The book was the first example of the academic history of Kazakh nation in the Soviet Union. The History of the Kazakh SSR was prepared in the city of Alma-Ata (now Almaty) by the group of the Soviet historians and was published in 1943. As everybody knows, in autumn 1941 a group of prominent historians was evacuated to the city of Almaty. Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences A. Pankratova, professors N. Druzhinin, A. Kuchkin, M. Vyatkin were among them. Five of them led by A. Pankratova expressed the wish to prepare a book on the history of Kazakhstan in conjunction with local scientists. It appeared that the book was included in the plans of the republican People’s Commissariat for Education. The result of their work was a book named "The History of the Kazakh SSR". Yermukhan Bekmakhanov was an author of the fourth chapter of the book telling about the national-liberation movement under the leadership of Kenesary Kasymov in the 19th century. This work was greatly valued by historians and even nominated for the Stalin Prize. However, after a while the work was strongly criticized by other Soviet scientists. For example, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences A. Yakovlev wrote a negative review of the book. Disputes concerning this book didn’t diminish over time. In 1948 in Almaty, the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR hosted 5-day debates. A transcript of the meeting was 552 pages. They are evidence that some scientists, especially those from Kazakhstan, attacked Bekmakhanov with the aim to destroy his works. Bekmakhanov was denounced as a "bourgeois-nationalist" for idealizing Kenesary’s uprising. A denouncing article on his work was published in the Pravda newspaper in 1950. On January 16, 1950 he was excluded from the Communist Party membership and dismissed from the university. One year later he was deprived of all degrees and titles. On September 5, 1952 Bekmakhanov was arrested in Novotroitsk and brought to Alma-Ata. Under article 58-10 of the Criminal Code, Yermukhan Bekmakhanov was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment in labour training camps. After the trial, he was sent to the city of Bodaybo, Irkutsk region. Under the influence of the criticism and debates on the first version of the book, its second edition entitled "The History of the Kazakh SSR" (updated and revised version) was published in 1949 edited by I. Omarov and A. Pankratova.
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