The tragedy of repressed Kazakhstan

Started after the death of I.V. Stalin, the process of rehabilitation of victims of political repression turned out to be lengthy and continues today. New historical conditions require a new understanding of our past, set the task of a more complete study of primary sources and the final restoration of historical truth and justice in relation to thousands of innocent victims, returning them to their honorable name.

In the course of the work of the commission for the rehabilitation of victims of political repressions in the archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan, archival documents are researched and analyzed, especially the period of the 1920-1930s, when the repressions affected almost the entire society. The search and study of these documents require an integrated approach and a broader generalization of facts, the introduction into scientific circulation of the entire array of archival materials relating to political repressions in Kazakhstan. Only in this way will we be able to draw the historical lessons of the tragedy, we will be able to provide the whole complex picture to the enlightening Kazakhstani society and give more complete coverage in Kazakhstani textbooks.

As you know, the launch of the repressive machine began with the decree of the Central Electoral Commission and the Council of People's Commissars of Kazakhstan "On the confiscation and eviction of the largest Bai farms and semi-feudal lords" dated August 27, 1928. The confiscation of the livestock of the Bai farms and the eviction of the Bais themselves with their families outside of Kazakhstan and to other regions, mainly on the principle of their maximum distance from each other, began with him [1. Pp.4-7].

Studying new layers of archival sources, we see a significant expansion of the circle of persons subject to confiscation. It was carried out by accelerated violent methods. This caused dissatisfaction both among the bais themselves and the atkaminers close to them, as well as among the aul poor, who sympathized with the bais. To avoid the confiscation of property, the bai often distributed their livestock among poor relatives. The national intelligentsia also came out in defense of the beys, as evidenced by archival data. In a memorandum addressed to F. Goloshchekin on the preliminary results of the confiscation of baisk farms in the Kustanai district, it is noted that "the old Alashordyn intelligentsia" is engaged in agitation aimed at disrupting the confiscation.

In general, in archival sources, as part of the search for non-rehabilitated persons, the picture is emerging when numerous strata of the wealthy sections of the population are being persecuted. The poor strata were subjected to repressions in the same way: sultan and khan descendants, former volost, former bais, large bais, bais, sons (children) of bais, atkaminers, kulaks, kulaks who fled from persecution from Russian districts and former factory owners, dispossessed, owners of houses, gardens , land, mills, large merchants smuggling with China, merchants, priests and their sons, officers of the white army, detectives, middle peasants, imams, ishans, mullahs, poor peasants, Sharua peasants, grain growers who refuse to hand over grain and meat preparations, not taxpayers, but along with them their sons (children).

Forced to leave their native places, they did not lose contact with the village and relatives. Delegates from the village with the help collected by the whole world: money and other things were often sent to people evicted to other districts. This speaks of the great well-deserved authority of the bais in front of their relatives, and the population of the village, the poor who remained in the village. There were cases when after some time they returned back to their native places, or did not leave, but hid in neighboring areas from persecution. They were found by reports and sent back to the eviction district.

Trying to escape from eviction and confiscation (and in the early 1930s from famine), some of the persecuted bais, kulaks and sharua raised uprisings, and some sought to escape to China, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Russia. Not everyone succeeded. We see another facet of this issue. There are cases when those who crossed the border were again handed over to the Soviet authorities, or detained at the border when crossing. All of them were arrested, their livestock was confiscated, they were again sentenced to eviction and even to death.

Documents are contained in the archives, telling about the areas of migration of Kazakh refugees from hunger. According to the State Archive of the Russian Federation, Russian State Archive of Economics and other archives, the geography of their migration extended from Kamchatka to the Northern Territory (Arkhangelsk), from Vladivostok to Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye, not counting the cities and regions of Siberia, the Lower and Middle Volga and the Trans-Urals, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, then China, Afghanistan and Iran. More than one million people were among the refugees from the famine. Of these, only a little more than 400 thousand returned later to the republic. It is impossible to establish how many of them died in the places of migration [2. p.9].

Thus, subjected to persecution in the 1920s and 30s, most of the bais, kulaks, and prosperous Sharuas became powerless victims of political repression. They were doomed to death and emigration.

The archives contain documents confirming that the children of the confiscated and evicted beys were not allowed to study at schools and universities. They were expelled even from the last year of study, they were not allowed to take final exams, they were not issued graduation certificates before leaving for eviction from the district [3. L.25].

A whole campaign to persecute the children of beys and kulaks, the wealthy strata, who were subject to confiscation, was launched. All people who taught, studied at universities and secondary educational institutions in Kazakhstan and beyond, were excluded and subjected to cleaning as socially alien elements. Special commissions were created and worked in this direction, which sent lists of Kazakh students to universities for holding meetings to condemn them and expel them from the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union, the party and the university.

All these people were expelled without the right to be reinstated or enrolled in universities in the future. Many children of beys and kulaks with confiscated property had to change their surnames. Wives divorced their husbands in order to escape with their children from confiscation, eviction and repression. In fact, they are also indirect victims of political repression. Their destinies were broken. Many bright talents failed to reveal their potential and be realized, to contribute to the development of the economy, education, science and culture.

In a letter from U. Dzhandosov to the Kazakh Regional Committee to U. Isaev, the question is raised that “the confiscation of large semi-feudal bais ... will expose the ideological struggle in the city within the walls of our educational institutions ... and raise the issue of cleaning educational institutions ... This issue must be approached by the method of mass social work among the students themselves. Cleaning from above will lead to perversions” [4. L.171]

A whole system of letters and denunciations was deployed, according to which they found the beys who returned from eviction back to their native places, or who were hiding in neighboring areas from persecution, and their children who studied at educational institutions were identified. According to these denunciations, the beys were found and sent back to the eviction district, their children were expelled from universities. Unfortunately, as the archives show, denunciations during that period became common. A whole network of informers under pseudonyms writes them on a regular, systematic basis. And this is also one of the sad aspects of the psychological mutation of society in the process of pursuing a policy of repression, which has yielded results.

Based on the disclosure of extensive archival sources, a rethinking of the ugly and ruthless policy of confiscation and repression of the 1920-1930s. is a complex task of the humanities. First of all, based on the study of archives by legal scholars, historians, political scientists and other specialists, a conclusion on the rehabilitation of victims of political repression by state-legal structures is being prepared. And at the same time, the analysis and generalization of new aspects of the influence of repressive processes on the further historical and political development of Kazakhstani society, as well as on the specifics of changes in the national mentality, the psychology of the Kazakh nomadic society, etc. happening.

Psychologists say that famine, political repression, war and other traumas experienced by the generations of our great-grandfathers laid down a set of psycho-emotional attitudes and beliefs that still affect our generation. Repressed ancestors are the cause of our psychological attitudes and stereotypes. Their lives filled with fear, deprivation, mass deaths, desperate struggle for survival, humiliation and low self-esteem echo in us. The generation of their children are "directors", and the current generation is "actors", realizing the heavy karmic syndrome of their ancestors. In the philosophical and psychological aspect, this lays the foundations for such modern social diseases as detachment, alienation, lack of will, humility and conformity in society as a whole.

Rethinking the tragic pages of confiscations and repressions on the basis of new archival sources shows the scale and depth of this process. Note that in this article only the issues of reprisals against persons subjected to confiscation are touched upon. But we know that in the 1920s-1950s. repressions were carried out to wider sections of the population. These are leaders and supporters of "Alash", refugees and participants in peasant uprisings, party and economic, Soviet, creative intelligentsia, deported peoples, prisoners of war, religious figures, etc.

Thus, almost all layers of the Kazakh people and Kazakhstanis in general were repressed, humiliated and crushed by the policy of unreasonable persecution. In this regard, it is archival materials that provide a broad overview for understanding and analyzing the scale of political repression in Kazakhstan, contribute to the generalization and integrated interdisciplinary approach to its study. This has a wide scientific theoretical and practical significance.

LIST OF USED SOURCES:

1.CSA RK. F. 5. Op. 21. D. 15. L. 4–7

2. The tragedy of the Kazakh village. 1928–1934 Volume 1. 1928 - April 1929. C6opnuk of documents. A.2013. p.9

3. CSA RK., f.135, op 1. D.157. L. 25

4. AP RK F. 141 Op.1. D. 2248. L.1

Utegaliyeva Almazhan Dzhusupovna,

Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of

the Department “Social disciplines”

of Almaty University of Power Engineering and Telecommunications named after Gumarbek Daukeyev,

Head of the working group No. 3 of the commission

for the full rehabilitation of victims of political repression

Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan

a.utegalieva@aues.kz

 

 

 

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