Paper short abstract:

History of the military units of Kazakhstan according to the materials Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense

Paper long abstract:

This study examines the history of military formations - rifle and cavalry divisions, as well as rifle brigades, which were formed on the territory of Kazakhstan during the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union (1941-1945). In total, during the war years in Kazakhstan, 16 divisions were formed (4 of them cavalry) and 7 rifle brigades, of which 5 were national, that is, the personnel consisted of Kazakhs. The source base of the article was the historical documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in which more than 20 archival funds containing materials on the history of Kazakhstani military formations were studied. Each of them has its own separate fund in this archive. In the course of research work in this archive, it was possible to find historical forms, combat characteristics and descriptions of the combat path of Kazakh divisions and brigades. This complex of archival sources makes it possible to recreate the history of the formation and combat path of more than half of Kazakhstan's military formations documented and in chronological order. The article used both general scientific and historical methods of research, among which the methods of archival search and archeography, comparative historical analysis, and comparative analysis should be especially noted.