FARIDA ALLAHVERDIYEVA

Lecturer at Baku State University

[email protected]

 

THE SCHOLARLY AND CULTURAL OBJECTIVES OF THE

1926 BAKU TURKOLOGICAL CONGRESS AND THEIR “PAN-TURKIST” INTERPRETATION IN SUBSEQUENT SOVIET POLITICAL DISCOURSE

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36719/2708-065X/114/61-70

 

The First Turkological Congress, held in Baku in 1926, represented one of the important stages in scholarly discussions concerning the linguistic, literary, educational, and cultural development of the Turkic peoples in the early twentieth century. On the eve of the centenary of the Congress, examining this event not only in terms of the development of Turkological scholarship but also within the context of the interaction between the national-cultural and political ideas of the period has acquired particular relevance. This article comparatively analyzes the scholarly and cultural objec­tives of the 1926 Baku Turkological Congress and the “Pan-Turkist” interpretation subsequently constructed in Soviet political discourse with regard to the Congress and its participants.

The study examines the formation and changing meanings of the ideas of Turkism, Pan-Tur­kism, and Turanism from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, with particular attention to the methodological problems arising from the conflation of these concepts. At the same time, it explores the national-cultural activities of Turkic-Muslim intellectuals in the Russian Empire, debates surrounding language and alphabet reform, initiatives aimed at fostering cultural rapprochement among Turkic peoples, and their role in shaping the intellectual and political context of the 1926 Congress. Based on the Congress agenda, speeches, and adopted resolutions, the study establishes that its principal objectives were related to the development of Turkological scholarship, the discus­sion of language and alphabet issues, and the expansion of educational and cultural cooperation.

The article also examines the relationship between Turkism and the Islamic factor, analyzing the place of national and religious identities in the intellectual thought of Turkic-Muslim intellectuals of the period. It further investigates the use of the accusation of “Pan-Turkism” in political discourse and repressive practices, particularly during the 1930s. Accordingly, the study seeks to identify the differences between the Congress’s original scholarly and cultural agenda and its subsequent Soviet political interpretation. The research demonstrates that an assessment of the historical significance of the 1926 Baku Turkological Congress requires distinguishing between the scholarly, national-cultural, and political contexts of the period in which it was held and the ideological interpretations subsequently attributed to the event.

Keywords: Baku Turkological Congress, Turkism, Pan-Turkism, Turanism, Islamic factor, Turkic-Muslim intellectuals, Soviet political discourse, national identity.