Disenfranchisement in Kazakhstan in the 1920s-30s of the twentieth century (on the example of the city of Alma-Ata)

Tulbasieva Saule Kalidildaevna ORCID: 0000-0003-0197-2023 PhD in History Senior Lecturer of the Department of History of Kazakhstan named after Academician T.S. Sadykov, KazNPU named after Abay 530000, Kazakhstan, Almaty, Saina, 28-6 saule-kt@list.ru

Relevance of the research topic. On April 14, 1993, Kazakhstan adopted Law No. 2143-XII "On rehabilitation of victims of mass political repression" ^[1]. This law makes it possible to restore historical justice in relation to people who have been subjected to mass political repression and to provide the maximum possible compensation for the moral and material damage caused. Rehabilitation of victims of political repression plays an important role in strengthening sovereignty and restoring historical justice. The new history should become the basis of the state ideology.

Since 1997, the Memorial Day of the Victims of Mass Political Repression in Kazakhstan has been celebrated annually, being a day of mourning, it unites and shows both the heroic pages of our people and numerous mass tragedies. There are tragedies as a result of the action of natural or other forces that do not depend on the will of man, and there are tragedies formed during the harsh dictatorship of government. One of such tragedies can be called the repression of Stalin's rule. This terrible tragedy is not of one nation. Exile, imprisonment in camps in the GULAG system, executions as "enemies of the people", forced treatment in psychiatric institutions, expulsion from the country and deprivation of citizenship, relocation from places of residence or areas of residence (exile or expulsion), referral to special settlements, forced labor with restriction of freedom (including in so-called the so-called "labor armies", "NKVD work columns"), as well as other coercion, deprivation or restriction of rights and freedoms, with the use of false accusations of committing a crime, or with persecution as socially dangerous persons on the grounds of political beliefs, class, social, national, religious or other affiliation in judicial, extrajudicial or administrative procedure. and much more.

In this terrible and tragic history of Stalinism, great emphasis is placed on the 30s of political repression, the 20s were studied superficially. In this article, I would like to draw attention to the division of citizens by class and social status, as well as the deprivation of citizens of the right to vote. 

In July 1918, the deprivation of the right to vote for belonging to a certain class or social group was enshrined in a special article of the Constitution of the RSFSR. This norm remained until the mid-1930s and only in 1936, according to the Constitution, all citizens, with the exception of the insane and those in custody, received equal voting rights. Thus, the disenfranchisement lasted exactly eighteen years.

Disenfranchisement, non-participation of a citizen in elections, automatically entailed a number of restrictions in social and social status. The deprived turned into outcasts, that is, second-class citizens. Often, disenfranchisement became the basis for further tougher measures of influence against citizens of Soviet Russia, including Soviet Kazakhstan.

Object of research: in this article we analyze the categories of disenfranchised in the city of Alma-Ata.

The subject of the study is the policy of the Soviet state in the field of disenfranchisement and its practical implementation by example. And also, the definition of how these infringements were reflected in the daily life of citizens in their relations with society.

The territorial scope of the study covers the city of Alma-Ata and its surroundings.

The chronological framework of the study has been defined since 1918, due to the fact that the "deprivation" of electoral rights had legal force with the adoption of the Constitution of the RSFSR and retained its legal force until the adoption of the Constitution of the USSR in 1936.

The first wave of disenfranchisement of peasants is associated with collectivization and dispossession. Then, after some decline, it was 1932. In 1933-1934, a new surge in disenfranchisement occurred. The second wave coincides with the preparation of lists for the 1934 election campaign. In 1936, due to the adoption of the new Constitution, the practice of disenfranchisement was abolished.

The degree of knowledge of the problem. To date, a stable and generally fruitful trend of historiographical study of problems has been identified, which preceded the entire process of concrete historical study, both the historical and party aspect of the history of the Communist Party and the general history. The scientific works of G.F.Dahshleiger ^[2], S.L.Kovalsky ^[3], B.A.Amantaev ^[4], J.Zhumabekov ^[5], E.A.Kuznetsov ^[6], B.A.Tulepbaev ^[7], A.B.Tursunbaev ^[8] contain a general characteristic that allows for the analysis of individual aspects of the topic and get a general idea of the main directions of development of the agrarian problem in Kazakhstan.

At the end of the 80s of the twentieth century, under the onslaught of democratic changes, all previous conceptual approaches to covering the problem of national history began to be revised. In the early 90s, on the initiative of Academician M.K.Kozybayev, a commission was established, where the issue of collectivization of agriculture in Kazakhstan was raised. For the first time, questions were raised about the causes and scale of the mass death of the population of Kazakhstan during the period of collectivization ^[9].

The scientific work of G.F. Dahshleiger and K. Nurpeisov on the agrarian issue on a widely based source and research base has not lost its relevance ^[10]. And also, the work of J.B. Abylkhozhin, who studied the socio-economic aspects of functioning and transformation in 1920-1930, can be attributed to good research works ^[11]. And also his work with M.L. Akulova and A.V. Tsai "Living memory. Stalinism in Kazakhstan – The Past, Memory, Overcoming.  they rethought the history of Stalinist repressions in Kazakhstan in the 1930s and 1940s ^[12]. They revealed the essence of the Soviet totalitarian system of public administration and showed the importance of preserving the collective memory of the period of suffering and human rights violations in the 30s and 40s of the twentieth century.

In this order, the reinterpretation of historical experience in the 1930s was the work of not only Kazakh scientists, but also Russian historians.

From this point of view, the works of V.P. Danilov and A. Ilyin are interesting, which represent a certain breakthrough in conceptual historical knowledge ^[13]. In their research, they claimed that they had come to the conclusion that at the end of the 1920s the Bolshevik leadership consciously made a choice in favor of the Stalinist version of socialist construction, providing in the first degree the idea of industrialization in the face of the peasant economy. But all these research and scientific works on the issue of disenfranchisement, touched indirectly or generically. And the historiographical review reveals an insufficient degree of development and study of this problem not only in the regional context, but even in Kazakhstan as a whole.  And in Russian and foreign historiography, most of the works on the topic of "disenfranchisement" are considered as an independent phenomenon, mainly as part of the discriminatory and social policy of the Soviet state. Therefore, we believe that not only the process of destruction of the traditional economy of the region in 1920-1930, but also the history of disenfranchisement in the region has been insufficiently studied. This issue was not specifically touched upon as an object of research, which determines the purpose of the task set before us.

The purpose and objectives of the study. The purpose of the study is the development and implementation of the policy of the Soviet government in relation to disenfranchisement and the peculiarities of its implementation in the city of Alma-Ata. As well as recreating the social appearance and behavior of the categories of "deprived".

To achieve this goal, the following tasks will be considered:

-study of the formation and evolution of legislation regarding the disenfranchised and its application in practice in Alma-Ata and its environs;

-identification and analysis of the main socio-demographic characteristics of residents, features of the social categories of "deprived" of the city of Alma-Ata, and its suburbs;

-study of the policy and priorities of the authorities in the process of restoring the right to vote in Alma-Ata and its surroundings.

Research methodology. The methodological basis was formed by the principles of historicism and a systematic approach. Problem-chronological, historical-comparative, typological methods were used. When studying archival materials and historical facts, taking into account their conditions and mutual influence, the method of logical analysis is used.

Scientific novelty of the research. On the basis of personal documents to reconstruct social portraits of various social groups in the category of "deprived" in the city of Alma-Ata.

The source base of the research As the source base of our research, archival data were attracted especially from the city archive of Almaty, the Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as unpublished archival materials were of great value.

We used the materials of the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Namely, the Foundation-44 People's Commissariat of Workers' and Peasants' Inspection of the Kaz ASSR (NKR KI) since 1929 Alma-Ata), the Foundation-74 (People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the Kir ASSR (Kaz Narkomzem) since 1929 Alma-Ata. Foundation-83. People's Commissariat of Labor of the Kir ASSR (KirNark. and labor) since 1929 Alma-Ata. Foundation-135 27.08.1928 Center of the Commission for the Confiscation of Property by eviction of semi-feudal lords. Complaints of the bais. (CSA RK), Materials of the Foundation of the secret department of the CSA RK Foundation-251,1102 Cases of the Visiting Supreme Court. The Protocol of the Session. 16.07.1920-01.09.1942 Materials of the Presidential Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan such as, Fund-141, Materials on the confiscation of bais in the Alma-Ata district and Archival materials of the State Archive of the city of Almaty, especially Fund-174, case-22, Minutes of meetings of the City Election Commission on persons deprived of voting rights, and on organizational issues Fund-70 Cases Alma-Ata City People's Court 1928-1935

They contain complaints of citizens about the unlawful seizure of property and deprivation of voting rights, minutes of meetings of the city election commission on persons deprived of voting rights. These archival documents also contain historical data that characterize the main activities of social categories associated with the deprivation of political rights. In addition, they contain extracts from the resolutions of election commissions, transcripts of protocols and tables compiled by election campaigns, characteristics of the disenfranchised, as well as other informative documents that allow reproducing the main indicators of economic activity of the category of disenfranchised.

The period of our study, the social structure of the population of the city of Almaty was determined by the economic specifics of the region, reflected in the occupations of urban and rural residents. According to the regional statistical office, 411,182 people were registered in Almaty in 1923, including the Big Almaty village. In percentage terms, the national composition was as follows: 69% - Russians and Ukrainians, 9.6% - Uighurs, 5.3% - Kazakhs, 3.7% - Tatars, 3.6% - Dungans, 3.4% - Uzbeks, Poles, etc. Europeans accounted for 0.8%, Jews for 0.2% and foreigners, mainly Chinese, for 4.4% ^[8]. Agriculture still played a key role in the city's economy. According to the Almaty Financial Inspection, in 1924 there were 2,338 peasant farms in the city as objects of agricultural tax.

In 1928, Kazakhstan, as well as the USSR as a whole, underwent a reform of the administrative and territorial structure. The four-level management system (province, county, parish, village (towns, villages)) was abolished and a three-level system was introduced - (county, village (city, village)) management. The county was smaller than the province, the district was smaller than the county, but larger than the parish. The disbandment of the provincial, county and Bolshevik authorities was almost completed in August-September 1928. 13 districts were created on the territory of Kazakhstan, including the Almaty district ^[14,172].

Thus, Alma-Ata has become the center of the district since 1928. The city was divided into 23 districts. And also, in 1930 there were 13 collective farms in the city, of which 1 commune and 12 artels. Collective farms united 1,065 households and 4,816 souls of the population, which accounted for 38.5% of the total urban population engaged in agriculture. The Almaty City Council was subordinate to the Almaty Regional Executive Committee.

In 1928, the city had the following nationalities: Kazakhs-18.1 percent, Russians-65.0, Tarantchins-6.0 Tatars-3.9, Dungan-2.1, Mordvin-0.6, Latvians-0.6, Uzbeks-1.1, Kashkars-1.1, Jews-0.6 percent, of which there were 77.5 men, 22.5 percent women ^[15].

In 1918-1936, the mechanism of extrajudicial deprivation of political electoral rights of citizens of the Soviet state, including in Kazakhstan, allowed it to be withdrawn from its organizational and legal form.  Discrimination against "deprived persons" on the basis of the constitution not only prohibited participation in elections, but even evicted them from apartments and settlements; "deprived persons" did not have access to medical and legal assistance; their children could not get an education; were subject to additional taxes; were excluded from production cooperatives, collective farms, trade unions; were not employed in state organizations.

In our study, we used the information flow of personal files of "disenfranchised", which are stored in the State City Archive of Almaty as part of the fund of the 174th City Executive Committee. In these documents, we have studied the personal files of citizens who have already been reviewed at the district and city level, as well as whose statements were considered by the commission by the election campaigns of the city of Alma-Ata.

By careful selection, the personal files of citizens in the category of "deprived" were identified, which are the main object of our research interest. Our goal was to reconstruct social portraits of various social groups, including ministers of religious cults, monks and mullahs, convicted by the court and administratively expelled, former police and gendarmerie agents, etc. deprived of voting rights and dependent family members.  Personal files are a complex and multidisciplinary source that contain documents reflecting the extrajudicial procedure for considering the applicant's applications. And also, necessary and sufficient materials for the implementation of the decision taken on the initiative of the applicant or members of the election campaigns. The most valuable is an autobiographical essay, which could be presented in the form of a complaint or a statement of a "deprived person" for the restoration of the right to vote. For example, in the Fund-174, Case-35, the Case on the petition of Mr. Parfentiev Pyotr Yakovlevich, who lived in Alma-Ata, about his restoration in voting rights on November 2, 1930 - February 19, 1931 was preserved ^[10]. The application was written to the regional election commission. At the time of writing the application, citizen P.Ya. Parfentiev lived in the city of Alma-Ata, on Narynskaya Street, d No. 115. "By the Protocol resolution of the Alma-Ata City Council of 2/XI-30.A-2 my request to restore my voting rights has been denied. The reason for the refusal was allegedly the commander of a regiment in the white army and, having subsequently joined the Red army, did not take an active part in the armed defense of the Soviet republics," the statement begins. P.Ya. Parfentiev this is confirmed by the documents of the personal file, which are systematized and carefully selected. The statement describes in detail all the facts with an indication of the exact date and is confirmed by the relevant documents. For example, extracts from the military registration card, certificates and certificates.

Social restrictions on human rights forced a person to strive to restore his former social status, to seek rehabilitation. The incentive was not only getting rid of moral pressure, but also elementary considerations of survival.

Every year, when elected to local and City Councils, lists of disenfranchised persons persecuted by the Regional Executive Committee were compiled. The analysis of the documents showed that, for example, in 1928, more than 3,000 people were included in the lists of deprived in the districts of the city of Alma-Ata. Among them were persons under the age of 18 who were dependent, persons deprived of voting rights in the language of national minorities, persons resorting to wage labor for profit, merchants and intermediaries, employees of religious cults and monks, agents of the former police and gendarmerie and others deprived of voting rights.

Consideration of the practice of disenfranchisement in 1920-30 in its qualitative and quantitative content would be incomplete without taking into account the election campaigns in which they were conducted. Therefore, it is more important to study the composition of persons deprived of electoral rights at the stages of the existence of the “deprived” in Alma-Ata. The list of disenfranchised is confirmed by the registration list of voters to the City Council for the organized part of the population of the election campaigns. Compiled By Kareneev's Clerk ^[16].

As the data of documents from 1926 to 1934 shows, lists of disenfranchised persons persecuted by the Soviet executive power were compiled annually during the election to local and City Councils. This is evidenced by the materials of the Fund No. 174, the Almaty City Archive. Until the mid-1920s, the registration of persons with restricted voting rights consisted of consolidated lists, for example, the reason for deprivation and the address of the place of residence. In some documents, complaints of “deprived persons” were collected, correspondence about their restoration, lists were kept in the form of tables by categories of disenfranchised, for example, a merchant, a policeman, a police officer, a police officer, a bailiff, a noblewoman, etc.  For individual minorities, for example, Russian, Muslim, Kazakh, Armenian, German, etc. Since 1926, the basis for personal registration of both voters and those deprived of their rights has been a survey card. The completed survey cards were considered by election commissions to compile two groups of the list of voters and the list of “losers". 

Additional information about local residents was contained in the executive bodies of the city council and the city police. For example, the clerk of the election commission instructed to check the data of citizens who, in his opinion, were subject to disenfranchisement, they provided information on the suspect person. The list of persons deprived of voting rights was also included on the basis of data from the financial departments of city district councils. For example, about a sample of patents for the trade of crafts, that is, keeping records of the activities of local residents. There have been cases of deprivation of rights for trading two types of goods, for example, a certain M.P. Leonov was deprived of rights for choosing the category of trade in fresh and dried fruits in 1924/1925 and 1925/1926 and the category for trade in baked bread in 1926/1927, or it can be seen from the certificate of the financial inspector that Plotnikova chose a patent of the II category for trade in bread in 1925/26 and 1926/27, in addition, it is clear from her statement that she has a house, which at that time she rented out for 30 rubles of income per month. Consequently, under such circumstances there was no need for trade, and therefore I believe that Plotnikova, as a former trader, on the basis of Article 13 of the Instructions of the Kaz CEC, was deprived of voting rights correctly ^[17].

Along with such cases, the children of the "deprived" were also subjected to infringement of their rights. For example, Yakovleva Claudia Mikhailovna is the daughter of a lishenets, a former policeman ^[18]. According to a member of the City Police Department, who was instructed to find out the social situation of K. Yakovleva, it is established that she lives and works at a candy factory. For which she was fired.

And another interesting fact, the Alma-Ata City Council was sent a request from the Light Cavalry SAGA Labor Faculty. The request "to the light cavalry group of the SAGA Faculty of Labor, they are asked to provide information on a student of the Faculty of Labor, who before admission lived with his brother in the city of Alma-Ata on Kaskelenskaya Street No. 75. Student Niyazov Abduragimov Mustafievich is registered with us by social status-a worker, but there are no documents on physical experience and there is information that he is the son of a mullah, please inform the social status of his father past and present, as well as the property status of his brother." and the place of residence of Alma-Ata county, Tolit village is indicated- Kara. The request comes from the chairman of the light cavalry group of the Rabfak SAGU, Tashkent city, on T. Shevchenko Street No. 7 ^[18].

 Apparently, the main significance of these measures is expressed in exerting socio-economic, administrative and psychological pressure on the most socially independent from the state and economically active layers of the city.

And yet the overwhelming majority had nothing to do with either class enemies or political opponents of the Soviet government. Only a few came from the wealthy classes in the city. Practical application shows that disenfranchisement was directed at the most affluent strata of society, such as merchants, clergymen, entrepreneurs, former military men, and their descendants were also persecuted and deprived of their rights.

      Conclusions. In the early 1920s, when the policy towards disenfranchisement had just begun to be applied, local executive authorities resorted to disenfranchisement as an additional measure. Gradually consolidating their power, the Bolsheviks feared a possible victory in the elections of political opponents and their further influence in society.

   In the conditions of strengthening the Soviet executive bodies on the ground, the organization of elections was very weak. Apparently, it was very difficult to summarize the incomplete accounting side of the election campaigns. According to the analysis of archival documents during the elections, the indicators on the deprived were not immediately included in the records of local executive bodies in Kazakhstan, including in Alma-Ata.   

The total number of personal files of persons deprived of voting rights in the city and its 23rd districts stored in the City Archive of Almaty is 2,378 people.  Including:

a) persons resorting to wage labor for the purpose of making a profit..............................................……………………26

b) persons living on unearned income........................95

c) merchants and intermediaries....................................1605

d) employees of religious cults and monks...............148

e) agents of the former police and gendarmerie, etc. deprived of electoral rights according to P.P.K. and L.V. 15 of the Instruction............207

f) convicted by the court and administratively expelled ...... 188

g) the insane and wards.................................40

h) family members aged 18 and over, dependent persons deprived of voting rights....................................69.

   The essence of disenfranchisement of people was expressed in providing social, economic, administrative, even psychological pressure on the most socially independent from the state and economically active layers of the city. Subsequently, the authorities expanded the list of additional restrictions associated with disenfranchisement in various spheres of society.

Therefore, it is safe to say that the disenfranchised can also belong to the categories of victims of mass political repression in the Stalin era, which can be rehabilitated.

The thirtieth anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence seems to be an ideal occasion for rethinking the legacy of the Soviet regime. However, taking into account modern realities, it requires a lot more research. In addition, this is supported by the policy of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan K.K.Tokayev.