THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY 67
THE FATE OF THE SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE OF
ERMUKHAN BEKMAKHANOV UNDER TOTALITARIAN REGIME
Prof. Dr. Galina M. Kakenova *
Ermukhan Bekmakhanov is the first professional historian among
the Kazakhs that emerged in the Soviet period. He was the author of
scientific works that highlight the acuteness of the problem and the
novelty of the research. Monographs, textbooks and manuals devoted
to the history of Kazakhstan of XVIII - XIX centuries as well as
researches on pedagogy were issued from his pen.
Bekmakhanov’s case materialized on a charge of “bourgeois nationalism”
can exemplify how a totalitarian regime gives to the purely
scientific academic debates the tone of a political one. The origins
of Bekmakhanov’s historical concept and the fate of his monograph
are the obvious reflection of the historical studies conditions and the
relationship of totalitarianism regarding the creative intellectuals in the
second half of 1940s – 1950s. In the historiography of Kazakhstan this
period was characterized by further ideological offensive against the
regime of professional personnel of scientific and artistic intellectuals.
As we know, Bekmakhanov’s 1947 monograph of “Kazakhstan in
20-40s of XIX. Century” became the object of heated debate in which
were involved not only historians, but also economists, lawyers,
journalists, and literary critics.
The reprisals against Bekmakhanov and his monograph had its
own prehistory. Historiographical understanding of this situation is
important for understanding of forced “evolution” of Bekmakhanov’s
concept, as well as for the general state of development of Kazakhstani
historical science in the second half of the 1940s–1950s. The letters
of A.M. Pankratova, which were published in the journal “History
questions” in 1988, could serve as the evidence of this. 87
“History of the Kazakh SSR from ancient times to the present days”
was published in June 1943. It is commonly known that in the Soviet
Union it was the first experience of creation of the history of a single
national republic, co-written by Kazakhstani historians and specialists
from Moscow evacuated to Almaty during the war. A number of
chapters were devoted to the development of culture of Kazakhstan
during the Soviet period. Along with the historians, the prominent
Kazakh writers, scientists, linguists, and literary scholars, such as
*
L.N. Gumilev Eurasian National University
87 Письмa Анны Михaйловны Пaнкрaтовой, Вопросы истории, 1988, No 11.