THE BUKHTARMA OLD BELIEVERS UNDER COLLECTIVIZATION AND DEKULAKIZATION IN ZYRYAN DISTRICT OF THE SEMIPALATINSK OKRUG

Abstract

This article presents the first comprehensive study of the dekulakization of the Bukhtarma Old Believers in the Zyryan District of the Semipalatinsk Okrug as an integral component of the system of mass polit ical repression implemented in Kazakhstan during the late 1920s and early 1930s. The research is based on the contemporary methodological framework developed by the State Commission for the Full Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression, which interprets collectivization, property confiscation, dekulakization, forced resettlement, and anti -religious campaigns as interconnected elements of a unified repressive policy pursued by the Soviet state. The study draws upon a broad corpus of published and unpublished archival materials from central and regional archives of Kazakhstan. For the first time, extensive documentary records from the State Archive of East Kazakhstan Region have been introduced into scholarly circulation. On their basis, a problem -oriented database comprising information on 865 dekulakized households was created. The methodological framework combines the principles of historicism and objectivity with comparative legal analysis, historical legal analysis, prosopography, historical informatics, and quantitative research methods. The research reconstructs the socio-demographic, economic, and political profile of the repressed Bukhtarma Old Believers and identifies the principal features of their household organization, economic specializat ion, family structure, and the 98 mechanisms by which they were classified as kulak households. The findings demonstrate that most of the repressed families operated diversified labour -based household economies combining crop cultivation, livestock breeding, beekeeping, and, in some cases, maral farming. At the same time, the economic characteristics of many households did not correspond to the official Soviet criteria defining kulak farms. The study shows that repression was determined not only by property qu alifications but also by a combination of political, social, and confessional factors. Applying the new methodological approaches developed by the State Commission makes it possible to interpret the dekulakization of the Bukhtarma Old Believers not merely as an instrument of Soviet agrarian policy but as a form of mass political repression accompanied by systematic violations of fundamental human rights. The confiscation of property, forced deportation, compulsory labour in special settlements, suppression of religious life, and destruction of traditional economic practices resulted in the violation of the right to property, the right to earn a livelihood, freedom of movement, freedom of conscience, the right of families to preserve their traditional way of life, and parents' right to raise and support their children. The study demonstrates that the object of state repression was not only individual households but the entire local ethno -confessional community, leading to the destruction of its economic, social, cultural, and spiritual foundations. The findings substantially expand current understanding of the regional specificities of Soviet political repression in Eastern Kazakhstan and demonstrate the heuristic potential of the State Commission's methodological framework for studying diverse categories of victims of Soviet repressive policies.