THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 103
ERMUKHAN BEKMAKHANOV AND
KAZAKH STATE QUESTION
Prof. Dr. Orazbayeva Altayi Iranbekkyzy *
Dear Brethren and Scientists!
He lived only for 51 years, but experienced many things in his short
life. He became the first Kazakh scientist with a PhD, a professor and
honorary member of the Academy of Sciences, and he founded the first
history department in Kazakhstan. Despite the ideological pressures
of the time, and political regime’s oppressions, insults, and tyranny,
he defended the truth he believed in and highlighted his nation’s
interests. One of the most significant personalities of the Kazakh nation,
E. Bekmakhanov, in 2015 we celebrated his birth 100 years ago.
An evaluation of his scientific research, not only in Kazakhstan
but also in the fraternal country of Turkey, at such a great academic
meeting will surely develop fraternal, social and cultural links.
Therefore, I sincerely thank our friends who have contributed to the
organization of this meeting.
Though I am not an expert of Bekmakhanov’s works, I want to underline
that all academicians of our history, of Kazakh history, know him
very well because his life experience is like curriculum vitae that contains
our national history and that history’s difficult trials and tribulations.
Firstly, I want to present some information about his life.
Bekmakhanov was born on 15 February 1915 in the village Tore,
on the shore of Lake Zhassybai in the Bayanavul district of Pavlodar
province, which is famous for its prominent scientists and philosophers
and regarded as a sacred territory among the Kazakh nation. Though
previously not spoken, today it is known that Bekmakhanov was the
seventh generation grandson of Abylai Khan. 159
Ermukhan’s father passed away when he was six years old. Thus,
he supported his widowed mother, who had three sons and endured
several difficulties. He graduated from Bayanavul primary school at
age 11 and, despite his mother’s opposition, enrolled in the Faculty
of the Proletariat in Semei.
“During those years, a famine erupted in Kazakhstan as a result of
the forced introduction of collective farms. Ermukhan’s mother and
youngest daughter died because of starvation. This destroyed Ermukhan.
Even he did not know where they were buried or even if they were
*
L.N. Gumilev Eurasian National University
159 e-history.kz/kz/publications/view/959