THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE QUESTION OF KAZAKHSTAN’S HISTORY

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THE SOVIET HISTORIOGRAPHY AND
defended his thesis, entitled “Vosstanie Kazakov pod rukovodstvom
Kenesary Kasymova v 1837-1847 gg.” (Uprising of the Kazaks under the
Leadership of Kenesary Kasymov in 1837-1847) in 1946, in Tashkent. One
of the jury members was Ermukhan Bekmakhanov. In the mentioned
thesis, Kenesary uprising is elaborated very profoundly both in terms
of sources and analysis. Nevertheless, the political conditions of the
period annulled this thesis in the coming years, and made the scholar
rewrite the thesis on a totally different topic. 129
One of the first professional works on Kenesary among the Kazak
historians belongs to Ermukhan Bekmakhanov. He received history
education and earned doctoral degree on this field, and became the
first Kazak history professor. Ermukhan Bekmakhanov’s book Kazakstan
in the 1820s-1840s of the 19 th Century, published in 1947, was one
of the first monographs on Kazakstan’s 19 th century history, written
from the Marxist view. Another aim of the book was to fill the gap on
the field of historical monographs in Kazakstan. The book was guided
by the main program of the party. The author paid special attention
to the socio-economic structure of the Kazaks, the class structure
and political structure of the Kazak state, the historical problems on
the bilateral relations of the Kazaks with the Tsarist Russia and the
Central Asian Khanates. Besides, the author elaborated the problems
of the national liberation movements in Kazakstan in the example
of the well-known movement of Kenesary Kasymov. 130 Actually, with
Ermukhanov’s research, Kenesary Kasymuly’s movement was at the
agenda again, exactly 100 years after the end of the uprising.
After The 1820s-1840s of the 19th century was published, it was
welcomed by the scholars and the administrators. The book was
even nominated to the Stalinist award and it passed the first phase
of the evaluation. However, the chapter of the book about Kenesary
Kasymov’s uprising caused a great problem that lasted for years and
also caused a tragedy for Bekmakhanov. The problem spread to Moscow.
In Almaty, five-day-discussions were held in the Academy of
Sciences of KazSSR. There were various criticisms; for example, it was
pointed out that “Bekmakhanov’s book did not have solid foundations
in terms of the contents; and it was a bourgeois-nationalistic work
129 Dilmuhamedov, Eltok. “Vosstanie kazahov pod rukovodstvom Kenesarı Kasımova v
1837-1847 gg.” (Uprising of the Kazaks under the Leadership of Kenesary Kasymov in 1837-
1847). (Tashkent, 1946) Almaty, 2010.
130 Bekmakhanov, Ermukhan. Kazakstan XIX Gasyrdyn 20-40 Jyldarynda (Kazakstan
in the 1820s–1840s of the 19 th Century). Almaty, (1947) 1994, pp. 5-6; Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun,
Güljanat. Stalin’s Great Purges and the Penal System: The Case of the Kazak Intelligentsia.
M.P. Diss., Supervisor: Pınar Akçalı. Ankara, METU, 2003, p. 69.