Interpretation of History and Nation Building in Kazakhstan: Official Historiography and Ethnic Narratives

History plays an essential role in the development of a state. Today, the approach to historical science and its purposes are changing, the ethnic factor is being added to it, and the social, cultural and spiritual part of the historical past is being studied. New approaches help to establish a comprehensive picture of a people's history. The relevance of the study is explained by the necessity of establishing a comprehensive historical model of Kazakhstan. The novelty consists in combining official, state history and ethnic narratives, i.e. the socio-cultural dimension. The history of Kazakhstan as a state has gone through many historical vicissitudes, as has the history of the peoples inhabiting its territory. Thus, to search for a general historical past, both political and economic history, i.e. state history, ethnic narratives, cultural and social history, is combined. The combination of these two approaches facilitates the interpretation of the historical past of the region and answers the questions that are acute in the contemporary world, such as those of nationhood, identity and state consciousness. The study considers methods and theories of interpretation of Kazakh history, the official historiography on which textbooks are written, and several studies presenting "alternative" history where authors focus on issues of ethnicity. The study also examines such crucial concepts as Russification and Kazakhisation and issues of nation-building and nationalism. The research has promoted the conclusion that, at the present stage, state historiography includes quite a few ethnic components, there is a parallel national school of history working in the field of "alternative" history.