Alkei Margulan: the narrative of intellectual biography

Abstract

This article deals with a previously unknown subject of scientific intellectual biography of A.Kh. Margulan, known in the world of science as an archaeologist, creator of a scientific biography and collection of works of Ch. Valikhanov, as well as a collector and researcher of Kazakh folklore. The authors analyze the history of Alkei Margulan's participation in the discussion of the first fundamental research on the national history of the republic, “The History of the Kazakh SSR”. The article quotes excerpts from the speech of A.Kh. Margulan at the meeting of the Academic Council of the Institute of History of the USSR, in which he defended the concept of the book with arguments. The application of historical and biographical method in
the study allowed to use literary and artistic methods of presentation of the material, to give the subject of intellectual biography an emotionality and to form the author's position in assessing the personality of A.H. Margulan. Alkei Margulan's research on ancient, medieval and new history of the Kazakhs allowed to present the world of the Kazakh heroic epos to the contemporaries, to ensure the continuity of the history of the Kazakhs for several millennia. The article is based on the involvement of new identified archival sources and materials of the periodical press.