THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY
SOVYET-TARIH-YAZICILIGI-ENG
SOVYET-TARIH-YAZICILIGI-ENG
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
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.