Nationhood and the minority question in Central Asia. The Russians in Kazakhstan

Abstract

This article aims to present the situation of the Russian minority in Kazakhstan and to stress the political, social and identity evolutions in this country since independence in 1991. It develops three main points: the non-homogeneous nature of Russians in Kazakhstan; the development of non-ethnic allegiances that could explain the failure of the local Russian political parties; and the difficulties the leaders have in choosing between the defence of the political rights and the cultural rights of the country's first minority. In order to examine these issues, this article focuses on a series of issues: the place of the national question in the Kazakh public debate; the process of linguistic and ethnic Kazakhisation; the political activities of the Russian minority; the Cossack issue and the stakes of autonomist claims; and, finally, the issue of emigration and the narrative of the ‘return’ to Russia.

Notes

¹For example, see the official publications on the Assembly: Istoricheskaya pamyat', natsional'noe soglasie i demokraticheskie reformy (1997); Natsional'noe soglasie (1999); and Dukhovno-kul'turnoe razvitie naroda (2001).

²Author interviews with the cultural centres' administrative heads at the Assembly of Peoples, Almaty, March 2000, May 2003, February 2005.

³For comparison at the beginning of the 1990s, see Kolstø (1995) and Shlapentokh (1994).

⁴The Cossack Ermak led one of the most important Russian expeditions against the Siberian khanate in 1579, supported by the rich Stroganov family. Although he was killed in action in 1585, his victory signalled the beginning of the conquest of Siberia by Ivan the Terrible.

⁵ Lad, 5, 2001, p. 2.

⁶For instance, the association accepted to sign the agreement on social organisations and the political parties required by Nazarbayev in 1997 whereas Lad refused (Bunakov 1997, pp. 20 – 24).

⁷Information collected through interviews with several representatives of Lad and also available in the presentation of the party online, available at: www.zatulin.ru, accessed 15 December 2006.

⁸Field observations in Karaganda, Kokchetau, Kustanay, Pavlodar, Petropavlovsk, Semei, Ust-Kamenogorsk and Chymkent, February – March 2000 and May 2003.

⁹ Kazakhskaya pravda, 3, 2003, pp. 4 – 5.

¹⁰Interviews with G. Belyakov and V. Osvyannikov, Almaty, June 2000, and at the Assembly of Peoples, Almaty, May 2003.

¹¹ Lad, 8, 1994, p. 5.

¹²Interviews with the former ataman V. Sharonov, Ust-Kamenogorsk, February 2000.

¹³ Lad, 11, 1996, p. 6; interviews with the new ataman B. Tolmotdov, Ust-Kamenogorsk, February 2000.

¹⁴ Semirechenskii kazachii vestnik, 2, 1998, p. 11.

¹⁵For the figures on the already negative balance of migration in Kazhakstan at that time, see Suzhikov (1993, p. 139).

¹⁶ Lad, 1, 2003, p. 8.

¹⁷ Lad, 7, 1994, p. 3.

¹⁸ Lad, 8, 1995, p. 3.

¹⁹ Lad, 11, 2000, p. 3.

²⁰ Lad, 7 – 8, 2001, p. 6.

²¹ Lad, 12, 2000, p. 4.

²² Lad, 7, 1996, p. 4.

²³ Russkoe slovo, 1, 1997, p. 10.

²⁴‘Rossiyan’, Kazakh stepnoi, 1, 2002, p. 2.

²⁵Interviews with Russians in Central Asia between 1999 and 2005.

²⁶ Lad, 12, 2000, p. 4.

²⁷ Soyuznaya gazeta, 3, 2001, p. 2.