Ch.Ch. Valikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology together with the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan held a republican scientific and practical conference “Soviet Kazakhstan: Lessons from the History of Social and Ethnic Conflicts (1920-1991)”.
The scientific and practical conference was opened by the Director of the Ch.Ch. ValikhanovInstitute of History and Ethnology, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Z.E. Kabuldinov, Deputy Director of the Republican State Institution “Kogamdyk Kelisim” of the Ministry of Information and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan A.T. Kemelov delivered a welcoming speech. The conference was moderated by Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor S.M. Borbasov.
As you know, violent social experiments, violation of the rights of citizens, excesses in national politics, refusal to take into account the peculiarities of life, customs, complex economic way of life of indigenous people, deportation to Kazakhstan of 1 million 207 thousand representatives of different peoples and nationalities, unrest during the development of virgin lands, bureaucracy and corruption in power structures caused various kinds of social and inter-ethnic conflicts in Soviet Kazakhstan. Careful concealment by the Soviet authorities of information about these events, a strict ban on the study of their history, has led to the fact that, to date, there is no comprehensive study on this issue in historiography. The experience of identifying and preventing hotbeds of social and inter-ethnic tension is very relevant for multinational Kazakhstan.
At the conference, reports were presented on the opposition to the Bolshevik policy by the peasants who suffered from famine and various epidemics, on the uprisings in Kushmurun, Temirtau, Shymkent, Tselinograd that occurred in the 1950-1960s. In particular, the chief researcher of the Ch.Ch. Valikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology, Candidate of Historical Sciences K.S. Aldazhumanov detailed the social and ethnic conflicts in Kazakhstan in the 1950s. And the chief researcher of the institute, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor G.K. Kokebayeva spoke about the materials on the history of conflicts in Soviet Kazakhstan contained in the ‘Open Society’ archive.
Specially attending the conference Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor D.D. Suleimenova spoke about the events in Uralsk in September 1991, a speech by a PhD student at the Ch.Ch. Valikhanov E.I. Stamshalov was dedicated to the history of the Shymkent uprising in 1967. Head of the Department of the State Archives of Astana G.T. Issakhan told about the history of events in Tselinograd. Chief Researcher at the Ch.Ch. Valikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology, Candidate of Historical Sciences M.Ch. Kalybekova presented an analysis of the incident at the Kushmurun station in Kostanay region. In addition, the speakers discussed the methodology for studying the history of social and ethnic conflicts that took place in Kazakhstan during the Soviet period, the assessment of the uprisings by the Soviet authorities, the picture of historical events in the memory of the people, and historiography. At the end of the program of reports, the speakers were asked questions, and the participants exchanged views.
The conference was held as part of the implementation of the project AP09259347 with the financial support of the Science Committee of the MSHE RK.