Nazym Arzimbetova struggled to hold back tears as she spoke about the tragic fate of the uncle she never knew. In May 1942, her mother's eldest brother, Rashit Temirjanovich Saguindykov, was conscripted into the Red Army, which had entered the war against Nazi Germany. He was 20 years old when he left his hometown of Balkhash, on the shores of the vast lake of the same name, in central Kazakhstan. He never returned, and his family still does not know the circumstances of his death, 80 years after the end of the war.
His fate continues to haunt his 49-year-old niece, a therapist in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty: "My grandmother died of grief after her only son disappeared," Arzimbetova recalled. "All her life, she hoped at least to recover his body, so she could give him a proper burial."
Arzimbetova paid 1 million tenges (€1,750) to a private investigator in Russia to comb through the Defense Ministry archives in Podolsk, 40 kilometers from Moscow. The research provided her with a valuable piece of information about her uncle, which she constantly checks on her phone: in August 1942, Rashit Saguindykov was training with the "6th Reserve Communications Battalion, at the Alkino camp" in the Russian region of Bashkiria. His file revealed nothing more.
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