THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 133
THE ROLE OF ERMUKHAN BEKMAKHANOV IN
THE TRANSITION PROCESS FROM KAZAKH SOVIET
HISTORIOGRAPHY TO KAZAKH NATIONAL
HISTORIOGRAPHY
Asst. Prof. Dr. Meryem Hakim *
Soviet historiography is not a new subject for many of the academics
in the world. Nevertheless, the newly independent states began
to deal with the area more often since the Soviet demise. The case of
Ermukhan Bekmakhanov, which is the theme of this conference, began
to be studied first by the native Kazak historians and articles began
to appear in international publications, recently. 231 History writing, and
lifetime consequential struggle of Ermukhan Bekmakhanov who studied
a native liberation movement dating back to the imperial era from the
Soviet history perspective is a prime example that we deal in today’s
conference. Right after the declaration of Kazak independence, elder
generation of Kazaks, who were students of Bekmakhanov, instilled
his struggle into Kazak national sentiment of the new generation of
intellectuals by publishing his famous work of history in the Kazak
language in 1994. Some two decades after that publication, the commemoration
of Bekmakhanov is now taking place in this gathering.
The main purpose of Soviet historiography was the acknowledgement
of the Bolshevik Revolution and the victory of communist
ideology. Under such circumstances, the so-called ‘peoples’ heroes’
of the imperial era and their struggle began to be regarded as positive
issues. Historians of the Soviet period interpreted the past events
according to the approved viewpoint of the central administration
regardless of their wish to reflect the reality.
Our subject of discussion is the example of the research and study
of the Soviet undertaking and interpreting an imperial historical event
from the ideological standpoint of the Soviet era. Consequently, the
difference in historiographic approach between the Bolshevik Soviet
and Stalinist era appear clearly.
Many of the historically forbidden themes in Kazak history began to
*
Konya Necmettin Erbakan University-Department of International Relations
231 Yilmaz, Harun. “History Writing as Agitation and Propaganda: The Kazak History Book
of 1943,” Central Asian Survey, Vol.31, No.4(2012). Harun Yilmaz, “Soviet Construction of
Kazak Batyrs,” in Social and Cultural Change in Central Asia: The Soviet Legacy, edited by
Sevket Akyildiz and Richard Carlson, New York: Routledge, 2014, pp. 45-62.
*
L. N. Gumilev Eurasian National University