This study analyzes the role of Kazakh proverbs and sayings in Mukhamed Shayakhmetov’s documentary novel “The Silent Steppe.” This relevance stems from the need to understand folklore as an expression of the national mentality, historical memory, and cultural identity of the Kazakh people, especially in the context of repression, loss of national values and rethinking of cultural norms and traditions.The study is distinguished by its holistic approach to the analysis of the proverbs in the artistic structure of the documentary novel, as well as in its examination of the specifics of their translation into Kazakh and English. The study emphasizes proverbs as an integral element of the work’s artistic and ideological content. The purpose of this study is to identify the artistic and semantic functions of Kazakh proverbs in the non-fiction novel, as well as to analyze the linguacultural and translation aspects of translating these proverbs into other languages. The study utilized textual, contextual, and comparative analysis, as well as elements of linguacultural and translation approaches. The theoretical value of the study lies in its in-depth understanding of the role of folklore in documentary literature. Its practical significance lies in the potential application of the results in the study of literary texts, intercultural communication, and the translation of Kazakh phraseological units. It was established that proverbs in the novel serve not only a decorative or stylistic function but also serve as means of characterization, the author’s assessment of events, compositional coherence, and expressions of folk wisdom. Lexical, semantic, and cultural difficulties in translating Kazakh proverbs were also identified, demonstrating the importance of cultural context when interpreting them in a multilingual environment.