From nomadic communitarianism to civil socialism: Searching for the roots of civil society in rural Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

This article explores the environmental, historical and cultural factors that influence civic engagement among rural communities in contemporary Kazakhstan. It traces how forms of nomadic communitarianism as a response to the vicissitudes of life on the open Steppe merged with the imposed collectivism of Soviet society in such a manner that the two were able to coexist together in both policy and practice. Drawing on fieldwork among a number of villages in South Kazakhstan, we argue that, together, the nomadic and Soviet pasts still constitute the core values at work in rural communities, influencing the structure of local power relations and the nature of group association and cooperative venture. Rather than disappearing, these values, if anything, are re-emerging as part of an attempt to legitimise Kazakh culture as the core identity of the modern nation state.

KEYWORDS:

• Kazakhstan
• civil society
• nomadism
• collectivism
• rural studies
• identity

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grant number: NE/J019844/10).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. On the absence of a civil society in the Soviet Union, see Patricia Carley (1995) and Roger Kangas (1995).

2. Many scholars disagree with Putnam's conclusions. For an overview of such criticisms, see Stolle and Hooghe (2005).

3. An important exception are the INTRAC reports on Central Asia. For Kazakhstan, see Giffen et al. (2005) and Zhumabekov (2005).

4. Established in 1925 as an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, it became one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936.

5. Perestroika was a movement for social, political and economic reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under General Secretary Mikael Gorbachev during the 1980s.

6. According to the World Bank, 43% of Kazakhstan's total population was rural in 2017, compared to 56% in 1960. See: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS.

7. The population density of South Kazakhstan oblast is 23.5 people km² compared to 8.5 people km² in Almaty oblast.

8. In contemporary urban Kazkh culture, uiat denotes the shame incurred by inappropriate public behaviour such as couples kissing in public places, not giving up your seat to an older person on public transport, or especially women acting/dressing immodestly. There is a very popular fictional character on the internet called Uiatman who shames girls and boys who behave in an inappropriate manner.

9. For a personal account of the hardships that ensued from the ruthless way in which the collectivization policy was carried out, see Shayakhmetov (2006).

10. Glasnost was the policy or practice initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev from 1985 of more open consultative government and wider dissemination of information.

11. Kazakhs and Uzbeks were commonly referred to as Kirgiz during both the czarist and early Soviet periods.