THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 27
SOVIET POLITICS OF NATIONAL PUNISHMENT AND
THE PROSECUTION HISTORY OF E. BEKMAKHANOV
Prof. Dr. Tursun Jurtbay *
In general, the beginning of “nationalism and the falsification of
the national history and reactionary rebellion of Kenesarı” affair in
Kazakhstan had deep roots, including more than six years that Kazakh
culture and science festered in punishment. No one can explain history
better than the historian. According to Prof. Dr. A. Takenov and the
students of E. Bekmakhanov (our lecturer and brother):
The arrival of few evacuated Russian scientists to Almaty in 1941
accelerated Kazakh history writing as planned by Ministry of Education.
Ord. Prof. Pankratova and secretary of Ideology Department
of the Communist Party Central Committee Muhamedjan Abdihalıkov
were appointed as editor of the book called “History of the Kazakh
SSR”. In order to write this book, the Russian scientists named Grekov,
Drujinin, Vyatkin, Kuçkin, Zutis, Miller, and Lurie contributed
just like Avezov, Margulan, Pokrovskiy, Mukanov, Müsirepov, İsmailov
and Kenjebayev from Kazakhstan. This was the first book regarding
the history of a republic among the “Independent Soviet Republics”.
However, a journalist of the Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences A. İ.
Yakovlev’s idea of “Tsarist Russia brought progression and civilization
for people under its domination, therefore the fight against Tsarist
Russia should be seen as obscured that “had the same meaning of
Stalin’s thought of All Russian textbooks must be school textbooks
of Russian. This cannot be adopted to the interest of 100 nations”.
The overlapping of the two ideas had strengthened its position on
Yakovlev’s historic republics. 40
With the request of A. N. Pankratova, who opposed this idea,
famous Soviet historians conducted five meetings in the Communist
Party Central Committee from 29 May to 8 June 1944, and stubborn
resistance quickly appeared. When Yakovlev and Buşuev’s counter-argument
did not provide a result, A. N. Pankratova and Communist
Party Central Committee Secretary Şerbakov wrote a letter saying
that “Yakovlev’s opinion about the national occupation policy issue
was not in accordance with the teachings of Marxism-Leninism. Therefore,
“Kazakhstan History” require a detailed discussion. This issue
is important for Kazakhstan because it appeals to national feelings
*
L.N. Gumilev Avrasya Devlet Üniversitesi Otrar Kütüphanesi Araştırma Merkezi Müdürü
40 “Pankratovoy, Pisma Anny Mihaylovny”. Voprosy İstorii, 1988, No 11, pp. 54-79.