THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

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THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND
shennosekretno), historians could acquire and use them. Otherwise,
these confidential and very confidential documents could be used by
special researchers, and only with permission, which could only be
taken from special government institutions.
Any quotes taken from the documents were ascribed to numbered pages
and checked by special personnel at the archive. The quotes not related
to the written subject information, were removed or lined through. 293
Archives of the Soviet Union were centralized in Moscow and Leningrad,
and this situation was a handicap for the historians who lived
or worked in elsewhere. This problem was stated by scholars from
time to time. The KGB archives were out of bounds during the Soviet
Period, for anyone who wanted to search about the recent past. But it
can be seen that during the last days of the Soviet Union, historians
used those archives. 294
It is necessary to mention the publication of documents that were
available for historians to use during the Soviet period., which require
substantial work and effort. To be more specific, it was seen as a
substantial team-work
The editorial work by scholars was not enough, it also required some
party members too. This party member was assigned by the party ideology
department, was not only responsible for reading and evaluating
the comments of these scientists about the documents and works, but
they also had the “power of intervention” to the content of the documents.
Rearranging the document contents according to party ideology
was an important consideration. Therefore, this practice should always
be noted while evaluating the Soviet period documents and archives.. 295
Thus, the Soviet historian had to utilize only the documents made
available to him.
5. Importance of the quotations that historians use or made
The points to be considered during the writing process were:
Quotations from Soviet leaders representing Soviet ideology at the
beginning of the document. This meant especially quotes from Marx,
293 Ağayev, ibid, p. 151.
294 Some of the middle asian historions tod their complaints about this matter in Moscow
like this: “Some of the documents about the Middle Asia are located in Moscow. This situation
gives local historions a hard time.” See: Все союзное совещaние о мерaх улучwения
подготовки нaучно-педaгогических кaдров по историческим нaукaм,Москвa, 18-21
дек. 1962 г., Moscow, 1964. p. 241.
295 The process of publishment of A.İ Gertsen’s Works is a right example to give about this
subject. During this process lots of ideas and sentences took out of the work by party officers
because they were not suitale to the party ideology. For detailed information look
Tvardovskaya, p. 195-196