The Soviet and the Post-Soviet: Street Names and National Discourse in Almaty

Abstract

While discussing Kazakhstan's post-Soviet identity, scholars treat ‘Kazakhisation’ as a given, and the substance of the process of developing such an identity is usually ignored. This article gives an insight into this process by analysing the politics of street names in Almaty and its relation to collective memory in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. It is argued that the so-called ‘Kazakhisation’ of the country has been shaped primarily by the Soviet legacy, and it is in no sense pursuing the elimination of the Soviet past, or moving essentially anti-Russian lines. In fact, the post-Soviet discourse of the Kazakh nation is not a rupture but a continuation of Soviet discourses.

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1 ‘A Central Almaty Street Gets a New Name: Nursultan Nazarbaev Avenue’, RFE/RL, 30 November 2017, available at: https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-nazarbaev-street-almaty-furmanov/28888004.html, accessed 2 February 2018.

2 Kazakh intellectual and political movement active in the late Tsarist era. The movement used the press in their attempt to create a public space in the steppe and established the Alash Orda Party in 1905. As the party's dominant tendency was liberal-nationalist, Alash members allied with Russian Kadets in the Duma. Following the October Revolution, they founded the autonomous Alash Orda government in 1917. On 11 June 1920, Alash Orda merged with the Kirghiz Revolutionary Government.

3 ‘Kazakhisation’ is an ambivalent term. It may suggest a transition from a non-Kazakh to a Kazakh state, or a rupture between Soviet and post-Soviet identities. The nature of the Soviet nationalities policies, specifically the policy of korenizatsiya, is much more complex than this simplistic interpretation. Despite these criticisms, I use the term because it has gained popularity in the literature. I should also note that this article is not about demographic Kazakhisation or Kazakhisation at the administrative level. Scholars have studied various aspects of these processes (Karin & Chebotarov 2002; Diener 2005; Panicciari 2012). The process of ‘Kazakhisation’ had started even before Kazakhstan became independent; see Stefany (2013).

4 It seems that many scholars implicitly assume multiculturalism is directly connected to a civic identity. However, the concept of civic identity requires at least a degree of weakening or relaxation of ethnic identifications and a blurring of ethnic boundaries, an unlikely prospect in today's Kazakhstan. Burkhanov (2017) shows clearly that the promotion of such an identity has received a hostile response from the public.

5 Who is a Kazakh, what is Kazakh tradition, and what belongs to Kazakh national culture is never questioned by either the regime or the nationalists. The disagreement emerges on the issue of how far Kazakh national culture should dominate politics, or how the government should treat other nationalities. According to Yessenova (2002), the tradition of shezhire (genealogy) effectively defines the concept of Kazakh identity, and although this tradition predated the Soviet era, Soviet nationality policies effectively continued the work of earlier Kazakh nationalists.

6 This is in line with how people in Central Asia tend to remember the Soviet past (Dadabaev 2015).

7 The Kazakh press started calling for a return to native toponyms in the last years of the Soviet Union, and in 1993 the Kazakh Parliament decided to replace Russian place-names with their originals in Kazakh. A republican level onomastics commission—O Respublikanskoi onomasticheskoi komissii pri Pravitel'stve Respubliki Kazakhstan—was established in 1998 as a consultative organ to prepare proposals for naming and renaming place names (‘Postanovlenie Pravitel'stva Respubliki Kazakhstan ot 21 aprelya 1998 goda No: 368’, available at https://online.zakon.kz/document/?doc_id=1009120, accessed 14 June 2019). Following this decision, city-level onomastics commissions began to proliferate.

8 Bi: Judicial and administrative authority in traditional Kazakh society. Comparable to qadi in other Muslim societies.

9 ‘Ikh imenami ulitsy nazvali’, Vechernii Almaty, 9 May and 22 June 2002.

10 For Almaty as an example, see Imangaliev and Tobaiakov (2001). Imangaliev (2013) covers Kazakh capitals of the twentieth century: Qyzyl-Orda, Almaty and Astana, providing an overview of 300 historical figures after whom streets have been named, in Kazakh, Russian and English.

11 Information about street names in Almaty during the imperial and Soviet periods is taken from Tuiakbaeva (2008), Buketova (2017), Maliar and Fel’d (1966), and Alma-Ata: Gorod, Raiony, Ulitsy (Alma-Ata, Nauka, 1989). I do not provide specific references for each street name (see the Appendix).

12 All dates about street names in parentheses give the year of commemoration, not the date of death of the person.

13 In December 2017, 42 new streets were to be named in Almaty. A newspaper article listed 12 people to be commemorated, including the Chechen opera artist Sultan Baisultanov, the Russian author and translator of Kazakh authors into Russian Ivan Shchegolikhin, the Kyrgyz celebrity Chingiz Aitmatov, the famous nineteenth-century city resident Egor Red’ko, the Kazakhstani scholar of German origin Gerol’d Bel’ger, the Khan Kenesary, and Kazakh heroes of the Soviet Union Talgat Begel’dinov and Sagadat Nurmagambetov (Kashteliuk 2017, pp. 6–7).

14 Certain transfers of street names help us understand attitudes towards Russian names. For example, while Zenkov Street was renamed after Kazakh folk literature character Aldar Köse, Andrei Zenkov, one of the most important architects of nineteenth-century Almaty (Vernyi), was not forgotten. His name was given to a street formerly known as Proleterskaya, a small but very central and symbolically important street because it passes through Panfilov Park, the site of the city's largest cathedral, and one of Zenkov's most significant works, today used as the Musical Instrument Museum. There were also name transfers for Kazakh figures; for example, Almaty's Altynsaryn Street was renamed after the Russian author Eduard Uspenskii and the name Altynsaryn transferred to a longer street formerly known as Pravda Street.

15 Gill (2004, p. 491) points out the significance of the city centre for post-socialist regimes.

16 Al-Farabi and Akhmet Yassawi are the two most important medieval figures who are embraced as Kazakhs or at least proto-Kazakhs. Yassawi Street, while on the city's periphery, is long. This is a legacy of the Soviet concept of autochthonism and nationalisation of medieval Central Asian history according to modern boundaries. See Bustanov (2014).

17 Today, in the centre of Shymkent, where the three bis are believed to have met, there is a large monument, Orda Basy, commemorating the event, comprising three statues. There are as yet no studies of the image of a bi and its place in the national imagination. I understand the bis to symbolise Kazakh unity. They are also presented as the great minds behind the great khans, and in this way, are used to deconstruct the image of Kazakhs as unsophisticated warriors.

18 The area between Abai–Töle Bi and Dostyq–Zheltoqsan streets is known as the ‘golden quarter’, as it was the nicest neighbourhood of the Soviet city. For the purposes of this article, the centre of Almaty covers a larger area.

19 Kazakhstan's Uyghur and Dungan populations are concentrated in the Almaty region.

20 Auezov's The Path of Abai is widely regarded as a key work in the Kazakh literary canon (Auezov 1942, 1947, 1952, 1956).

21 Unlike streets, most city districts are not named after historical figures. Auezov District was created in 1972, during the Soviet period. In 2014, a new district was named for the Batyr Nauryzbai. The other six city districts are Almaly, Alatau, Bostandyq, Zhetisu, Medeu and Turksib.

22 Furmanov has been described as someone who dedicated his life to Almaty and the Semireche region (Maliar & Fel’d 1966, pp. 29–30).

23 Red Army general Ivan Panfilov served in Central Asia throughout the 1920s and 1930s. According to the official history, his 28 guardsmen from the 316th Infantry Division that had been formed of soldiers from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (of various nationalities) fought against 50 German tanks for 4.5 hours during the Moscow defence in 1941. It turned into one of the most important Soviet legendary stories about the war. The authenticity of the story has been questioned by historians (Balmforth 2015).

24 Zhambyl became one of the most celebrated Stalinist poets in all Soviet Union and his statue remains at the top of the street named after him at the very centre of Almaty.

25 As of February 2018, there is an ongoing process of eradicating duplicate street names to prevent confusion.

26 Although the majority of Kazakh communists who perished during the Terror would be rehabilitated in the thaw years, the rehabilitation of Alash members had to wait until late 1980s.

27 Lack of commemoration or ambivalence towards the memory of the famine has attracted scholarly attention; see Kundakbayeva and Kassymova (2016). Compare this with the highly politicised and extensively commemorated Ukrainian and Irish famines (Noack et al. 2014).

28 Almatydagi Saiasi Qugyn-Sürgin Qurbandary Muzeii Gimaratsyz Qaldy, 2006, available at: https://www.azattyq.org/a/1168439.html, accessed 5 February 2018.

29 Saparov (2017) draws attention to the fact that the post-Soviet renaming process is a direct legacy of the Soviet practices.

30 Works on contemporary Kazakh identity use the term ‘national’ almost always as opposed to other ‘national’ cultures or groups. How culture or identity was nationalised from its obscure local, regional or tribal context goes unnoticed. For a promising exception, see Koch and White (2016). For a more contemporary example of nationalisation of a batyr in a different but related context see Jacobs (2010).

31 Known as the first modern Kazakh scientist. Valikhanov Street in Almaty is a relatively short, but a very central one. The Academy of Sciences that intersects Valikhanov Street is named after him too.

32 ‘Paryz ben Qaryz’, Egemen Qazaqstan, 24 February 2010.

33 ‘Alashtyn Ardaqty Azamaty: Mirzhaqyp Dulatovtyn 125 Zhyldyq Mereutoiy Atar Ötildi’, Aiqyn, 16 April 2010.

34 ‘Bökeikhanovtyn Bai Murasy Zharyq Kördi’, Aiqyn, 23 February 2010.

35 ‘Baurzhan Batyr’, Qazaq, 5 May–12 May 2010. For the only discussion of Momyshuly's legacy in the English language, see Schechter (2009).

36 One should also consider the Russian–Kazakh dimension of memory in Kazakhstan, which is beyond the scope of this article. Indeed, the rise of ‘Immortal Regiment’ parades on 9 May in recent years as an import from Russia makes it more complicated and crucial that it has the potential of challenging Kazakh national discourse about the war.

37 For a similar case in Turkmenistan, see Denison (2009).

38 In one respect, Almaty's city-text was Russian: the language used for street names was Russian, thus, Vosmoi Marta Street, not Segiz Nauryz. However, although the extensive use of personal names instead of Russian words creates the impression that Russian has been replaced by Kazakh, Russianised versions of street names are still heavily used.

39 For a short classification of Soviet place names see Peterson (1977).

40 See also, Alma-Ata: Gorod, Raiony, Ulitsy (Alma-Ata, Nauka, 1989).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mehmet Volkan Kaşikçi

Mehmet Volkan Kașikçi, Arizona State University School of Historical Philosophical and Religious Studies—History, Tempe, AZ 85287-4302, USA. Email: [email protected]