THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 209
BEING INTELLECTUAL DURING THE STALIN ERA
Assoc. Prof. Dr. İsmail Türkoğlu *
Most of the Soviet-period Turkish intellectuals’ death dates are
recorded as either 1937 or 1938. 393 These intellectuals were never mentioned
in the encyclopaedias and biographical books of the period. 394
After the death of Stalin, it became inevitable for the encyclopaedias
and biographical books to mention these intellectuals; however, they
include very little data and the intellectuals’ works were strictly kept
in the secret sections of the libraries. 395 Nobody thought or could think
about the fact that most of these intellectuals died either in 1937 or
1938. Did these people die as a result of a shocking earthquake or
another natural disaster in these years? None of these intellectuals
had a gravestone and all of them were buried sans shrouds. 396 To
probe the causes of these deaths would make someone anti-Soviet,
Trotskyite, pro-Galiev, Turan Republic supporter, a foreign country
collaborationist (most popularly with Turkey, Japan and Germany for
Turks; US, UK and other countries for Russians and other peoples) or
a spy and you would live your remaining life with an “anti-Soviet”
stamp. 397 Thus, nobody cried for these murdered intellectuals. While
*
Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.
393 Though “Soviet-period” means the years 1917-1991. This article will strive to focus on the
difficulties of the writing of intellectuals’ biographies until Stalin’s death in 1953.
394 Some of these intellectuals: Bekir Sıtkı Çobanzade, Aziz Ubeydullin, Abdulla Tagizade,
Samed Vurgun, Ahmet Baytursunov, Mağcan Cumabayev, Abdulkerim Sıdıkov, İşenali Arabaev,
Kasım Tınıstanov, Bazarkul Daniyarov, Hüseyin Cavid, Mikail Muşfik, Halid Said Hocaev,
Fatih Kerimi, Alihan Bükeyhanov, Abat Alibaev, Macit Devletbaev, Abdulla İsmailov, Fahrülislam
Agiev, Sefa Burhan, Cemaleddin Velidi, Mahmut Galeü, Ata İshaki, Mansur Kırımov,
İbrahim Salahov, Ali Rahim, Fatih Seyfi Kazanlı, Kerim Tinçurin, Sadri Celal.
395 Until Stalin’s death, there was no possibility to mention any intellectuals killed in his era.
These intellectuals were always referred as anti-Soviet traitors. After Stalin’s death, some
encyclopaedias began to mention some of these intellectuals; nevertheless, their life stories
were not detailed.
396 In Uzbek author Şükrullah’s Kefensiz Gömülenler, there is some information about the
people buried sans shrouds in Uzbekistan. There are two separate editions of this work in
Turkish by Şuayip Karkaş and Ahsen Batur.
397 After Stalin’s death in 1953, the families of the intellectuals engaged in judicial process to
demonstrate their innocence and attained a certain degree of success. Several families received
the certificates verifying the innocence of their murdered relatives. These certificates
were very significant for their future lives. They erased the “anti-Soviet” stamp from these
families and offered them an equal life with other members of the society.