Asanova Saltanat A.,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Ch. Valikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology of CS MES RK, Almaty, Kazakhstan, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Specificity of Soldiers’ Motivation in Kazakh National Formations During the Great Patriotic War
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-3-2
The article is dedicated to the analysis of major sources of the patriotic upsurge of the Kazakh people and the reasons for their voluntary sacrifice in the war years using the example of national military units. The previous explanatory practices that linked the sources of victory to the indisputable advantage of the Soviet system and the people’s support of the Soviet government do not satisfy and do not correspond to the modern level of historical knowledge. The prewar period associated with violent modernization did not give grounds for the formation of Soviet patriotism. Today, Kazakh historians are unanimous in the negative assessment of the violent nature of Soviet modernization, which turned into irreplaceable physical and, more important, ethno-cultural losses for Kazakhs. The Kazakhs paid a very high price for the tragic experience of modernization. However, despite all the insults caused by the Soviet authorities, the Kazakhs, from the very first tragic period of the Great Patriotic War, became one of the best soldiers of the Red Army and made an invaluable contribution to the Victory. In essence, the author attempts at finding an answer to the question of the major and real factors of the behavioral motivation of the Kazakh soldiers, as from the point of view of rational logic, the participation of the Kazakhs in this war was a definite historical paradox. Particular attention is paid to defining the major vectors of changing the content of propaganda work during the first most tragic period of the war, as well as analyzing the peculiarities of the internal policy (national and religious) of the Soviet government, first of all its aspects such as addressing national and religious values that stimulated a positive mobilizing motivation of the warring people.
Publishing: 29/06/2020
How to cite: Asanova S.A. Specificity of Soldiers’ Motivation in Kazakh National Formations During the Great Patriotic War // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 3 (11), pp. 12–27. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-3-02.pdf
Links: Issue 3 2020
Keywords: national policy; mobilization; national military; formations; ;patriotism, internationalism; chauvinism; nationalism