THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

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THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND
dent Kazakh government… the efforts of Kenesarı movement brought
Kazakh people together and he faced many difficult obstacles to overcome”.
229 According to Bekmakhanov, the “Kenesarı movement was the
national struggle of Kazakh people who were ready to sacrifice their
life to protect the independence. We see this Kenesarı uprising was a
progressive character against the tsarist government. The evidence of
this was the attempt to establish a central government to eliminate
the enmity between the tribes” and showed the Kenesarı movement
as realistic and fair.
However, repression, exile, and the totalitarian system shattered
Bekmakhanov’s will. Faced with severe and difficult problems, and
sentenced to terrible penalties, Bekmakhanov had to rescind his thesis
and opinions evident in the study and in 1957 he published another
work called “ Kazakhstan Should Be Subject to Russia”.
In this work, Bekmakhanov wrote that “by analyzing Kenesarı Khan’s
domestic and foreign policy, we can conclude that his policy was
against the public”. He further noted that “Also, … it was commented
that social foundations of feudal-monarchist movement of Kenesarı
was supported by supreme class of some of the reactionary feudal-Sultan”.
230 Bekmakhanov was compelled by the Soviet system to comply
with its rigid ideological realities, with its terms and conditions. As
a scientist who loved his people, but forced to succumb to pressure,
Bekmakhanov evaluated fairly the people’s history and imprinted his
name and people’s national values onto the national history.
Although the ideology and politics of the Soviet Party wrongly
understood the work of Kenesarı and Alash intellectuals, time and
history has accurately recorded a fair and accurate assessment.
Love and loyalty to his people, academic integrity to science, and
not ignoring the real events, connected the Alash intellectuals and
Bekmakhanov and created a bond between their ideas. His militant
character raised people’s national spirit and the national interest and
he did not waste any effort towards the goal of national independence.
229 Bekmakhanov E., Kazahstan XIX gasırdın 20-40 jıldarında. (Textbook), Almatı. Sanat
Yay. 1994. p. 416.
230 Bekmakhanov E., Prisoyedineniye Kazahstana k Rossii, SSCB İlimler Akademisi Yay.
Moskova, 1957. p. 343.