THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 59
zakhstan’s history. It was suggested that the first seperated form of
the periods was convenient by taking into consideration the possible
changes about this issue in the Soviet period history, and not having
written any book about the subsequent history.
In his article, E. Bekmakhanov pointed out that during the time of
writing the second print of ‘Kazakh SSR History’, some works made
a crucial contribution, such as the works about Syrym Batyr in M.P.
Vyatkin’s study, which was the first to use substantial archive material
from the Second World War years, about the reforms of Süleymanov
between 1867-1868, the Apollova’s work about Kazakhstan’s
involvement with Russia, the works of H.Aydarova who researched
Ç.Velihanov’s life and the book called ‘Kazakhstan in the 20s and 40s
of the XIX century’ that covered the social-economical situation in
the first half of the XIX century, S.N. Pokrovski’’s ‘Civil Wars in Seven
Seas’, V.F.Shahmatov’s ‘Internal Bökey Orda and the Isatay Taymanov
Revolt”. He also evaluated the aforementioned works above as unique
studies that help us to know more about Kazakh history.
As mentioned above, E. Bekmakhanov identified specific crucial
issues and the functions of Kazakhstan’s history in his article. He
expresses in his article that: ‘The crucial duty of the historians is to
search the issues of the foundation of the Kazakh state and the emergence
of the Kazakh people. Sorting out this issue rightly is related to
the ability to see the social-economic and political developments of
the people and the states founded before the foundation of Kazakh
state. Thereby, it is necessary to search the other states founded in
Middle Asia and the Turk Khanates that emerged in the Middle Ages.
It is important to write books about the Jagatai Nation, the Kipchak
state, and the Karakhan state, and also important to search the activities
of Janibek and Kerey, which layed the foundation of the Kazakh
Khans Tavke and Ebu’l Hayir Khan. The cultural, political, economic,
and diplomatic relations of the Kazakh people with the other people
in terms of these relations has not been researched yet. During the
emergence of the Kazakh people and their founding a state, it is
important to search the relations with China, Zhungarya, the Middle
Asia Khans and the Başkurt, Kirghiz, Kalmuk, Uyghur people.’
He proposed to identify various issues of Kazakhstan’s incorporation
into Russia: To search how Russian civilization came to the Kazakh
deserts, its influence on Kazakh culture and its way of life, and the
relations of Kazakh intellectuals with Russian civilization, etc.
Liholat, as mentioned above, in his article critically noted that ‘If
the historians take account the recommendations of E. Bekmakhanov
about the research of crucial issues of Kazakhstan history, it will