Three Generations of the Aldiyarov Family: Microhistory of Political Repression

Abstract

The presented publication is written in the style of a documentary genre and is dedicated to the Aldiyarov family, natives of the Kostanay region, who found themselves in the epicenter of socio-political events in the 1920–1950s. The specified chronological framework became a borderline on the territory of Eurasia, where the battle with the old world and the establishment of a new world order – the Soviet state - unfolded. The country and society found themselves on both sides of the barricades, as a result, discussions about confrontation and the search for truth continue to this day. The purpose of the article, based on archival and documentary sources, ego documents, is to reveal the microhistory of a single family, whose members, representing three generations, became victims of the repressive policy of the Soviet state. The head of the family suffered during the period of confiscation and eviction of the family, in the Kulak operation of 1937, the son supplemented the limited statistics of the repressive plan, on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, for alleged defeatist sentiments and anti-Soviet agitation, as a descendant of the repressed, the grandson and nephew of the first two victims were arrested and convicted. For the first time, the proposed study introduces documentary and visual materials, of a departmental and personal nature. The content of the entered documents made it possible to correct previously known facts with the addition and expansion of information. Of particular interest are the letters, personal appeals of the victims of repression themselves and their descendants, they reveal the daily state and emotions of a small person. Quite a lot has been written about great and famous personalities, victims of political repression. Our research reveals the pain of a single small family, whose descendants continue to bear the Aldiyarov family name with dignity.