Ethno-social processes in post-Soviet Eastern Kazakhstan
Guzhvenko Julia, Barnaul State Pedagogical University, guzhvenko@eth.mpg.de
Introduction: ethno-social specificities of Eastern
Kazakhstan
Ethnic and/or social tension?
The researches about ethnic problems and national policy in
post-Soviet Central Asia testify that authors tend to exaggerate
role and importance of ethnicity in everyday life in Kazakhstan[2].
Study of imagination on interethnic relations between Kazakhs
and Russians, the inhabitant’s reaction on economic reforms,
linguistic policy might reveal diverse factors which influence on
social tensions and conflicts in Eastern Kazakhstan. The most
important point is to define when social contradictions are
transmuted in ethnic ones, that is not only interethnic antagonism
“Russians – Kazakhs”, but also contradiction between different
social groups within one ethnic group “urban Kazakhs – rural
Kazakhs”.
Eastern Kazakhstan is an important border area. This region is
populated by two main ethnic groups – Kazakhs and Russians.
Eastern Kazakhstan can be clearly distinguished from other
Kazakhstan’s regions by its economic profile and by the fact that
before the collapse of the Soviet Union it was unofficially considered
as a “Russian” region. Russian-speakers in soviet time occupied the
labour market in the urban territory and they were the predominant
ethnic group in the towns. The Kazakhs living in the rural territory,
had lower level of education then the Russians. After the collapse of
SSSR the ethno-social structure of the population in this region has
considerably changed due to three waves of migration: immigration
of Russian population, emigration of oralmans (ethnic Kazakhs from
other countries) to Kazakhstan, internal migration of rural population
within the region to urban centers such as Ust-Kamenogorsk and
Semipalatinsk.
Ethnic structure of Eastern Kazakstan (data of 1999 sensus)
Germans, 2.1%
Ukrainians, 1.1%
Russians, 45.4%
Kazakhs, 48.5%
Kazakhs
Russians
Ukrainians
Germans
Scientific Approach
My research is based on E. Gellner’s conception of modernization
which is postulated that there is only three stages of development of
a society (hunter-gather, agrarian and industrial societies). In E.
Gellner’s opinion in periods when transition from an agrarian society
to an industrial one occurs nationalism feelings intensify. He
underlines that the cruelest are those phases of nationalism which
accompany early industrialization. E. Gellner explains that in such
periods unstable social situation occurs and representatives of
nationalities different from the dominating one are accused for the
political, economical and educational inequality[1].
Fig. II New mosque in the center of Ust-Kamenogorsk
Significance
Fig. I New bridge in Semipalatinsk which was constructed in 1999
After the breaking down of the Soviet Union rural Kazakhs started to
migrate in urban centers because of an economic and agrarian
crisis. From that moment one generation of Kazakhs have grown up
with soviet education and they were able to work and study in
towns. In other words, the Kazakh population have entered in the
industrial type of society. Kazakhs started to occupy the labour
niches which had been Russian-speaker’s prerogative before. This
process sharply intensifies nationalistic feelings.
The exploration of the ethno-social processes and interethnic
relations in Eastern Kazakhstan is much-requested in face of the
fact that in 2007 president Putin have initiated a program with the
goal to attract Russians from abroad to migrate to Russia. The
borderland of Eastern Kazakhstan and its ethnic specificities allow
considering the region as a potential donor region for Russia (in
2005 statistics showed 43% Russians in Eastern Kazakhstan). The
possible emigration of the Russian-speaker population from Eastern
Kazakhstan might “play” a significant role in the demographic
development of Russia’s border region.
References
Acknowledgement
Gellner E. Nations and nationalism. M., 1991 Геллнер Э. Нации и национализм.
М.: Прогресс, 1991
2 Alaolmolki N. Life after the Soviet Union: the new independent republics of
Transcaucasus and Central Asia. State University of New York, 2001; Tishkov V.
Ethnicity, nationalism and conflict in and after The Soviet Union. London, 1997
This research project has been supported by a Marie
Curie Early Stage Research Training Fellowship of
the European Community’s Sixth Framework Programme under contract number MEST-CT-2005020702 within the project European Partnership for
Qualitative Research Training (Social Anthropology).
1
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/mariecuriesocanth/