On the question of the specifics of the implementation of national policy in Kazakhstan in the «stagnation era»: 1965-1985

Abstract

This article discusses general trends, as well as features in the implementation of Soviet national policy in the Kazakh SSR in the period from 1965 to 1985, referred to in Russian historiography as the «Brezhnev era». The purpose of this article is to study the soviet national policy pursued in the Kazakh SSR during the period under review, to identify its characteristic features, problems of implementation, and to identify its consequences for the national local Kazakh population and, in general, the socio-political development of Kazakhstan. The authors for the first time introduced into scientific circulation some archival materials of the funds 929 and 1890, including statistical data on the nomenclature of the party apparatus of the Kazakh SSR at various levels with their allocation on a national basis, as well as the distribution of students in higher and secondary
specialized educational institutions by nationality and national composition of researchers in the 1960s - 1970s.
The novelty of this article lies in the fact that the authors, based on the analysis of archival data, as well as materials of domestic and foreign studies on this issue, attempted to identify the features of solving the personnel issue in the party apparatus of the Kazakh SSR at various levels, the formation of intellectual, cultural and educational potential on the national principle. The authors concluded that the Soviet national policy in Kazakhstan during the designated period was contradictory and had negative consequences for the national development of the Kazakh population. This was large because Kazakhstan, unlike many other Union republics, turned into a «laboratory of the friendship of peoples» with damage to the development of the Kazakh language and culture. The nationalist-minded Kazakh
intelligentsia was subjected to repression and persecution by public and party organizations. Internationalization
and implementation of the project of the «Soviet people» were carried out by traditional repressive, command,
and administrative methods, which naturally caused resistance and protest moods among the Kazakh
population.