West Kazakhstan in the Second World War

In the Second World War, West Kazakhstan played an active role both at the front and home front. The region, located on the main transportation line of the production center established by the Soviet Union in the east, is also the closest part of Kazakhstan to the war line. While the Kazakhs took part in the important fronts of the war established under the Southern Ural Military District, they continued to produce for the front, especially in the industrial facilities evacuated from the west. Since the oil fields in the Caucasus were under the threat of occupation, oil production was shifted to the Ural-Emba field and transmitted to the west via oil railways and pipelines. The coastal ports of the Caspian Sea were used for transportation purposes. The newly established facilities and oil fields continued their economic activities during the post-war reconstruction period. Although national values were used as a propaganda element with a pragmatic approach during the war, the studies on the history of the Kazakh SSR were carried out without emphasizing nationality, in accordance with the purpose of creating Soviet citizens. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, both the Russian Federation and the independent Republic of Kazakhstan presented the archive documents of the years 1939-1945 to the use of researchers and a new page was opened in the history of war. Statistics and documents were started to be re-evaluated in an objective way, oral cultural works that were not written down were brought into Kazakh History and translated into various languages. These developments gave the opportunity to research the socio-cultural life of Western Kazakhstan with its military and economic contributions during the war. The information obtained has shown that the effects of this period include elements that make up the national history and identity of the independent Republic of Kazakhstan. In the study, besides the importance of West Kazakhstan in the Second World War, its place in the legacy of the independent Republic of Kazakhstan was examined in the context of the debates on the construction of national identity and modernization.