51����

Historical memory takes us back to the difficult 1930s and 1940s of the 20th century, a period that intertwined the lofty heroism of the labor enthusiasm of the builders of the "new order – socialism" with the tragic paradigms of the Stalinist regime, which resulted in deprivation and death for hundreds of thousands of people. During these challenging years, the needs of Kazakhstan's economic and cultural development urgently raised the issue of forming a qualified personnel potential, with the training of history specialists being a crucial component of this process. Shortly after the founding of the Kazakh State University, the Academic Council decided on April 17, 1934, to organize a Faculty of History, and the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR gave its principal consent. However, due to a number of reasons, including an incomplete teaching staff, a lack of учебные помещения (study rooms), and dormitories for students, the opening of the Faculty of History was postponed. Nevertheless, the issue remained on the agenda, as the need for highly qualified history specialists was significant; they were lacking not only for schools and higher educational institutions of the republic but also for research institutions in Kazakhstan.

During the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War, on the initiative of KazSU and with the support of the renowned academician A.M. Pankratova, the People's Commissariat of Education of the Kazakh SSR decided to reorganize the Faculty of Philology into the Faculty of History and Philology starting in September 1943, with a planned enrollment of 30 students in the history department. "The opening of this department," stated the KazSU report, "was timely and extremely necessary to meet the cultural needs of Kazakhstan; the department is beginning to provide qualified personnel."

By order of the Ministry of Higher Education of January 6, 1948, No. 19, the history department was transformed into an independent faculty on September 1, 1948, with a structure that then included three departments: History of the USSR, World History, and History of the Kazakh SSR.

The Department of History of the USSR was organized back in 1938. The first head of the department for the academic year was Professor Vladimir Evgenievich Favorsky. From 1939 to 1951, the department was headed by Professor Sergei Nikolaevich Pokrovsky.

S.N. Pokrovsky invested much effort and energy in organizing the history department, and later the faculty, in forming the department's staff, in improving the scientific qualifications and pedagogical skills of teachers, and in establishing the educational process at the faculty.

In 1941-1944, Professor Nikolai Makarovich Pakul worked at the department; from 1940 until his conscription into the army in 1941, lecturer of the Almaty Regional Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Kazakhstan, Abo Arkadievich Lozinsky, worked part-time. In 1946, he was demobilized and reinstated as a senior lecturer in the department. In 1942, M.B. Akhinzhanov worked in the department, followed by A.A. Goryacheva from 1945, and K.P. Korzheva from 1946. This was the composition of the department at the time of the transformation of the history department into a faculty, and it provided lectures on the history of the USSR and world history.

In the year of the transformation of the history department into a faculty, the two departments, History of the USSR and World History, were separated. Professor S.N. Pokrovsky continued to head the Department of History of the USSR until his election as an academician and chairman of the Department of Social Sciences in 1951. Subsequently, he began working part-time. The heads of the departments were associate professors: M.B. Akhinzhanov (1951-1952), N.P. Kalistratov (1952-1957), N.N. Daulbaev (1957-1964), T.A. Naizagarin (1964-1968), Prof. S.B. Zhantuarov (1968-1971), Prof. N.N. Daulbaev (1971-1981), Prof. S.K. Zhakupbekov (1981-1995), and Prof. M.K. Koigeldiev (1995-2003).

In the 1948-1949 academic year, the department had a staff of 6 people, including 1 professor, 1 candidate of historical sciences, 3 senior lecturers, and 1 assistant.

In 1992, the Department of History of the USSR was first reorganized into the Department of History of the CIS (headed by Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor S.K. Zhakupbekov), and then in 1994, into the Department of Modern and Contemporary History of Kazakhstan (headed by Doctors of Historical Sciences, Professors M.K. Koigeldiev and K.S. Karazhan).

The university administration created favorable conditions for improving the qualitative and quantitative composition of the department. Thus, in 1949, N.N. Daulbaev defended his candidate's dissertation, and A.A. Goryacheva was sent to a one-year postgraduate program at Moscow State University, where she defended her dissertation in 1952. Graduates were retained for teaching positions: I.G. Pichugin, M.F. Puzikov, T.A. Naizagarii, Kh.Kh. Khabiev, and S.K. Zhakupbekov. They not only successfully conducted academic work but also improved their scientific qualifications. In different years, candidate's dissertations were defended by I.G. Pichugin, S.K. Zhakupbekov, Kh.Kh. Khabiev, K.L. Kosshanov, M.K. Ermakova, and postgraduate student R.F. Smirnova.

The structure of the faculty has always adapted to the spirit of the times and the tasks at hand. If in the 1970s and 1980s we observe an expansion of specialization and an increase in the number of departments, then in the first decade of the 21st century, we can see a process of optimization of departments. This is primarily due to the fact that the university, in its strategic development, placed the main emphasis on the transition to a research university. Having abandoned all pedagogical specialties at the bachelor's level, the university began to pay more attention to the training of professional researchers – master's and PhD programs.

In different years, prominent educators and scientists worked as deans of the faculty, including: senior lecturer A.A. Lozinsky (1948-1949); associate professors: M.B. Akhinzhanov (1949-1951 and 1957), N.N. Daulbaev (1951-1952), A.A. Goryacheva (1952-1956), A.N. Nurkanov (1960-1962), S.M. Kenzhebaev (1962-1964), S.K. Zhakupbekov (1964-1966), A.A. Chupekov (1966-1972), D.I. Dulatova (1972-1977), U.Kh. Shalekenov (1977-1985), E.A. Kuznetsov (1986-1987), K.T. Zhumagulov (1987-1991, 2001-2002), K.S. Karazhan (1991-1993), G.Sh. Zhambatyrova (1993-1995), K.N. Burkhanov (1995-2000), M.K. Koigeldiev (2000-2001), Altaev A.Sh. (2008-2010), (2002-2008, 2010-2014) - Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Zh.K. Taimagambetov, (2014-2016) – Associate Professor A.Қ. Zhumadil, (2016-2021) – Candidate of Historical Sciences, Acting Professor M.S. Nogaibaeva, (2021-present) – Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Baigunakov Dosbol Suleimenovich.

If there were thirty students studying in the history department in the 1943-1944 academic year, by the time the department was transformed into a faculty, there were 305 students.

In 1948, the first graduation of 18 history specialists took place.

In the first 1948-1949 academic year, the faculty employed 10 teachers, including 1 professor, 7 senior lecturers, 1 assistant, and 3 part-time teachers.

The Faculty of History has always strived to respond to all demands of social practice. Thus, the following were opened: in 1948, an extramural department; in 1962, an evening department; and in 1963, a special department training history specialists with knowledge of English, German, and French. In 1965, "in order to further improve the training of history teachers for Kazakh schools," a Kazakh department was opened with a planned intake of 25 people. Subsequently, departments were created on the basis of which faculties were organized. Thus, in 1964, a philosophy department was opened, and in 1966, a political economy department, on the basis of which the Faculty of Philosophy and Economics was organized. In 1989, through the efforts of the teaching staff of the Faculty of History and the Faculty of Philology (based on the departments of the two faculties), the Faculty of Oriental Studies was formed. Based on the Department of International Relations opened at the faculty in 1993, the Faculty of International Relations was opened in 1995, whose teaching staff was mainly represented by the teaching staff of the Faculty of History.

Since its formation, the Faculty of History has become a recognized center for the training of highly qualified specialists in the fields of national and foreign history, archeology and ethnology, museum studies and the protection of monuments, archival science, researchers, teachers of general education schools, lyceums, colleges, and universities, employees of the state apparatus and the diplomatic corps. The majority of researchers at the Ch. Valikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology, the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Central State Archive of Kazakhstan, state regional archives, central and regional museums, and republican ministries are graduates of the Faculty of History. They work in socio-humanitarian departments in almost all universities of Kazakhstan. Among the graduates of the Faculty of History of different years are well-known scientists, academicians and corresponding members of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan: M.K. Kozybaev, G.F. Dakhshleiger, R.B. Suleimenov, K.N. Nurpeisov, A.R. Akhmetov, M.Kh. Asylbekov, Doctors of Historical Sciences, Professors S.K. Zhakupbekov, Sh.A. Kusanova, Zh.O. Ibrashev, A.S. Takenov, T.B. Balakaev, K.S. Karazhan, K.T. Zhumagulov, A.K. Kusainov, Kh.A. Argynbaev, K.A. Akishev, A.V. Soloviev, P.S. Belan, T.S. Sadykov, Zh.K. Kasymbaev, M.K. Abuseitova, M.Zh. Abdirov, A.Sh. Altaev, S.M. Mashimbaev, Zh.K. Taimagambetov, T.A. Toleubaev, O.Kh. Mukhatova. The names of many graduates of the Faculty of History representing the scientific, political, and business elite of modern Kazakhstan are known in the republic. Among them are: B.K. Sultanov, M.E. Erman, A.V. Volkov, K.I. Zhigalov, K.K. Abuseitov, K. Abdrakhmanov, and others.

Over the years of its development, the teaching staff of the Faculty of History has grown both qualitatively and quantitatively, formed both by invited scientists and educators and, mainly, by the training and advanced scientific qualification of its first teachers and faculty graduates. Significant assistance was provided by leading professors and teachers from Moscow State University and Leningrad State University, who consulted and supervised dissertation works. Thus, doctoral and candidate dissertations were defended at Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov by: D.I. Dulatova, A.A. Goryacheva, K.P. Korzheva, A.N. Zaikin, R.K. Kairgeldin, V.A. Nabatova, K.T. Zhumagulov, G.Sh. Zhambatyrova. And in Novosibirsk, at the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Taimagambetov Zh.K. successfully defended his doctoral dissertation.

Professors S.N. Pokrovsky and K.B. Bekmakhanov, associate professors M.B. Akhinzhanov, A.A. Goryacheva, and K.P. Korzheva, who worked since the foundation, as well as professors Ya.D. Serovaisky and N.N. Daulbaev, associate professors A.N. Zaikin and L.S. Frishman, and associate professors who graduated from our faculty: I.G. Pichugin, R.F. Smirnova, S.K. Zhakupbekov, Kh.Kh. Khabiev, R.K. Kairgeldin, B.D. Darishev, A.A. Chupekov, K.I. Iskakova, Zh.U. Ibrashev, A.S. Takenov, G.N. Semenyuk, K.L. Kosmanov, and M.K. Ermakova played a major role in the development and formation of the faculty.

Prominent historians of Kazakhstan were invited to give special courses, conduct seminars, and supervise diploma theses, including Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR A.N. Nusupbekov, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan R.B. Suleimenov, B.S. Suleimenov, G.F. Dakhshleiger, and Doctors of Historical Sciences: A.S. Elagin and G. Abishev. Associate professors of the Abai Kazakh Pedagogical Institute A.P. Chizhov and Muratovsky worked part-time at the faculty.