Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 1

Fiction aspects in historical textbooks as a tool to manage the nations worldview

Academic Reading and Writing II
Section 20
Syzdykov Ayan
20121747










Almaty, 2013
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 2
Abstract
The present study investigates historical textbooks as tool to manage peoples worldview.
This study calls into questions the credibility of the information that is given in historical
textbooks. This study will base on analyzing the history and facts, comparing history with
myths and conducting a survey among Kazakhstani people to identify the influence of history
textbooks on their points of view. The research questions:
What functions that mythical history is playing in our world?
What reasons of that the fiction aspects in history are exists?
How the existence of mythical aspects in history influence on peoples
minds?
The results of the work show us that the government plays an important role in
constructing textbooks for scholars and not always people realize it.
Conclusion: Government and people themselves should reconstruct their approach to he
historical textbooks.










Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 3
Introduction
The foundation of knowledge about the history people receive from school textbooks
However, at different times, we had different governments that published different textbooks.
Especially, in Kazakhstan people had two different systems of scientists education. The first
system was in the Soviet Union, and the second one is the system of the Republic of
Kazakhstan. The information in the textbooks that were published in the Soviet period of time
is really distinguishes from the data that are written in contemporary textbooks. For instance,
the history of middle Ages in the textbooks of Soviet period does not disclose the topics about
the process of formation of the Kazakh nation and how the Kazakh Khanate was created
because at the Soviet period of time it was not important. Therefore, the knowledge of different
generations is differing from each other.
So, the present study attempts to analyze the attitude of citizens that were educated
under different systems to the history of Kazakhstan. It is important to do this investigation
because any information which is created to convey people in something has a structure of the
myths (Campbell, 1997). A lot of scientists use the myths as the basis of the historical facts,
and there are a lot of similarities found between them (Slotkin. 2005). In most cases these
similarities appear because of false history which Kazakhstani historians have created. It is a
real problem because it questioned the existence of history as a science. For instance, even the
image and personality of Abylai Khan is based on incredible sources. In the XX century the
archeologists found the burial place of Abylai Khan, and with the help of new technologies
reconstructed his real face but it was not nationally published, and now we are using the
fictional portrait of Abylai Khan (Kadyrov, 2011). According to this author, although the
biography of the great politician seems to have been studied far and wide, there are still many
white spots in it (p.1). Moreover, the famous historical scientist Nurov (2011) claims that the
existence of majority of Kazakhstani batyrs is questionable (p.85). The main issue of this
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 4
study is whether to trust what is written in the history textbooks. Therefore, the main purpose is
to investigate the relation between mythical aspects in history, politics and peoples worldview.
The research questions: What are functions that mythical history playing in our world? What
are reasons of that the fiction aspects exist in history? How does the existence of mythical
aspects in history influence peoples minds? This study will make a review of literature,
describe a methodology of this project and conduct a survey among Kazakhstani people to
identify the influence of history textbooks on their points of view. According to the results of
this survey I will make a conclusion does this system of spreading the different stories among
people is working or not?
Literature review
History is a connection between the present and the past. At the present time, a lot of
theories have been proposed to explain several questionable moments in history of Kazakhstan
such as the war between Kazakhs and Djungars, attachment of Kazakhstan to the Russian
Empire and the cult of Abylai Khan as a unifier of the Kazakhs. This study is going to
determine the problem of fictional aspects in historical textbooks of Kazakhstan. Although, the
literature covers a wide variety of such theories; this review will focus on three major
consistent explanations of existence of fiction aspects in the history of Kazakhstan. They are:
fiction aspects in written history for scholars; the reasons of fiction aspects in history; fiction
aspects in history of Kazakhstan. Especially, this paper will focus on survey among people of
different ages, to analyze the ability of Kazakhstani people to evaluate the information, namely
the written history.
According to Clark (2010), history is very useful to politicians, and Australian politicians
try to use it in order to tell people what they are doing comes from the mainstream of
Australian folklore and Australian idealism. This article will help me to prove, that the fiction
history is existing and our country is not exception. In this case, I will take the relationship
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 5
with Russia in nowadays, and using the arguments and examples of Ms. Clark I will prove that
creating a visibility of voluntary annexation plays into the hands of politicians. Furthermore,
this article reveals secrets how politicians can use the history, for what purposes and mainly,
the author puts forward the main idea of his research: is the history operates the international
relationships or international relationships controls the history. However, history connected not
only with the international relationships, but with people at whole. In modern life, unproved
history is named historical myths, fictions and people can not distinguish what is true and what
is false without special knowledge. For the most part people do not possess this knowledge. So,
in this research paper I want to analyze how the fiction history which people passes for the
truth impact on their world outlook.
By searching information for my project I found the article by Campbell (1991). In this
article Four functions of myths distributes myths be their implications for human. They are:
cosmological, sociological, psychological and mystical. In this study it will be useful to
consider sociological and cosmological functions of myths.
Another research article by Kadyrov (2011), investigates interesting facts about the life
of Abylai Khan such as his descendants and diplomatic activity. The author finds out some
unproved facts that were written in textbooks. For example, there is evidence that Abylai Khan
was not born in 1711, as it is now assumed, but a year or two later; although his date of birth is
not precisely known, known is the date of his death. There is a view that Abylai was not
declared the Khan of all the Kazakhs, but headed only Middle Horde. In any case, information
on his accession to the throne is vague and unconvincing. But convincing is the attitude of
Russian tsars to him, who appealed to Abylai as the head of the entire Kazakhstan. These facts
alone show that information in historical textbook has fictional aspects. The article tries to
analyze why Abylai Khan acquired so big popularity among history makers. The author
concludes that the nation needs the hero, especially in that difficult time for the nation that was
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 6
in the colonial. One of the reasons which are served to appearing of the fiction in written
history is national identity. Historians should risk and do experiments with interpretations of
the past, because poor history will lead to poor nation awareness that in his turn can lead to
weak citizenship of people (Slotkin, 2005). According to Sokolov school course of history
traditionally plays the role of ideological brace in many countries. Nurov (2011) also claims
that Kazakhstan tries to embellish our history to develop the patriotic sense among the people.
Saying about a fiction for the purpose of history, the following article by Slotkin (2005)
describes the argument most frequently made on behalf of historical fiction is that, fiction can
stimulate interest in the study of history. The article answers to questions: Why do historians
risk and do experiment in creating history based on myths and novels? And what consequences
will be if they won not do that? The author protects historians and textbooks for schools. He
explains what reasons served to the fiction history. Especially this article explains the fiction
about the war with Djungars and cult of Abylai Khan. The author raises the issue of national
identity and about political allegiance of history.
The article, which was written by Maleev (2012), thinks over the facts and different
sources which prove another point of view to the war. The author analyzes the main battles and
the archeological confirmation to them. Another author who criticizes an erroneous
interpretation of history is Smirnov (2005). The name of his article is On the other side of
Bukhara was published in Rodina journal. Smirnov is a writer and in his article he used a lot
of credible sources like statistics and textbooks. In this article author reveals the description of
Djungars and to some extent justify their action. The writer analyzes the laws and legal
proceeding of XVIII century which are the basis of the Russian and Kazakh history. He tries to
prove that these sources are not trustful, because in that period of time that what was written on
paper can not be considered as a reality. Furthermore, based on this he suggests that the
attaching of Kazakhstan to the Russian Empire was not as friendly as the historians describe.
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 7
To prove his point of view the author does a lot of research and he found a lot of
inconsistencies of historical incidents and facts. Gradually, a second historical fiction of this
research paper is appearing, which concerns the process of attaching the Kazakhstan to the
Russian Empire.
Especially about unification of two states in XVIII century was written by Sergaliev
(2012) in the article About some nuances of the accession of Kazakhstan to Russia. The
author tries to analyze why Kazakhstan wants to persuade people about friendly association
with Russia for the mutual benefits in XVIII century.
One of the most critical authors is Nurov (2011) that open a new view to the Kazakh
nation in his book Kazakhstan: national idea and traditions. He is one of the famous
historians, that was studied and practiced as well as in Kazakhstan in abroad. The book also
contains authors professional opinion that will be very useful in this study. Nurov covers the
period from formation of Kazakh Khanate until the real days. In general, in this book the
author criticizes the whole history of Kazakhstan and its creators. He claims that all sources are
biased and historians involved in the countrys policy to develop a national identity.
A lot of studies questioned the credibility of the facts and stories that are written in the
Kazakhstani historical textbooks. As an examples of the historical textbooks which information
is questioned by scientists such as Kadyrov, Maleev, Sergaliev, Nurov and others was taken the
textbook of Kuzembaiuly and Amanzholuly (1999) The History of Kazakhstan that was
written for scholars. There were a lot of expressions about Abulkhair Khan like brave, wise
and good. The authors gave a clear positive response for all Kazakh warriors and actions.
Another book that was written in the same style but with more moderate epithets The History
of Kazakhstan for university students, authors Abil and Kuzembaiuly (2004). Nurov (2011)
consider that this glorification of the Kazakh heroes is redundant and perceive as propaganda
of national ideology. Maleev (2012) claims that it is the biggest mistake of historians trying to
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 8
disclose the personality of historical individuals. Sergaliev (2012) support his opinion that
historians ingrain their personal opinion to the audience and do not provide the opportunity to
think. It has a bad effect on school children. In those textbooks that were taken as a samples are
pointed out three main events that were happened in XVIII century: the war with Djungars;
attaching to the Russian Empire; the cult of Abylai Khan as a unifier of the Kazakhs.
In general, the information that I found is credible and it has supporting ideas in order
to prove my suppositions. In this study is presented a problem that the fiction history exists.
The authors who identified this problem are Maleev, Sergaliev, Smirnov, Kadyrov and Nurov.
The authors who explain the reasons of this problem are Slotkin and Clark. And at the same
time the Clark and Campbell explains the consequences of this problem.
Methodology
Participants
The participants of this study were 40 citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan. There
were ten representatives from each age group with the equal number of males and females. All
participants of the project were of diverse educational backgrounds, and they had different
specialties in universities.
Materials
The research is based on gathering the results of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was
conducted in order to test the hypothesis that historical textbooks have influence on persons
worldview. The questionnaire consists of multiple choice, open-ended and response scale
questions. Overall, this questionnaire consisted of ten different questions. 23 students who
were participating in a survey were from Kimep University.
Design
I decided to conduct a survey among students of Kimep University and other citizens of
Kazakhstan. The majority of participants were students from Kimep University because it was
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 9
interesting for me to know how historical textbooks influence worldview of Kimep University
students. I analyzed the existed studies of scientists about the issue, then analyzed Kazakhstani
historical textbooks and provided a questionnaire among Kazakhstani citizens.
Procedure
The questionnaire was conducted during a week among people who are older than 18
years because at 18 year the majority of people have graduated from a school. Each person was
examined in a different time and place individually. The participants were chosen randomly.
All participants of my project were tested individually in one face to face session that lasted 10
minutes on average. I explained to each participant that he or she must answer on ten questions
in the written form. The useful action that facilitated the search of participants was the message
distribution in Kimep University Mail. I informed each person about the purpose of my
research and that their identities won not be publicized. Participants who were not students
from Kimep University were examined by me in places which were comfortable for them.
When the information was collected I investigated it very attentively.
Data Analysis
The sample of my survey was the citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan that graduated
from a school at different periods of time. There are four groups of people divided by the age.
The first group is 18-28 aged people; they received education in independent Kazakhstan. The
second group is people between 28-35, these people received a secondary education in the
Soviet Union (from 1978 to 1985), but they got higher education after the collapse of the
Soviet Union. The third group is a people between 35-50, who get a total education at the
Soviet period of time (from 1963 to 1978), but this is that generation, that after collapse of the
Soviet Union begun to build new ideology and new approach to the study of history of
Kazakhstan. And the last one is the group of people between 50-70. Each group consists of ten
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 10
respondents, and in total this survey was conducted from 4 till 10 of November among 40
people.
The second question is determined the nationality of the respondents. More than a half of
respondents are Kazakhs, it is 55 % (22 people). Russians are 30% of the sample (twelve
people). There are few people with other nationalities: 5 % - Tatars (two people), 5 % - Uyghur
(two people), 2.5 % - Ukrainians (one person) and 2.5 % - German (one person).
Figure 1 that shows the answers of the respondents to the questioning whether they have
a higher education or not. All of the respondents have a secondary education: 60 % of the 18-
28 aged participants and 40 % of 28-35 aged participants have a higher education. So, in
general this survey held among educated people.

Figure 1. Higher education
Figure 2 shows the results of the following question: Do you agree that the textbooks of
the history of Kazakhstan are credible sources? In general, the majority of people agree with
the following statement, 18-28 ages group has 60% (six people), 28-50 aged people has 40%
(eight people). Saying about people between 50-70 ages, 50 % of them trust the historical
textbooks (five people). In addition, only one person from the first group is neutral to the
following statement. According to Figure 2, it is clear that the more people get older the less
they trust the historical textbooks, from 35 till 70 ages 40 % (eight people) of respondents
disagree with the given statement, while ten people (from 18 till 35) agree with the following
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 11
statement.

Figure 2. Credibility of historical textbooks
According to Figure 3, there is no doubt that elder people are likely to agree with that
statement than younger ones, for instance, the results of 28 till 70 aged people are only rising
up, from 40% to 80%, at the same time the number of neutral position decreases from 28 to 70
years. Fifty percent of younger respondents agree with the given statement, 10% that have a
neutral point of view and 40% of people that disagree with that statement. Only one member
from the second and the fourth groups answered that they disagree that textbooks had an
impact on their worldview.

Figure 3. Impact of historical textbooks on peoples worldview
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 12
The next question was: Do you agree with the following statement: The history has an
impact on the relations between countries. The majority of people answered that history has
an impact on relations between countries, those who got school education during the Soviet
Union are more convinced in truth of this statement, even if the majority of people of each
generation answered that they agree. Fifty percent of 18-28 and 28-35 aged people agree with
that statement, among 35-50 aged people 70% of people think this way and among 50-70 aged
90% of people. On the other hand, the disagree column has another tendency, while among
18-28 aged people this answer were given by 40% of respondents, among 50-70 aged people
nobody disagrees with that statement.

Figure 4. The impact of history on international relations
This question: Do you agree with the following statement: Other generations have a
wrong representation of the world helped to determine whether the people notice the
differences between the data that the textbooks give them at different periods of time.
According to Figure 5, the younger generation has a more neutral position than others; only
30% of people between 18-28 ages are neutral to the given statement. Forty percent of the first
three groups of people disagree with that statement and only 30% of the eldest generation
mentioned disagree answer. This chart shows that with ages the relation of the people to
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 13
other generations becomes more categorical.

Figure 5. Wrond representation of the world
According to Figure 6, the eldest generation has the highest level of patriotism, because
the question was: How would you evaluate the level of your patriotism? It means that at the
Soviet period of time the ideology was strongly rooted in the educational system.

Figure 6. Level of patriotism
The last question was asked to determine which system is more preferable for citizens.
The question was: Do you agree with the following statement: The collapse of Soviet Union
had positive consequences. As it was expected the results show that 18-28 aged people, who
were never educated in the Soviet Union mostly agree that the collapse of the Soviet Union
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 14
was a good event. Those generations that got only a secondary school in the Soviet Union and
the eldest ones disagree with the given statementup to 50% of respondents.

Figure 7.Positive consequences of collapse of Soviet Union
Conclusion
The present study tried to analyze the influence of historical textbooks on peoples
minds; furthermore, to investigate the impact of the historical textbooks on relationships
between countries. To get these objectives, I analyzed the existing studies of scientists about
this issue, designed a methodology for my project and provided a questionnaire among
Kazakhstani citizens.
There are a lot of differences between facts and what is written in the historical books.
For instance, the part of Middle Ages of Kazakhstan is the most questioned period of time in
the Kazakhstani history is more like as collection of myths and legends. So, Kazakhstani
historians need to find out more facts that will evidently prove the heroic past of our nation.
The results of the work show us that the government plays an important role in constructing
textbooks for scholars, and people do not always realize it. Consequences of interventions can
be different such as a bias of Kazakhstani citizens knowledge about history in a wrong way
and their incomprehension of various events in History of Kazakhstan. As Nurov (2012) said,
it is important not to bring up Nazis. Therefore, textbooks makers should pay attention not only
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 15
to the propaganda of something but to the developing clever citizens that will be able to
evaluate any information. According to the results, the most neutral attitude to that historical
textbooks influence on peoples worldview was among the 28-35 years old people, the reason
of that this generation had an education in the turning point of the country, so there was an
ideology that cannot develop peoples national awareness. On the other hand, the group of
Soviet people, the eldest one has the biggest number of people that agree with that historical
textbooks influenced in their worldview. Obviously, that the eldest and the youngest
respondents have more radical point of view to any questions. It is because those generations
are more than others influenced by the ideology of the countries. For instance, questions when
participants were need to evaluate the level of their patriotism and when they need to show the
relation to the collapse of the Soviet Union. It proves that countries use the textbooks as a tool
to manage nations worldview.
In my opinion, it is important to develop national ideology, but people should become
patriots not only because they are taught it in school. It will be better if school will pay more
attention in developing scholars personal opinion, by giving them pure facts. So, the scholar
textbooks need to be developed.









Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 16
References
Abil, E. &Kuzenbaiuly, A. (2004). Kazakhstan is in XVIII century. In The textbook the history
of Kazakhstan (7
th
ed., pp. 142-160). Saint Petersburg, SP: Solart.
Campbell, J. (1997). Mythological Themes in Creative Literature and Art. In Antony V. C. The
Mythic Dimension: Selected Essays. (1959-1987 ed., pp. 180-186). New York. NY:
HarperCollins Publishers.
Clark, A. (2010). Politicians using history. Australian Journal of Politics & History, 56, 120-
131
Kadyrov, B. (2011, December). Abylai Khan: warrior and diplomat. Retrieved from January
28, 2013 www.kazpravda.kz/eng/culture/2012-12-08/
Kuzembaiuly, A. &Amanzholuly, E. (1999). The History of Kazakhstan. Astana. Foliant.
Nurov, K.I. (2011). Kazakhstan: national idea and traditions. Almaty: VOX POPULI.
Maleev, S. (2012). The war with Djungars. Retrieved from http://www.altyn-orda.kz/library/s-
maleev-vojna-s-dzhungarami-svyashhennaya-narodnaya-vojna-kazaxov-
istoriya/comment-page-2/
Sergaliev, M. (2012). About some nuances of the accession of Kazakhstan to Russia. Retrieved
from CentrAsiahttp://www.centrasia.ru/newsA.php?st=1343717880
Smirnov, A. (2005). On the side of Buhara. Rodina journal, 5, 58.
Slotkin, R. (2005). Fiction for the purpose of history. Rethinking history, 9, 221-236.






Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 17
Appendix
Questionnaire

1. How old are you?
15-20
20-25
25-30
30-40
40-50
50-60
60 - ...


*
2. What is your nationality?

*
3. Where are you from?



4. Education (you can choose several answers) :
High School
College
Higher education
Name of the institution, faculty

5. Do you agree with the following statement? The textbooks of history of
Kazakhstan are credible sources.
Completely agree
Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 18
Agree
I don't know
Disagree
Completely disagree


*
6. Do you agree with the following statement? The historical textbooks had an
impact on my worldview.
Completely Agree
Agree
I don't know
Disagree
Completely disagree
Why?


*
7. Do you agree with the following statement? The history has an impact on the
relations between countries.
Completely agree
Agree
I don't know
Disagree
Completely disagree
*
8. Do you agree with the following statement? Other generations have a wrong
representation of the world.
Completely agree
Agree
I don't know
Disagree
Completely disagree

Fiction aspects in historical textbooks 19

*
9. How would you evaluate the level of your patriotism?
Very low
Low
Average
High
Very high
I don't know

10. Do you agree with the following statement? The collapse of Soviet Union had
positive consequences.
Completely Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Completely disagree