THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 203
of the Tatar nation was evaluated. In a way satisfying the Soviet
government, it was claimed that Kazan Tatars had no links with the
Tatars of Golden Horde and Kazan Khanates. The Soviet ethnographers
announced that the Turkish community of the Volga-Ural region hailed
from Volga Bulgarians and adopted Kipchaks only in linguistic terms.
As Allen J. Frank asserts, the Soviet government ironically reinvented
the “Bulgarian” imagination that they had desirably abolished some
years before for their very own purposes. 387
In the recollection named Historical Materials for the History of Tatar
SSR published in 1948, Tatar history was reinterpreted. This officially
approved narration subsequently formed the basis of the history course
books’ content. The history of the Tatars would be depicted anymore
as: “Originally descending from the Volga Bulgarians, the Kazan Tatars
were squeezed under the oppression of the brutal Mongol-Tatar khans
during the Golden Horde and Kazan Khanate periods. They were only
spared after the conquest of Kazan by the forces of Ivan the Terrible.
Then, they fought against the barbarian Tatar khans alongside their
Russian comrades. The Russian control that replaced the Kazan Khanate
brought about peace and welfare to the region. Especially after the
consolidation of Soviet authority, the Kazan Tatars suffering from ignorance
and poverty at last revived and attained civilized life”. From then
on, the history of Tatars would be told in this way – that is, extremely
shorn and falsified – till the end of the Soviet period.
We have to stress that the “Tatar” ethnic name got a negative
meaning as a result of the descriptions such as “Mongol-Tatar yoke”,
“parasitic looter Tatar Khans” and negative depictions. This fact unsurprisingly
created negative social consequences. While the members
of other nations scorned and ridiculed the “Tatar” individuals, the
Tatars exposed to these insults felt ashamed of their social identity
from their infancy. Therefore, the Tatars were obliged to live with this
shame and to hate their pasts and even their names.
Tatar intellectuals disturbed of this situation engaged in activities
to protect the historical legacy and Tatar identity on every occasion.
Especially after 1960s, they caught certain chances. The ideological
atmosphere softened after the death of Stalin opened some positive
grounds in Tatar intellectual life and historiography. In 1960s and 1970s,
some Tatar intellectuals initiated the “Respect to legacy” movement.
In this prospect, the problems of mother tongue, education, science,
culture and historiography that the Tatars suffered were highlighted.
Though with certain precautions, some Tatar historians slowly began
387 Frank, ibid, p. 179.