Архивное наследие как сфера интеграции Казахстана в научно-информационное и культурное пространство Евразии. 1998–2021 гг.

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the activities of the Republic of Kazakhstan archives aimed at identifying, studying, and popularizing the historical and documentary heritage of Kazakhstan, and to the role of this area of historical and cultural activity in the development of international cultural cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia and other states of Eurasia. The authors’ hypothesis is that the commonality of historical experience in the field of archiving and the similarity of contemporary tasks of the historical and cultural policy of the CIS countries, including Russia and Kazakhstan, are the basis for the participation of archives in the development of Eurasian integration and cooperation in the field of science and culture. In Kazakhstan, this process received significant additional incentives over the period 1998–2021. The adoption in 1998 of the Law on the National Archival Foundation of the Republic of Kazakhstan can be considered as the beginning of a large-scale project to identify, publish, and popularize the archival heritage of Kazakhstan, and this work was initially carried out both in Kazakhstani archives and abroad — in Russia, Uzbekistan, Great Britain, France, Turkey, and other countries of Greater Eurasia. In the 2000s, the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in a series of articles and speeches had formulated an idea of referring to the history as the main source for formation of the national idea of modern Kazakhstan, including the approval of the world historical and cultural significance of the concept of the Great Steppe — the cradle of the Kazakh people. One of the central tasks in the implementation of this strategy was collection and promotion of documents related to the history of Kazakhstan in the international scientific and information space. In 2018, N. Nazarbayev came up with the “Archive – 2025” initiative, which further confirmed the role of the heuristic and archaeographic activities of archives and set the task of creating the most complete digitization of the archival heritage of Kazakhstan. The article provides an overview of the main directions of work of the Kazakhstani archives in 1998–2021: archaeographic expeditions abroad, publication of documentary collections, and scientific research on the history of the peoples, social life, and statehood of Kazakhstan in the 18th – 20th centuries, digitization of the archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan, conducting international scientific conferences and seminars. The facts revealed by the authors show that the archival heritage of Kazakhstan is an area of fruitful and productive cooperation of humanitarians of the countries of Eurasia and also an incentive for integration processes in science and culture in the post-Soviet space.