THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 127
be supportive of them throughout their lives. 2) Small Juz entered in
the yoke of slavery and even it had no power to act. 3) In Middle Juz
the economic situation was poor and there was unrest in the society.
4) The Russians had been organized better in the military sense and
was a strongly armed. T. Şonanulı stated that “Kenesarı claimed that
we will not surrender our ancestors’ country into the hands of Russian
but in the end Kenesarı was defeated and forced to seek a new place to
retreat in Aladag.” It is another historical reality to put it that way and
say that stories about Kenesarı rebellion and fight were an independent
voice of Kazakh people. S. Asfendiyarov accepted Kenasarı movement
in 1837 as “The latest and greatest of the Kazakh national revolt against
Czarist government.” Although Bekmakhanov knew what kind of
punismeht the 1920 and 1930s Kazak intellectuals had received just
for investigating the Kenesarı rebellion, he continued his research. He
demonstrated their statements and data without any hesitation regarding
the socio-political conditions. It was a true and fair indication of
science and the effort undertaken as the best way to serve the people.
Bekmakhanov as a researcher and scientist trained himself well
and work efficiently. He succesfully defended his PhD thesis, titled
the “Kazakh National Struggle in the Leadership of Kenesarı Kasimov
(1937-1947),” in 1943 at Moscow, under the USSR Academy of Sciences
Institute of Science Board. Earning the title of doctor at the young age
of 28 years old, resulted in his further inspiration and willingness to
continue in his research. He collected data for his professorship for
three years and investigated archives in Moscow, Leningrad, Omsk,
Almaty, and Tashkent. After considerable effort, he obtained his professorship
in 1946 with the thesis called “Kazakhstan in 20-40 years
in the XIX Century.” After a year passed, he published his work in
the form of a monograph and demonstrated Kenesarı movement as a
national independence struggle.
It was a great success of publishing the book 1943 called “Kazakh
Soviet Socialist Republic from the Ancient to the Present Time” and
therefore it was offered as an award to Stalin. However, the evaluating
board formed with Russian pundits A. I. Yakvlev had critisized the
book, calling it “the book is against Russians” 214 and thus it generated
heated debates for years to come. Discussions about the book’s
notions of a national struggle took place on 12 November 1943. But
the book was reviewed as “It bears attitude towards Russians and
praised too much on national struggle against Russia” in May and
214 Voprosı İstorii, 1988, No11. p. 54.