The article examines, on the basis of documents and investigative materials of the special state archive of the Shymkent city Police Department and other archival materials of the regional archive, the Karatass Ishan innocently persecuted during political repression in Soviet Kazakhstan. In addition, the author analyzes the repressive policy of the Soviet system against religion, the Ishan mullah, as well as the long-suffering fate of representatives of massively punished religious figures in the southern region. Significant attempts are also being made to differentiate between fabricated criminal cases brought against mullahs.

A list of Mullahs exiled to the south is given, and researchers seek to form a new historical view on this topic. In addition, the article makes a corresponding analysis of anti-religious articles published in the newspaper «Ak Zhol» of that period, and also presents the memoirs of the descendants of Mullah Ishan. The identified set of retrospective documents is represented by personal letters, handwritten autobiographies, etc. For the most part, the discovered letters have the status of a handwritten original, with rare exceptions, translations of letters from Latin and Kazakh are represented by a typewritten certified copy. The materials of the article provide an opportunity to study the legal and political foundations, as well as specific mechanisms of repressive policy in relation to various categories of victims of mass repression.