«Turkic Historical Thought on the Eve of Repressions: The Significance of the First Turkological Congress of 1926»

The relevance of this study lies in the need to reassess the role of the First Turkological Congress of 1926 in the development of Turkic historical thought and the subsequent rupture caused by political repression. In the context of growing scholarly interest in intellectual history, collective memory, and repressed academic elites, this topic gains particular importance on the occasion of the centenary of the Congress. The research problem addressed in the article concerns the limited interpretation of the First Turkological Congress primarily as a linguistic or cultural forum, while its significance for the formation of Turkic historiography and historical consciousness has received insufficient attention. The Congress represented an important attempt to institutionalize Turkic humanities and to define common scholarly perspectives, many of which were later suppressed by ideological constraints. The aim of the study is to analyze the significance of the First Turkological Congress of 1926 for the development of Turkic historical thought on the eve of mass repression and to interpret it as one of the last relatively free stages of Turkic intellectual life in the early Soviet period. The methodological framework of the research is based on historical-analytical and historiographical approaches, allowing the Congress to be examined as an intellectual phenomenon within its broader socio-political context. Comparative analysis is also applied to assess the continuity and disruption of scholarly ideas before and after the repressive period. The main findings demonstrate that the First Turkological Congress played a crucial role in shaping the Turkic historical elite and scholarly agenda, while subsequent repression led to a significant loss of intellectual potential. The study concludes that revisiting the legacy of the Congress is essential for a deeper understanding of the historical development of the Turkic world.