1937 - The year: Fate and tragedy of the Kazakh intelligentsia

Abstract

This article considers the fate and tragedy of the Kazakh intelligentsia in 1937, which was the peak year of Stalin’s repression that occurred in the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan as a republic of the Soviet Union from the repression could not just stay aside. In the years of Stalinist repression, the Kazakh state lost several thousands of educated people, among whom were wellknown figures and intellectuals who were a part of the 1917 revolution. The repressive totalitarian state machine destroyed the cream of Kazakh intelligentsia such as Bukeyhanova, Baytursinova, Dulatov, Zhumabayev and Seifullin. During these years, betrayal, fear and accusation in the population were pronounced. Unfounded accusations of each other and stigmas of ‘nationalist’, ‘bourgeois elements’, ‘defender of the interests of the feudal lords’ among the intelligentsia were widespread. The author reveals the essence of the problem, the meaning of repression and the powerless and defenceless position of Kazakh intelligentsia.

Keywords: Repression, the Kazakh intelligentsia, nationalist, bourgeois element, class approach, the soviet union, Kazakhstan.