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THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

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200<br />

<strong>THE</strong> <strong>SOVIET</strong> <strong>HISTORIOGRAPHY</strong> <strong>AND</strong><br />

of “Turkish-Tatar” is a significant appealing point. 377<br />

After the 1917 February Revolution, an attempt to establish a<br />

Turkish state in Volga-Ural region emerged. While struggling to form<br />

this political entity planned to be named as Volga-Ural State, the<br />

pioneers employed the word “Turkish-Tatar” in related documents<br />

in order to reconcile the debating cliques. On 20 November 1917, the<br />

decisions taken by the Turkish-Tatar National Parliament summoned<br />

in Ufa condemned the “tribal frictions - such as Bashkir, Tatar and<br />

Tipter - harming the consolidation of the Turkish-Tatar nation”. 378<br />

The Effect of Soviet Factor on the Identity Processes<br />

of the Volga-Ural Region<br />

During this critical period, Bolshevik Revolution erupted and Soviet<br />

Union emerged. The Soviet government initially involved in soft and<br />

moderate policies concerning non-Russian peoples in order to gather<br />

supporters. Under this favourable milieu at the initial years of the Soviet<br />

Union (1920s), non-Russian peoples found better possibilities to<br />

study their histories. The intellectuals of Volga-Ural region continued<br />

to enhance the pro-Tatar view inherited from Merjani. Since the Soviet<br />

historiography was criticising the colonialist legacy of the Russian Empire<br />

during this period, the pro-national historical views of the non-Russian<br />

intellectuals did not contradict with the official history writing. 379<br />

However, the Soviet government did not hesitate to fix certain<br />

arrangements in favour of the Soviet ideology. For instance, they<br />

dismissed the Bulgarian supporter pro-Veysi movement since this<br />

movement relied on religious fundamentals. Pro-atheism Soviet regime<br />

would not tolerate any religious base. 380 The pan-Turkism ideal faced<br />

the same destiny as well since the Soviet government did not approve<br />

any union among the Turkish peoples. Therefore, they labelled the<br />

pan-Turkism ideologues as pan-Turanist and dismissed all. 381<br />

Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established in<br />

1920. In this way, the Soviet government forcibly put an end to the<br />

377 Tagirov, I., Oçerki istorii Tatarstana i Tatarskogo Naroda (XX vek), Tat. knij. izdvo,<br />

Kazan 1999, p. 25.<br />

378 Devlet, Nadir, 1917 Ekim İhtilali ve Türk-Tatar Millet Meclisi, Ötüken Yay., İstanbul<br />

1998, pp. 216-217.<br />

379 See: Frank, ibid, pp. 179-181; Gibatdinov, ibid, p. 38.<br />

380 “Vaisovskoye Dvijeniye”, Tatarskaya Entsiklopediya, p. 519.<br />

381 Muhametdinov, R. F., Zarojdeniye i Evolyutsiya Tyurkizma, Zaman, Kazan 1996,<br />

p. 165.

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