THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

140
THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND
became symbols of the Stalinist Soviet regime.
Prof. K. N. Nürpeyis classifies the political oppression in Kazakhstan
under six separate periods:
The first period (1917-1920): During this period, a civil war broke
out after the formation of Soviet government and society divided into
two as “Reds” and “Whites”.
The second period: Evident during the latter half of the 1920s,
this period was famous for abstract oppression. The main targets of
this oppression were the Kazakh intellectuals who appeared in late
nineteenth and early twentieth century, many of whom aligned with
Soviets and participated in the Alash-Orda movement. During this
period, some politicians and scholars were sentenced by Stalinist
courts to exile. Among them, Trotsky, Chayanov, and Kondratiev were
destined to Kazakhstan.
The third period (1920s and early 1930s): This period witnessed the
abduction of the members of the Kazakh National Alash movement
and the mandatory transition of Kazakhs from the nomadic lifestyle to
sedentary life and agriculture. This period was also notorious for the
elimination of animal husbandry and introduction of the kolkhoz system.
The fourth period (From 1937 to the end of the Second World War):
During this period, political oppression targeted “traitors” and “enemies
of the people”. Some people the Stalinist regime collectively exiled
to Kazakhstan before and during the war.
The fifth period (From mid-1940s to early 1950s): Soviet soldiers,
held captive by the Nazis during the war, returned home following
the war and the cities and villages held in occupation by the Nazis
faced the oppression. Among the intellectual circles that included
men and women of science, literature, and medicine, the Stalinist
regime targeted them as “bourgeois nationalists” and “degenerate
cosmopolitans”.
The sixth period (1960s-1980s): This period was famous for the
totalitarian regime’s struggle with the “Kazakh nationalists” under
the moderate policies of Khrushchev and the December 1986 events. 236
The aforementioned “fifth period” witnessed Stalin’s last persecutions.
It differed from the other periods due to the exceedingly
concentrated persecution of literary intellectuals. It was a threat and
an assault upon the well-educated elements of society.
During this period, as a result of the persecutions, Kazakh intellectuals
were labelled as “nationalists” by the regime. In the late 1940s
236 Nurpeyis, K., E. “Bekmakhanov pen onun kitabi kalay jazıldı?”, Qazaq Tarihi, 2005, No2.
pp. 5-13.