THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 141
and early 1950s, Stalinist ideologues initiated a new struggle against
the intellectuals.
In 1946, the post-war phase started with the USSR CP Central
Committee pressuring the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”, drama
theatres and their repertoires, and the movie “Bolshaya Zhizn”. At
this point, the decision taken by the Kazakhstan CP Central Committee
on 21 January 1947 named the “Kazakh SSR Academy of Sciences
Language and Literature Institute’s significant political faults on its
works” yielded negative outcomes. 237 On 27 August 1948, with the
approval of Kazakhstan CP Central Committee, the Kazakh SSR Academy
of Sciences complied with the decision. In accordance with the
decision, all institutes, as well as the biology and medicine centres of
the Academy, were compelled to revise their scientific research topics
and research-development plans, and tighter control was applied to
institutions of higher education and doctoral dissertation topics. 238
On the other hand, between the 1930s and the 1950s, Kazakhstan –
especially Almaty – became the harbour for exiled, talented scholars
and artisans of the Soviet Union, including primarily S. Eizenshtein,
Roshal, M. Zoshenko, K. Paustovskiy, S. Marshak, V. Shklovskiy, and A.
Nikolskaya. The “Vanguard Organs of Proletarian Supremacy” chased
them and other society-friendly people. 239
Immediately thereafter, the regime started a campaign against “Tsarists”,
Kazakh “nationalists” and “bourgeois-lovers”. Among the branches
of Kazakh SSR Academy of Sciences, and generally among intellectuals,
fear and doubt became eminent. That is to say, the 1937 syndrome
re-appeared and comparable societal conditions echoed the earlier era. 240
First, poets and authors felt a strong sense of persecution. Their
works became hotspots of debates and they experienced persecution
on the pretext of not complying with the Soviet ideology.
Between 1947 and 1954, the well-known writer Muhtar Avezov
felt persecuted on the bases of being a “retrogressive nationalist”,
237 Takenov, A., “Elüvinşi jıldardın basında Qazaq tariyhı qalay qıspaqqa alındı?”, Qazaq Tariyhı,
1994, No1, p. 3.
238 Süleymenov, R., Guryeviç. B., Ya, L. “Lysenkovşina v Kazahstane”, İzvestya AN RK, Serya
Obşetvennyh Nauk, 1992, No3.
239 Nurpeyis, K., E. “Bekmakhanov pen onun kitabi kalay jazıldı?”, Qazaq Tarihi, 2005, No2.
pp. 5-13; Takenov, A., “Elüvinşi jıldardın basında Qazaq tariyhı qalay qıspaqqa alındı?”, Qazaq
Tariyhı, 1994, No1, p. 3; Süleymenov, R., Guryeviç. B., Ya, L. “Lysenkovşina v Kazahstane”,
İzvestya AN RK, Serya Obşetvennyh Nauk, 1992, No3; Jurtbay, T., “Eto Napisano v Kritiçeskuyu
Poru”, Abay, 1996, No2.
240 Nurpeyis, K., E. “Bekmakhanov pen onun kitabi kalay jazıldı?”, Qazaq Tarihi, 2005, No2.
pp. 5-13.