Kulgazira N. Baltabayeva,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Alumni Association of the al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Fate of the Repressed Kazakh Family from Oyrotiya
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-5-9
The article shows the consequences for the descendants of a large Kazakh family of psychological trauma resulting from forced collectivization and political repression. The article analyzes the memoirs of a famous public figure of the Kazakh community in the Republic of Altai of the Russian Federation, economist, historian Pioner Sultanovich Mukhtasyrov (27.02.1937), whose family in the 1930-ies suffered from political repression. P.S. Mukhtasyrov is grandson of Mukhtasyr Dalembayev, the son of Sultan Mukhtasyrov and the brother of Kusan Mukhtasyrov groundlessly repressed as “enemies of the people”. Mukhtasyr Dalembayev, a member of the Eikhe collective farm of the Kosh-Agach district of the Oyrot Autonomous oblast, was shot on October 2, 1937. Two of his sons, Sultan and Kusan, representatives of management and economic personnel and local administration, were sentenced to 10 years in prison. Sultan died in custody in 1943 and Kusan went missing. Memories are compared to official response the family received from the Federal Security service of Russian Federation in the Republic of Altai and the Altai regional court, as well as information from the Museum of History of the Kazakhs of the Altai (the village Zhana-Aul of the Kosh-Agach district of Altai Republic). The article shows how the Kazakh system of tribal relations contributed to the preservation of the family. The high adaptability inherent in the nomadic way of life was transformed into forced conformist behavior with respect to the Soviet government. The author illustrates the combination of the ethnic component, internationalism and “Sovietism” in the minds of representatives of a nomadic ethnic group.
Publishing: 30/10/2020
The article has been received by the editor on 04.07.2020
How to cite: Baltabayeva K.N. The Fate of the Repressed Kazakh Family from Oyrotiya // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 5 (13), pp. 109–122. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-5-09.pdf
Links: Issue 5 2020
Keywords: The Chuya steppe; Oyrotiya; Kosh-Agach; Kazakhs; repression; children of “enemies of the people”; trauma; rehabilitation; ego-document