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Notes
As used here, this term refers only to rule by members of an ethnic group other than one's own.
A recent example in an influential policy journal is Muller, “Us and Them.”
Analogously, Fearon and Laitin (“Explaining Interethnic Cooperation”) have argued that precisely the cases of non-conflict demonstrate the importance of intragroup policing in preventing ethnic violence.
This article thus contributes to a strain of theory noting the relationship between economics and secessionism. See, for example, Bookman, The Economics of Secession; Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict, 229–88; Mitra, “The Rational Politics of Cultural Nationalism.”
For elaboration of the perspective on ethnic identity employed here see Hale, “Explaining Ethnicity”; idem, The Foundations of Ethnic Politics.
Royce, Ethnic Identity.
Drobzheva, Istoriia Kazakhstana.
Ekspress, 4 July 1992, 3.
Collins, “Clans, Pacts”; idem, “The Logic of Clan Politics”; Davis and Sabol, “The Importance of Being Ethnic”; Schatz, Modern Clan Politics, 46–71.
Jones Luong, Institutional Change and Political Continuity; idem, “Politics in the Periphery.”
Schoeberlein-Engel, “Identity in Central Asia.”
This article follows Hechter (Containing Nationalism, 14) in using the term “nation” (and the associated term “national”) to refer to a territorially concentrated ethnic group.
Examples of such endeavors include: Dave, Kazakhstan; Olcott, The Kazakhs; Weller, Rethinking Kazakh and Central Asian Nationhood.
And subsequently relations between the independent state of Kazakhstan and other post-Soviet countries.
Authors as diverse as Royce (Ethnic Identity, 152, 156–57), Smith (“Introduction,” 9), and Barth (“Introduction”) all agree on the basic point that physical and linguistic differences are important in constituting group boundaries, although they differ on the degree of enduring value these markers have.
USSR census 1989.
Dave, “Entitlement through Numbers.”
At first, the emerging Soviet state labeled them “Kirghiz” (but still distinguished them from the “Kara-Kirghiz,” the people now known as Kyrgyz).
Hirsch, Empire of Nations; Martin, Affirmative Action Empire; Slezkine, “How a Socialist State”; Suny, The Revenge of the Past.
See Laitin, Identity in Formation.
On intermarriage, which the Soviet government particularly encouraged in its later decades with some limited success, see Edgar, “Marriage, Modernity”; Gorenburg, “Rethinking Interethnic Marriage.”
Critchlow, Nationalism in Uzbekistan; d'Encausse, Decline of an Empire; Lemercier-Quelquejay, “Le monde musulman sovietique”; Olcott, The Kazakhs; Suny, Armenia in the Twentieth Century.
For an analysis of historical events from both the Soviet and pre-Soviet periods impacting Kazak identity see Crowe, “The Kazakhs and Kazakhstan.”
The term “Kazakh” is used here as a shorthand even though this nomenclature was far from universal at the time.
Pianciola, “Famine in the Steppe,” 138; Drobzheva, Istoriia Kazakhstana.
Buttino, “Politics and Social Conflict.”
The most famous work on the subject is Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow.
Pianciola, “Famine in the Steppe.” Pianciola notes that the degree to which Kazakhs were fully nomadic had dropped significantly between the late 1890s and the 1920s due largely to the immigration of Slavic settlers and other economic changes promoted by the Russian Imperial state.
Khazanov, “Ethnic Problems,” 246–47.
Werner et al., “Comparative Perceptions of Risk.”
Vedomosti Kazakhskoi SSR 1990, articles 395, 398.
Aiaganov, “Dekabr',” 2; Akiner, The Formation of Kazakh Identity, 45; Drobzheva, Istoriia Kazakhstana, 311.
Asylbekov, “O Sotsial'noi,” 44.
Dave, “National Revival in Kazakhstan.”
Kazakh-language media have typically taken on a more nationalistic slant in their coverage and analysis. Nevertheless, even into the 1990s most ethnic Kazakhs relied on Russian-language media for information (Schatz, Modern Clan Politics, 80–81).
Asylbekov, “O Sotsial'noi,” 45.
Sovety Kazakhstana, 13–19 August 1990, 2.
Sovety Kazakhstana, 4 December 1992, 2.
Sovety Kazakhstana, 13–19 August 1990, 2.
Werner et al., “Comparative Perceptions of Risk.”
Ekspress, 4 July 1992, 3.
Leninskaia Smena, 24 May 1990, 2.
Leninskaia Smena, 15 May 1990, 1.
Aiaganov, “Dekabr',” 2.
The Kazakh capital from 1991 to 1997 was called Alma-Ata at first, but was soon renamed Almaty. In 1997, Kazakhstan moved its capital to Akmola, known as Tselinograd during Soviet times. This city was then given its current name, Astana. On these changes see Huttenback, “Whither Kazakhstan?”; Wolfel, “North to Astana.”
Aiaganov, “Dekabr',” 2.
Asylbekov, “O Sotsial'noi,” 43; Aiaganov, “Dekabr',” 2.
Akiner, Formation of Kazakh Identity, 55.
Janabel, “When National Ambition,” 10, 21; Aiaganov, “Dekabr',” 2; Asylbekov, “O Sotsial'noi,” 43.
Kunaev (O moem vremeni, 267–83) himself, accused of fomenting the discord, denies any role in this in his memoirs and claims that the protesters had no nationalist bent, but were instead protesting Kolbin's own incompetence. Both Gorbachev (Zhizn' i reformy, 497–98) and Kolbin, however, reported that Kunaev himself recommended that his replacement be an ethnic Russian owing to the lack of suitably qualified Kazakhs, at least raising the possibility that he set a “nationalist trap” for Gorbachev.
For one historian's account see Aiaganov, “Dekabr',” 2.
Ibid.; Olcott, “Kazakhstan,” 318–19.
On other republics see Hale, The Foundations of Ethnic Politics.
For example, Collier and Hoeffler, “On Economic Causes of Civil War.”
A sophisticated argument in this vein is Bukkvoll, “Astana's Privatized Independence.”
Hale, “Commentary on Kazakhstan.”
Idem, “The Parade of Sovereignties”; Treisman, “Russia's ‘Ethnic Revival.’”
USSR census 1989.
As Laruelle and Peyrouse warn, however, the Russian population in Kazakhstan was and is far from homogeneous. See their “Russkii vopros” for a thorough and subtle treatment of this community.
Dmitrieva, Regional'naia Ekonomicheskaia Diagnostika, 130–32.
Official in the division of macroeconomic research, Kazakh Academy of Sciences' Institute of Economics, author's interview, 25 April 1994.
Khazanov, “Ethnic Problems,” 249.
Ibid.
The media sources used in this discussion are Russian-language media, which constituted the primary source of information for both Kazakhs (especially Kazakhs in positions of economic or political authority) and Russians alike during the Soviet period. See Schatz, Modern Clan Politics, 80–81.
Birlesu, 25 April 1992, 4–5.
Kazakhstan: Ekonomika i Zhizn', no. 6, 1993, 30.
Asylbekov, “O Sotsial'noi,” 43.
Ekspress, 18 December 1992.
Aziia, no. 13, 1992, 13–14.
Sagers, “The Oil Industry,” 271; Millerd, “Global Oil Reserves,” 7.
Sagers, “The Oil Industry,” 271–72.
The other 15% was processed at the small Kazakhstan refinery at Atyrau.
Sagers, “The Oil Industry,” 274; Division of Macroeconomic Research interview.
Division of Macroeconomic Research interview.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Daily Report, 18 February 1994.
Author's interview.
The mere fact that polls were conducted on such a subject indicates that the subject was a matter of local interest.
“Ekh, Khorosho v Strane (Kakoi Zhe?) Zhit'!,” Karavan, February 1994—article given to the author in April 1994 without a more specific citation by the Giller Institute as a useful report on some of their most recent survey findings.
Author's interview, 19 April 1993.
A USSR-wide mass survey taken in 1991 by the reputable VTsIOM agency also revealed a strong correlation between relative levels of economic development as reflected in official statistics and the degree to which ordinary people perceived their own republic or region to be developed. See Hale, The Foundations of Ethnic Politics, Chap. 8.
For related points regarding perceptions of relative development and the sources of development see Schoeberlein-Engel, “Identity in Central Asia”; Suny, “Provisional Stabilities.”
On economic imperatives behind Kazakhstan's unionism see also Snyder, After Empire; Rumer, “Russia and Central Asia.”
Document, copy in possession of the author.
This according to Nazarbaev's advisor Sultan Sartaevich Sartaev, in Leninskaia Smena, 1 August 1990, 1.
Document, copy in possession of the author.
See Olcott, “Kazakhstan,” 322.
Yu. Startsev, co-president of the Yedinstvo movement and head of the laboratory NPO “Rudgeofizika,” in Gudok, 27 March 1991.
Vedomosti KazSSR, 1990, article 472a-XXII, 16–18.
Kazakhstanskaia Pravda, 19 March 1991, 1.
Sovety Kazakhstana, 26 April 1991, 1, 4–5.
Sovetskaia Kirgizia, 24 June 1990, 1, FBIS-SOV-90-137, 86–87.
Vedomosti KazSSR, 1991, articles 482–83, 58.
Vedomosti KazSSR, 1991, article 493, 67.
Vedomosti KazSSR, 1991, article 475, 43–54.
Sovety Kazakhstana, 23 November 1991, 1.
Sovety Kazakhstana, 2 November 1991, 1–2.
Sovety Kazakhstana, 23 November 1991, 1.
Nazarbaev, “Strategiia Stanovlenie i Razvitia Kazakhstana,” 5, 10.
Ibid., 4.
Ekspress, 25 August 1993, 4.
Sovety Kazakhstana, 3 February 1993, 1.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Daily Reports, 23 March 1994; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Daily Reports, 21 October 1994.
Sovety Kazakhstana, 17 February 1993, 1.
Sovety Kazakhstana, 23 October 1993, 1; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Daily Reports, 21 October 1994; author's interview in the division of foreign economic ties, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 6 May 1994.
Aziia, no. 26, 1992, 3; Sovety Kazakhstana, 3 February 1993, 1.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Daily Reports, 21 October 1994.
Aziia, no. 25, 1993, 2.
Ekspress, 9 November 1991, 1; Nazarbaev, “Strategiia Stanovlenie i Razvitia Kazakhstana,” 5. His prime minister issued related statements in an interview in Aziia, no. 25, 1993, 2.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Daily Reports, no. 4, 1993.
Biulleten' Mezhdunarodnykh Dogovorov, no. 5, 1993, 77–78.
Sovety Kazakhstana, 27 July 1993.
Sovety Kazakhstana, 23 October 1993.
Ibid.
Ekspress, 15 October 1993, 4.
The Moscow Times, 4 November 1993.
Kasymov and Vas'kin, Osnovnye Napravlenniia, 40.
Karavan, 8 October 1993. Poll conducted by the Giller Institute.
Izvestia, 6 November 1993.
For example, Nezavisimaia Gazeta, 16 January 1997, 1, 3. See also Bukkvoll, “Astana's Privatized Independence.”
Nezavisimaia Gazeta, 29 March 1997, 3; RFE/RL Newsline, 19 January 1998; RFE/RL Newsline, 29 April 2003.
RFE/RL Newsline, 9 April 2003.
Kadyrzhanov, “Ethno-nationalism and Problems of Nation-Building.” On cadre policy under Nazarbaev more generally see Cummings, Kazakhstan.
Davis and Sabol, “The Importance of Being Ethnic”; Olcott, Kazakhstan.
Schatz (“Framing Strategies”), who stresses the importance of state strategies for framing contradictory practices and preserving inter-ethnic peace in Kazakhstan, characterizes Nazarbaev's frame as “internationalism with an ethnic face.” On Nazarbaev's treatment of Russians and Kazakhs see also Bremmer and Welt, “The Trouble with Democracy in Kazakhstan,” 188; Davis and Sabol, “The Importance of Being Ethnic”; Laruelle and Peyrouse, “Russkii vopros.”
He affirms this in an interview with Aziia, no. 13, 1992, 14.
Bremmer and Welt, “The Trouble with Democracy in Kazakhstan,” 184–85.
Khazanov, “Ethnic Problems,” 248.
Aiaganov, “Dekabr',” 2; Khazanov, “Ethnic Problems,” 255; Bremmer and Welt, “The Trouble with Democracy in Kazakhstan,” 188; Altoma, List of Deputies, 2. Bremmer and Welt (193) report that Russians were again underrepresented in the candidate field in the 1995 elections, although their share did improve slightly with 25% of the nominees.
Peyrouse, “Nationhood and the Minority Question.”
Laruelle and Peyrouse, “Russkii vopros,” 103–62.
Vedomosti KazSSR, 1991, article 622, 55–59.
Bremmer and Welt, “The Trouble with Democracy in Kazakhstan,” 183.
Ekspress, 18 December 1992.
Nazarbaev, “Strategiia Stanovlenie i Razvitia Kazakhstana,” 5.
Vedomosti KazSSR, 1991, article 622, 55–59.
For some personal experiences see Janabel, “When National Ambition.”
Sovety Kazakhstana, 23 October 1993, 1.
Peyrouse, “The Imperial Minority,” 107.
Kolsto (“Anticipating Demographic Superiority”) concurs that this was desired but is less certain that this was actively promoted.
Dave, “Entitlement through Numbers.”
A thorough treatment of these initiatives and their meaning is Fierman, “Language and Identity in Kazakhstan.”
Olcott, “Kazakhstan,” 320.
This from Bazar Damitov, first deputy head of the division of internal policy of the Presidential Apparat, in his interview with Sovety Kazakhstana, 13–19 August 1990, 2.
Ibid.
Bremmer and Welt, “The Trouble with Democracy in Kazakhstan,” 183.
On tensions in Kazakhstan's Russian-populated regions see, for example, Commercio, “The Pugachev Rebellion.”
The strong correlation between levels of economic development and separatism among ethnically designated regions in the USSR is documented in Hale, “The Parade of Sovereignties.”
Olcott, Central Asia's Second Chance.
Hale, The Foundations of Ethnic Politics.
In the sense of Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed.
Hechter, Containing Nationalism.