THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 187
Also, according to Russian historians, Russians saved Turkish people
in the region from the enemy, safeguarded them and ensured their
progress in every field. Russian expansionism was considered as a
blessing to the peoples of Golden Horde and the other khanates. In
fact, it is still the same today: “Kazan’s annexation to Russia meant
its inclusion to the consistent structure of the central state. And this,
took Kazan khanate out of the political and economic fragmentation
that caused feudal conflicts and saved Volga geography out of the
Ottoman captivity.” 342 Most of the Russian historians who work on
this topic initiate their works with F. Engels’ thoughts: “Russia indeed
had a receptive role for East. Russian dominion played a role that civilizes
Black Sea and Caspian Sea, Central Asia, Tatars and Bashkirs.” 343
According to the Russians, the khanates and their folk were barbaric
and to civilize this barbarism was the reason behind Russian expansionism.
Unfortunately, Turkish historians who lived in USSR could
not contradict that.
There was another conflict in Soviets’ position. During the time of
Golden Horde and the inheritor khanates, the formation ethnic identity
in Volga-Ural was completed and Russians named the people which
consisted of Volga Bulgarians, Kipchaks and other Turkish tribes in the
region as “Tatars”. The word “Tatar” took place in Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk
as well as in Orkhon inscriptions and it is the name of a Turkic tribe.
However, there was another Tatar clan among Mongolians and this
tribe had Mongol origins. The Tatar clan was very brave and ruthless;
therefore, in Russia and Europe, all Mongols became to be called Tatar.
Russians named the Volga-Ural’s Muslim Turkish people as “Tatar”, in
regard to this Mongolian tribe. 344 In other words, Russians called the
Volga-Ural people “Tatar” while they claimed that these people had
no connection with Golden Horde. Other than that, before the USSR,
Russians had another interesting practice. Tsarist Russia called every
Turkic tribe under the nominal “Tatar”. They did this to claim that
their “Tatars” had nothing to do with Turkey’s Turks. Unquestionably,
this designation was a wrong practice for Russians, because all the
Turkic tribes were put together under single roof, even though they
had different names. This mistake was namely revealed because the
Russians abandoned this practice. At last, they named Turkey’s Turks
342 Moiseeva, G. N. “Kazanskaya İstoriya”, p. 6.
343 Ibid.
344 For detailed information about name “Tatar” and “Tatars” see İlyas Kamalov, “Tatar Adının
Tarihçesi”, Avrasya Fatihi Tatarlar, prep. by. İlyas Kamalov, Kaknüs Press, İstanbul 2007,
pp. 11-34.