History of the underground youth group “Dvizhenie Kommunary” at the Karaganda State University in the years 1978-1980

Research article

Abstract

Social and political illusions generated during the “Khrushchev decade” by the exposure of the “personality cult” of I.V. Stalin, the thaw in socio-political life, which was enthusiastically accepted by Soviet society. This shift contributed to a surge of creative and socio-political activity, including among young people. Kazakh society was no exception. In the 1960s–80s, youth organizations emerged. They set various goals: from the struggle for freedom and democratization of the country to the national and cultural revival of the Kazakhs. Open and latent dissent became a certain marker of social development during the Khrushchev and Brezhnev periods. In the historiographical review, the authors examine the history of the study of dissent in the USSR. It is noted that dissenting youth of the Brezhnev period sought to introduce a new dimension into socio-political life, advocating for the harmonization of national traditions and a system of democratic values, and the promotion of universal human rights and freedoms. The relevance of the study is associated with the need to turn to fragments of microhistory, allowing us to understand how and why protest movements arose and manifested themselves, dissent, as a phenomenon that accumulated and formed a crisis background in the socio-political life of Soviet society in general and Kazakhstani society in particular. The article sets the goal: to study the history of the creation and functioning of the underground youth group “Dvizhenie Kommunary”, which arose at the Karaganda State University in 1978-1980. Based on archival documents (State Archives of the Karaganda Region, archives of the Karaganda University of the name of E.A. Buketov, etc.), interview materials with former members of the “Dvizhenie Kommunary”, the circumstances of the group's emergence, the leaders' positions, and its composition are revealed. The attempt of young people to fight against the negative manifestations (blat, shadow economy, corruption) that flourished during this period failed. The reasons for the emergence of this youth group in Central Kazakhstan were identified: regional characteristics of the environment, where many former political prisoners lived after the closure of the GULAG; the history of the family of the leader and members of the movement, whose parents survived political repression; students found themselves in the movement as representatives of the most educated and active youth group, dissatisfied with the contrast between the slogans proclaimed by the party and the realities of “developed socialism” (total deficit, theft and embezzlement, social injustice, privileges of the ruling nomenklatura, etc. began to actively manifest themselves in society). The circumstances of the confrontation between young people and the pressure from the authorities and security forces on the leaders and members of the group have been studied in sufficient detail, and the fates of the main figures in the “Dvizhenie Kommunary” have been tracked.