THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 41
Literature Institute for its failure and she noted Bekmakhanov refused
to alter his work despite being urged to do so. She positioned herself
firmly with Stalin’s attitude regarding Kenesary’s rebellion, citing his
article “Social-Democratic View on the National Issue”.
Initially, she stressed that Bekmakhanov’s monograph associated
with the Alash intellectuals. She needed to do that to prosecute him
politically, accusing him of being an “Enemy of the People”. S. Tolybekov
expressed his opinions by saying,
The counter-revolutionary Alash Orda Party, transformed Kenesary
into a symbol for the struggle of liberty by calling him a holy ancestor,
who gave courage to all counter-revolutionary elements, due to his
leadership in the Kazakh people’s struggle against the Great Russian
people. All Kazakh intellectuals, now who are older than 30 years,
must not forget the Alash Orda theorist and poet Magjan Jumabaev
who praised Kenesary in his nationalistic poem when he wrote:
‘In the Steppe, there isn’t any place which can compete with Burabai,
Among the Kazakhs, there is not any hero who can compete with
Kenesary!’
The question is, why did those Alash Orda members praised him too
much? For his progressive actions? Not at all. They saw the vanguard
of Kazakh Nationalism in his presence. And they weren’t mistaken. 48
As for B.Suleimenov, he said:
Bekmakhanov falsifies Kazakh history in his book. He praises the
bourgeois nationalist ‘Alash Orda’ leaders. Bekmahkanov includes
Alikhan Bokeikhanov in his book without any explanations and cites
his works as though they are reliable historical sources. Furthermore,
he propagandizes him openly, without any shame. It is not right
that Bekmakhanov considers A. Bokeikhanov’s works and writings as
archive materials. It is impossible to tell him that. Along with that,
the author does not criticize Bokeikhanov’s works and articles in any
place of his book, on the contrary he uses them as historical sources
in his work. For example, our university’s and Pedagogy Institute’s
students opposed that by asking, ‘Why E. Bekmakhanov exculpates
Alikhan Bokeikhanov, is it even possible?’, and of course, we had to
prove it that it was impossible. A question appears about that, is it
needed to prove that exculpating ‘Alash Orda’ members are wrong, not
only the leaders. … I think, such a person will not appear. 49
48 Bekmakhanov E., Jeti tomdık şıgarmalar jinagı, 6. Tom (Stenogramma E. B. Bekmahaovtın
“XIX. g. 20-40 jj. Qazaqstan” kitabının diskussyası).- Pavlodar: “EKO” GÖF, 2005, pp.
72-73.
49 Bekmakhanov ibid, pp. 267-269.