THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 177
of speech, rules of behavior, what they can do and what is prohibited.
Towards the last period of the Soviet Union, in 1980, scientist Kamil
Veliyev, who came to Ankara, was prohibited from visiting some places
that were in opposition to the Soviet Union, such as: the Azerbaijan
Culture Association, the tomb of Mehmet Emin Resulzade, leaders of
the Azerbaijan National Immigration, etc. 321
In fact, sometimes a ban to go overseas could be issued by the
director of the institution without being sent to party officials or security
department officials due to some personal jealousy. “Someone
who held a high position in the Academy of Sciences was told that
the ban to travel overseas was issued by the KGB. I wrote a letter to
KGB to find out whether there was such kind of situation and to find
out the reasons if there was. I talked to high officials there. But, they
did not have any complaints against me. Then, I understood that it
was my director who didn’t want me to leave. Isn’t that interesting?
“You are being invited to the foreign country, your books are being
translated into foreign languages and theirs are not; so, do you know
what jealousy is? It is when they praise your work in the country,
show you as an example, but wouldn’t let you go abroad”. 322
The regime would ban not only foreign travels by scientists in whom
it saw danger, but also prohibited giving lectures in domestic universities.
“I wasn’t allowed to leave abroad (as in 1988-1989 many scientists
were prohibited to leave) and to give lectures in domestic universities
(Novosibirsk, Leningrad). I found out the reason from the talk of the
Communist Party Ideology Division official in Moscow branch and the
party official. “Suppress Gurevich - because he thinks”. The programmed
thoughts that I could promote were too dangerous for them. 323
As stated above, not only was overseas travel banned, but also
sending and publishing works abroad could result in the suppression
of scientists. If a work published in the Soviet Union was later
published abroad, it would be counted as a crime, claiming that the
“work” serves their interests not “ours”. 324
The process historians had to go through in order to participate in
foreign scientific conferences can be summarized as following. First, they
should have invitation from the scientific organizations abroad. Party
membership played an important role to start the accession process as
well as the approval of the institution’s director. Then a conversation
321 Ağayev, ibid, p. 167.
322 Gurevich, ibid, p. 17.
323 Ibid.
324 “Институт истории полстолетия нaзaд”, p. 142