The Influence of Soviet State Policy on School Everyday Life in Kazakhstan (1945–1955)

Introduction. The work reconstructs the ideological component of Soviet children’s everyday school life in Kazakhstan, which had a huge impact on their socialization. Methods and materials. The methodological basis of the study is the theory of the sociologist P. Sztompka about the significance of “cultural trauma” in the biography of any generation of people – social tension associated with changes in society, the transformation of its values. The method of narrative interview was used in the work. Interviews were conducted with over 20 respondents whose childhood was spent in Kazakhstan in 1945–1965. Analysis. Archival data and recollections of respondents show that the school, which traditionally carried out a certain order of society, was the main mechanism in the formation of the “new Soviet person.” During the period under study, the “order” was to form a Soviet identity, with which the Soviet school and socio-political organizations represented by the pioneers and the Komsomol in Kazakhstan successfully coped. Everyday school practice reflected the ideological component of school education – all respondents, assessing their childhood from today’s standpoint, are aware of the degree of this influence. Results. A number of mechanisms were analyzed through which the official Soviet authorities formed the consciousness of the future “builders of communism”: the school, ideologized and, in fact, obligatory children’s organizations, and propaganda. The identified correspondence between the propaganda ideal and the real image of a Soviet schoolchild indicates the acceptance and assimilation of socialist values by children in Kazakhstan. The data obtained open up prospects for new research on the history of Soviet children’s everyday lives. Authors contribution. A.A. Bimoldanova proposed the idea and concept of the article and wrote the final text. M.J. Bekmagambetova prepared a historiographic review, was engaged in the identification and analysis of documentary sources from the Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and R.K. Bekmagambetov carried out the transcription and interpretation of the interview materials and the technical design of the text of the article. All three authors interviewed respondents.