The 1944 meeting of Historians in the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party (b) and the development of Soviet Historiography of the history of Kazakhstan

This article discusses the formation and development of the concept of Kazakh historical science in the 1940s–early 1950s. The basis of this process was the Meeting of Historians in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, held in Moscow in 1944. This Meeting was convened on the initiative of A.M. Pankratova, who was one of the authors and initiators of the creation of the first fundamental work on national history “History of the Kazakh SSR from ancient times to the present day” (1943) during the Great Patriotic War. It was the first academic publication that covered the entire history of Kazakhstan from the era of antiquity, in addition, the work was nominated for the Stalin Prize. However, the publication was sharply criticized by both Kazakh and Moscow historians. This discussion was a turning point when a transition was made from the paradigm of the “lesser evil” to the paradigm of the “absolute good” in matters of the policy of the Russian Empire on the territory of the national republics of the USSR. In subsequent years, the decisions made influenced not only the nature of scientific research on the history of Kazakhstan, but also directly on the fate of Kazakh scientists. In particular, a repressive machine was launched against Yermukhan Bekmakhanov, who in 1952 was sentenced to 25 years for research on the movement of Kenesary Kasymov. The article is based on a wide range of source materials.