Qazaq Historical Review

We are delighted to provide you with the latest edition of the academic journal Qazaq Historical Review, published by the Institute for Humanities Studies ABDI. The articles in this issue deal with the history of the Soviet Qazaqstan. The problem circle, chronological framework, and the geography of the authors have been significantly enhanced. Leading foreign historians have kindly accepted the offer of the Qazaq Historical Review Editorial Board to publish their research findings. Modern representatives of the French and Italian historical schools have made a significant contribution to the study of some tragic pages of the Soviet past of Qazaqstan. We hope that the published material will help our domestic specialists in their further research.

In the Soviet Qazaqstan from the Perspective of Contemporary Research section we draw the readers' attention to three following articles. The article by Dr. Xavier Hallez  (CETOBAC-EHESS, IFEAC) is based on extensive usage of archival documents and contemporary Qazaqstani genealogical publications (shezhire) and is revealing an issue completely unexplored by academy: the connection between the political views of the Qazaq intelligentsia and their tribal affiliation during the turbulent revolutionary events and the civil war in 1917–1920. Dr. Isabelle Ohayon (CERCEC-EHESS, CNRS) uses archival materials and a series of interviews with Qazaq livestock breeders and rural residents to study the process of the final disappearance of extensive nomadic cattle breeding in Qazaqstan in the post-war decades and the development of intensive pastoral cattle breeding among the Qazaqs in the 1960–1980s, as well as the consequences of this transformation for the economy of Soviet Qazaqstan. The history of scientific documentary filmmaking in Qazaqstan is still a “blank spot,” and the article of Dr. Marc Elie (CERCEC-EHESS, CNRS), about the scientific research  of mudflows in the vicinity of Soviet Alma-Ata (Almaty) and the creation of the first films about mudflows in the Soviet Qazaqstan in the 1970s and 1980s, is of even greater interest.

The section Famine in Qazaqstan 1931–1933 publishes an important study by Dr. Niccolò Pianciola (University of Padua), in which he conducts a comparative historical analysis of the policy and economy of the Soviet state in relation to the Qaraqalpaqs and Qazaqs of the Aral Sea region. This study of the peculiarities of the development of the economy and transport infrastructure in the context of a specific historical region makes a significant contribution to understanding the causes of the mass famine of 1931–1933 among the Qazaqs of the Northern Aral Sea region.

The World War II in World and Qazaqstan History section publishes an article by Dr. Masha Cerovic (CERCEC-EHESS, CNRS) dealing with the study of Soviet and German patriotic propaganda during the “Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945”, which is how the German-Soviet War of 1941–1945 was called in Soviet official documents from the first days of the invasion of German troops on June 22, 1941 into the territory of the Soviet Union. Were Soviet soldiers and citizens as patriotic during the war as we are used to thinking, or was it due to Soviet propaganda? Read about it in the article.

Domestic historiography used to overly idealize the Soviet period of Qazaqstan's history for political reasons in the past. Will Qazaqstani historians be capable of providing an objective assessment of the Soviet past now? Perhaps the experience of foreign researchers will help us with this? According to the modern German historian Dr. Robert Kindler, the Bolshevik radical policy led the Qazaqs not to socialism, but to a catastrophe that turned Qazaqstan “into a huge death zone”.  In turn, the Editorial Board of the scholarly journal Qazaq Historical Review is ready to continue to be an academic platform for researchers of Qazaq and Qazaqstan history from all over the world.

The issue concludes with a newsreel column titled At the Institute for Humanities Studies ABDI, which recounts a meeting with a group of French scholars, one of the outcomes of which was the publication of this journal.

The Editorial Board expresses its gratitude to our authors, reviewers, editors, and translators for their contributions to the preparation of this issue. Translating and editing texts in English has been greatly assisted by Candidate of History Sciences, Associate Professor Zarine A. Dzhandosova (St. Petersburg State University).

It is my sincere thanks to Dr. Isabelle Ohayon, who has served as the special editor of the issue and communicated with both the authors and the editors.