Ideological and methodological concepts in Soviet historiography of pre-revolutionary history of Kazakhs (1920s – 1940s)

Abstract

In this article we consider the problems of forming and transforming of the theoretical and ideological approaches in the Soviet historiography regarding history of traditional Kazakh society. The Authors highlight that in 1920s in the science of history there was a certain pluralism of the scientific opinions. It is related to the fact that Soviet government, having neither necessary power nor qualified specialists to erase the prerevolutionary historical concepts had to accept the situation in science when the methodology of the «old scientific school» was used at the same time as theoretical layouts and concept conditions of Bolsheviks. In the historiography of this period, very vital and necessary questions were raised and the made conclusions were far from Marxism. When studying the social history of Kazakhs the «old school» representatives took into account the fact that the nomad society was homogeneous, with no class differences. Special attention is paid to the fact that as the Soviet state was being built the Bolsheviks aspired to change the «appearance» of the historical science. In 1930s — 1940s it becomes more politicized and the study of social history of Kazakh society has a class approach concept as a theoretical and methodological set. In accordance with this, the traditional Kazakh society starts being considered through a prism of the fight between antagonistic forces — the exploiters and the exploited. In this article it is concluded that one by one the problems of the social history of Kazakhs become inessential as in the science of history we can see a common aspiration of the scientists to concentrate on studying the Soviet society building history.