Soviet oriental projects in Leningrad and Alma-Ata Bustanov, AK

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Settling the past: Soviet oriental projects in Leningrad and Alma-Ata
Bustanov, A.K.
Publication date
2013
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Final published version
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Bustanov, A. K. (2013). Settling the past: Soviet oriental projects in Leningrad and Alma-Ata.
[Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam].
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Download date:01 Mar 2023
InvItatIon
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On Wednesday
February 27th, 2013
at 10:00 h
in the Agnietenkapel of
Amsterdam University,
Oudezijds Voorburgwal 231,
Amsterdam.

A
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K Alfrid K. Bustanov
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B [email protected]
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BUSTANOV_cover.indd 1 17-12-12 09:41
Settling the Past
Soviet Oriental Projects in Leningrad and Alma-Ata

ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT

ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor
aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam
op gezag van de Rector Magnificus
prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom
ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde
commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel
op woensdag 27 februari 2013, te 10:00 uur

door

Alfrid Kashafovich Bustanov
geboren te Omsk, Rusland
Promotiecommissie:

Promotor: Prof. Dr. M. Kemper

Co-Promotor: Dr. S. A. Dudoignon

Overige leden: Prof. Dr. D. DeWeese
Prof. Dr. J. Leerssen
Prof. Dr. D. Schimmelpenninck van der Oye
Prof. Dr. M. Wintle
Dr. A. Kalinovsky
Dr. Chr. Noack

Faculteit der Geesteswetenshappen

2
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6
Map 7
Notes on transliteration 8
Introduction 9

Chapter I: The Leningrad Connection:
Oriental Projects of Source Editions
1.1. Classical Oriental Studies and Soviet Politics 35
1.2. Towards the New Scholarship: Planning and Collective Work 37
1.3. The First Attempts: Political Actuality of Classical Texts 48
1.4. Islamic Scholars and Classical Orientology 56
1.5. Dividing Sources into National Pieces: the Turkmen Project 61
1.6. Semen Volin: Bartol’d’s Unacknowledged Successor 66
1.7. Evgenii Bertel’s and the Crown of Source Edition: Jāmi‘ at-tawārīkh 71
1.8. The Kirgiz Group in Leningrad 89
1.9. The Kazakh Project: Completion of the Program 92
1.10. Conclusion 104

Chapter II: Nationalism and Regionalism:
Dividing and Integrating
Soviet Central Asia in Meta-Histories
2.1. Regional and National Perspectives of History Writing 107
2.2. An Early Soviet Discourse on Nomads 110
2.3. The Impact of National Delimitation and Sedentarization 112
2.4. Sandzhar Asfendiiarov: The Nomadic Concept of Kazakh History (1920s-30s) 124
2.5. Mikhail Viatkin on the Kazakh Ethnogenesis 132
2.6. Aleksandr Iakubovskii and the Soviet Concept of Ethnogenesis in Central Asia 137
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2.7. Anna Pankratova and the Official Kazakh History of the 1940s 141
2.8. Discussions around the Kazakh History: the late 1940s-50s 146
2.9. The 1954 Tashkent Conference: Freezing of the Dogma? 158
2.10. The Rehabilitation of ‘Bourgeois’ Orientalists:
Bartol’d Re-Emerging in the 1950s-70s 166
2.11. A Great Provocation?
A Tentative Switch to the Regional Concept of History in the USSR 174
2.12. Conclusion 183

Chapter III: The Establishment of Kazakh Orientology
3.1. The Institute of History and its Structure 186
3.2. The Nusupbekov – Dakhshleiger Tandem 187
3.3. Reincarnations of Orientology in Kazakhstan 192
3.4. Sapar Ibragimov: between Alma-Ata and Leningrad 208
3.5. Veniamin Iudin: an Oppressed Orientalist 211
3.6. Klavdiia Pishchulina: Continuity of Kazakh Statehood 217
3.7. Sergei Kliashtornyi: Orientalists in the State Service 221
3.8. The Team of Young Orientalists in Alma-Ata 230
3.9. In Search of Shajaras: Genealogical Narratives of the Kazakh Tribes, 1970-80 239
3.10. Conclusion 249

Chapter IV: Soviet Oriental Archeology:
‘Sedentarization of the Past’
4.1. The Soviet Oriental Archeology 252
4.2. Culture History and Ethnicity in the Past 256
4.3. The Tsarist Archeology in Transition:
Early Expeditions in Kazakhstan, 1867-1918 258
4.4. Iranian Roots of Central Asian Cities, the 1920s 261
4.5. Awqāf, Irrigation Systems, and Archeology, 1935-1936 268
4.6. The GAIMK Central Asian Committee and the 1936 Plenum 272
4.7. The Establishment of Archeological Expeditions in Kazakhstan 276
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4.8. The Institutionalization of Kazakh Archeology in the 1940s-50s 284
4.9. Kimal’ Akishev and the ‘Otrar Catastrophe’ 295
4.10. Kazakh Urban Civilization: Crystallization of the Concept 304
4.11. The Fate of Islamic Architecture: the Yasawī Shrine 311
4.12. Conclusion 325

General Conclusion
328
Appendixes
Appendix 1: The Main Personalities 339
Appendix 2: Networks of Soviet Orientalists: The Teacher-Student Relations 344
Appendix 3: Networks of Soviet Orientalists: Relations with Islamic Scholars 345
Appendix 4: Discourse Development 346
Appendix 5: Institution Building 348
List of Interviews 349
List of Archival Sources 350
Bibliography 357
List of Abbreviations 393

Summary in English 394
Samenvatting 396
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Acknowledgments

My foremost gratitude goes to the initiators of my thesis Michael Kemper (Amsterdam)
and Stéphane Dudoignon (Paris). They made possible my resettling to Amsterdam in 2009,
opened for me the doors into the Western scholarship and in many respects reshaped my
attitude towards scientific work.
At the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (formerly St. Petersburg/ Leningrad Branch
of the Institute of Oriental Studies) the renowned specialist in Old-Turkic history Sergei G.
Kliashtornyi generously acted as my mentor. At the Oriental faculty of St. Petersburg Uni-
versity I was guided by the expert in Central Asian Islamic historiography Tursun I.
Sultanov. I thank Stanislav M. Prozorov, Roman Iu. Pochekaev, Dmitrii Rukhliadev,
Aleksandr G. Iurchenko, Irina R. Katkova, Pavel Lur’e and Asan Torgaev for fruitful dis-
cussions, academic advice and organizational help every time when I appear in St. Peters-
burg. I furthermore thank Svetlana N. Korusenko who supported my undergraduate work
at Omsk University.
It was a great pleasure for me to experience the Kazakh hospitality during my trips to
Almaty, Turkestan, Sayrām and Chimkent in 2009 and 2010. Many thanks go to Ashirbek
K. Muminov, Mervert Kh. Abuseitova, Kanat Uskenbay, Safar Abdullo, Erbulat A.
Smagulov and the collective of the Turkestan Archeological Expedition who made my
trips fascinating and useful. During a joint visit to Almaty Nicolló Pianciola (Hong Kong)
shared with me his experience in writing about early twentieth century Kazakh society.
I received positive critique, help with sources and literature and wise recommenda-
tions from many colleagues all over the globe: Devin DeWeese (Bloomington, USA),
Allen J. Frank (Takoma-Park, USA), Paolo Sartori (Vienna, Austria), Bakhtiyar
Babadjanov (Tashkent, Uzbekistan), Sergei Abashin, Vladimir Bobrovnikov, Vadim
Trepavlov, Il’ia Zaitsev, Shamil’ Shikhaliev (Makhachkala), and Pavel Petrov (Nizhnii
Novgorod). This dissertation was written in a great intellectual atmosphere created by my
colleagues at the Eastern European department of Amsterdam University including Hanna
Jansen, Sara Crombach, Artemy Kalinovsky and Christian Noack.
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Map of the Kazakh SSR

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Note on Transliteration

From Arabic and Persian
’ ء ṣ ص u/v و
b ب ḍ ض y ی
t ت ṭ ط ā آ
th ث ḏ ظ ī ی
j ج ‘ ع ū و
ḥ ح gh غ a —◌ َ
kh خ f ف i — ◌ُ
d د q ق u —◌ ِ
dh ذ k ک p پ
r ر l ل ch چ
z ز m م zh ژ
s س n ن g گ
sh ش h ه

From Cyrillics
а a л l ф f
б b м m х kh
в v н n ц ts
г g о o ч ch
д d п p ш sh
ж zh р r щ shch
з z с s э e
и i т t ю iu
к k у u я ia

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