eight years.

1995

The Grand Lodge of Russia

On 24 June 1995 the Grande Loge Nationale Française consecrates the Grand Lodge of Russia in Moscow. The United Grand Lodge of England recognises it in 1996. In 2016 it consecrates the Grand Lodge of Kazakhstan.

2011

The First Freemasons of Independent Kazakhstan

In 2011 the first Kazakh Freemasons of the modern era are made. Berik Zhubaniyaz, the future first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Kazakhstan, is initiated at Moscow on 27 March under the Grand Lodge of Russia, and a group of Kazakh Master Masons gathers around him over the next four years.

2015

The Return of the Light

On 19 September 2015 Lodge Alikhan Bökeyhan is consecrated at Almaty, the first Masonic Lodge on Kazakh soil.

2016

The Consecration of the Grand Lodge of Kazakhstan

On 12 November 2016 the Grand Lodge of Russia consecrates the Grand Lodge of Kazakhstan at the Orient of Almaty, before the delegations of five Grand Lodges.

2017

Recognition

In 2017 the Commission on Information for Recognition of the Conference of Grand Masters of Masons in North America reports that the Grand Lodge of Kazakhstan “appears to meet the requirements for recognition”.

2026

Ten Years of Sovereign Freemasonry

In 2026 Kazakh Freemasonry completes ten years of sovereignty under the Grand Lodge of Kazakhstan.