THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 51
tinued his doctorate education. Prof. Anna Mihaylovna Pankratova, a
famous historian and the member of USSR Science Academy helped
him through tough times and provided directions to his important
works during the first steps of his history science studies. At that
time, literacy education was given great attention at high schools and
observed by the Communist Party Cental Committee; because of this,
he received additional education between 1940-1941. Apart from this,
he furthered his historical training at various education foundations.
Criticisms about Ermukhan Bekmakhanov
in the Soviet Press
With the beginning of World War Two, it was decided that experts
working in the institutes connected to the USSR Science Academy were
to be evacuated to Kazan, Sverdlovsk, Taşkent, and Alma-Ata. Following
this decision, ten scientists with A. Pankratova, then a principal in the
Science Academy History Institute, came to Alma-Ata in the Autumn of
1941. Kazakh SSR Minister of Education Deputy Ermukhan Bekmakhanov
was assigned to arrange matters, such as housing, for the Moscow
historians and to organize their working situation. The historians were
assigned as rectors of Alma-Ata City Communist Party Organization.
Anna Mihaylovna Pankratova, who aimed to do party propaganda things
and scientific studies together, gave her opinion about the writing
of ‘Kazak SSR History’. It is obvious that such issues, especially the
writing of the history course books, were to be approved only by the
party committee. Therefore, with the approval of the Party Central
Committee, they started to write the course book of Kazakh history.
The scientific counsellor of the book, A. Pankratova, agreed to assign
specialists such as K. Satbayev, M. Avezov, S. Mukanov, A. Margulan,
G. Müsirepov, and B. Kenjebayev to write the Kazakh history. Apart
from that, she also added three scientists from the research institute.
E. Bekmakhanov undertook the task organization of the different
researchers and he himself contributed to the writing of the book. In
those times, E. Bekmakhanov (1941-1942) was working as a secondary
school principal in Kazakhstan Ministery of Education and between
the years 1942-1944 as a rector in Kazakh Communist Party Central
Committee. He served as the deputy of institute principal, and as a
researcher at the Ethnography, History and Archeological Institute of
Kazakh Science Academy between 1943-1948. Performing the scientific
studies and the administration at the same time, also marked the start
of his political prosecution. It is possible to examine in three parts
the criticisms against E. Bekmakhanov in the pages of the press and
the accusations against him because of his political positions.