The history of the national liberation movement in Turkey, the formation and development of Turkish statehood in the first quarter of the 20th century has been supplemented with a new remarkable work. The Speech of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk has been published in the Turkish capital Ankara for the first time in Russian (Editor-in-chief, Professor of the Institute of Information Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences D. D. Vasiliev. Published by the Ataturk High Society for Turkish Culture, Language and History, the Ataturk Research Center, and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2005, 750 p.).

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938) - an outstanding statesman, founder of the Republic of Turkey, called by the people "Ataturk" - "Father of the Turks". His "Speech" is the text of a report read by him on October 15-20, 1927 in Ankara for 36 and a half hours before the participants of the Congress of the Republican People's Party and deputies of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (VNST).

According to the turkologist D. D. Vasiliev," the Speech is the political program of the founder of the Republic of Turkey and remains to this day the most important memorial document of the Liberation War and the expulsion of interventionists from the country." This document has been fully translated and published in many languages of the world: Kazakh, German, Arabic, Persian, French, English, and Kyrgyz. Abbreviated translations of The Speech are published in Chinese, Italian, and Japanese.

The activity of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, whose milestones are reflected in the publication (1919-early 1920s of the XX century), took place in an extremely difficult situation for Turkey. During this period, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire continued. The Entente powers-Britain, France, as well as Italy and Greece-began to seize and occupy a significant part of the Ottoman state starting in April 1918.

Soon after the beginning of the occupation, under the leadership of Kemal Ataturk, the "Societies for the Protection of the Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia" were established, which played an important role in mobilizing the Turkish people to fight for the national independence of Turkey (p. 498). At the congresses of Erzurum (July 1919) and Sivas (September 1919), these Societies formed a Representative Committee headed by Kemal Ataturk. Since that time, the power of the Sultan and his government, which made concessions to the Entente powers, has become virtually nominal.

On April 23, 1920, the Speech notes, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNST) began its work, concentrating legislative and executive power in its hands. VNST elected M. Kemal Ataturk as its chairman (p. 316-318).

The liberation struggle of the Turkish people was actively supported by young Soviet Russia, which played an important role in Turkey's victory over foreign interventionists and in strengthening its international position. The first decision of the VNST was to send a delegation headed by Foreign Minister Bekir Sami Bey to Moscow on May 11, 1920, in order to develop a treaty on establishing relations with our country. Such a document, called the Moscow Treaty, was signed on March 16, 1921 (p. 389).

The Speech shows the political and diplomatic activities of M. Kemal Ataturk. The stubborn struggle of the people under the leadership of the" Father of the Turks " led to the defeat of the interventionists and the conclusion of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923, which recognized the national independence of Turkey (p.617). On October 29, 1923, the CNST proclaimed the country a Republic of Turkey and on the same day unanimously elected Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as its President (pp. 668-669).

After the end of the war of liberation, Kemal Ataturk initiated a number of important secularist reforms: on November 1, 1922, the Sultanate was liquidated (p. 566), and on March 3, 1924, the Caliphate was abolished (p.692-696). In 1925, according to Rech," all sects and titles of all kinds were abolished, such as sheikh, dervish, murid, celebi, turbedar, diviners, sorcerers, and so on " (p.730). The wearing of the fez as a symbol of ignorance and bigotry was abolished and the hat was introduced as a headdress, as in the entire civilized world.

For his services to the fatherland, the VNST awarded Mustafa Kemal Ataturk the military rank of marshal and the honorary title of "gazi", that is, the title of hero-winner (pp. 516 - 517). The multi-faceted activities of the founder of the Republic of Turkey were highly appreciated in the international community. The American magazine "Time" named in 2000 Ataturk "man of the century".

The translation of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's work into Russian required the hard work of translators, most of whom were researchers from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The fact is that" Speech " is written in Old Ottoman, pre-reform language, which used vocabulary that is currently out of use.

The publication of Rechi in Russian will undoubtedly enrich Turkology, one of the most important branches of orientalism, with new information.

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