Foreign Publicists about Kazakhs: educational manual.- 9786010402683

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Al-FARABI KAZAKH NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

А. B. Alzhanova

FOREIGN PUBLICISTS ABOUT KAZAKHS Educational manual

Almaty «Kazakh University» 2013

UDK 070 BBK 76.01 А 43 Recommended by the Academic Council of the Faculty of Journalism and Publishing Council of Al-Farabi KazNU Reviewers: Assistant Professor Harriman Institute E. Ghuliano Columbia University. Department of Political Science Doctor of Philological Science, Professor in the Kazakh Ablai khan University of International Relations and World Languages T.V. Shevyakova Doctor of Historical Science, Professor in the Journalism Department of al-Farabi Kazakh National University S. K. Kozybaev

Alzhanova A.B. Foreign Publicists about Kazakhs: educational manual. А 43 – Almaty: Kazakh University, 2013. – P. 1. ISBN The educational manual is divided into three sections. The first section is devoted to the study of the Kazakh themes in the works of Western writers in the second half of the 19th century. The second section presents modern Kazakhstan. The third section presents an analysis of the social orientation of the publication. The book analyzes the research practices of individual scientists, groups of writers and historians. The book is recommended for journalism faculty and courses taught in English, as well as students interested in the history of Kazakhstan.

UDK 070 BBK 76.01 ISBN 978-601-04-0268-3

© Alzhanova A.B., 2013 © Al-Farabi Kazakh University, 2013

INTRODUCTION Actuality of studying publications about Kazakhstan abroad raises no doubts. Large number of scientific and popular science publications, dedicated to a Kazakh topic, have been published and continue appearing as of present moment, and students-journalists need to learn how to find their bearings in this information flow. This educational manual is not designed to fill in the gaps of general cultural knowledge, but it rather reflects a practical necessity being connected with solving acute present-day problems. Establishing and strengthening mutual understanding between nations is impossible without deep and thorough studying and knowing each other. Observations, reflection and understanding of Kazakhstani reality, history of Kazakh nation, in foreign sources, are ambiguous; however, such range of opinions, attitudes to Kazakhs, being different from Americans with their lifestyle, customs and traditions, represents significant interest since it provides an opportunity to see the immense Kazakh steppe and its residents with modern eyes and from different perspectives. Publications of American authors are very valuable in this regards. In number of cases foreigners tell about such events which would have remained a mystery for the latest generations without their findings. The objective of the suggested course “Foreign Publicists about Kazakhs” is to form students’ notion of the main tendencies of Western publicists’ development in the aspect of studying the Kazakh topic. The following tasks are planned to be solved during this course: – Research the main stages and directions for studying Kazakhstan in the USA; – Analyze works of several famous Western scientists; – Get acquainted with the complex of famous historic studies, articles and monographs; – Track effect of Western scientists’ works on the national science. The educational manual reviews both theoretical-methodological notions and research practice of certain scientists. The author tried al3

lotting some, especially important, tendencies in development of Kazakh topic abroad, addressing the most significant phenomena based on Western and local analytical literature predominantly of the end of 19th – beginning of 21th century and own research experience. The following scientists have made significant contribution into elaborating Kazakhstan’s historic and historiographic problems: S.D. Asfendiyarov, K. L. Esmagambetov, Ch. Laumulin, M. Laumulin, T. Beysembiev, Sh. K. Satpaeva and others. 19-21th centuries have demonstrated growing US interest towards Kazakhstan. Works of such authors as M. Olcott, W. Flierman, G. K. Morris, E. Skiller, B. Dave, S. Sabol confirm this fact, Alfred E. Hudson, C. Robbins, Weller, R. Charles, Nichol James P. Among, I. Svanberg recent works on empire in imperial Russia, see the articles in “Imperial Dreams,” Russian Review 53, 3 (July 1994): 331–81; Susan Layton, Russian Literature and Empire: Conquest of the Caucasus from Pushkin to Tolstoy; Yuri Slezkine, Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994); Richard Wortman, Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy, 2 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995, 2000); Theodore R. Weeks, Nation and State in Imperial Russia: Nationalism and Russification on the Western Frontier, 1863– 1917 (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1996); Daniel R. Brower and Edward J. Lazzerini, eds., Russia’s Orient: Imperial Borderlands and Peoples, 1700–1917 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997); Adeeb Khalid The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998); Jane Burbank and David Ransel, eds., Imperial Russia: New Histories for the Empire (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998); Robert P. Geraci, Window on the East: National and Imperial Identity in Late Tsarist Russia (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001); Geraci and Khodarkovsky, eds., Of Religion and Empire: Missions, Conversion, and Tolerance in Tsarist Russia (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001); Paul W. Werth, At The Margins of Orthodoxy: Mission, Governance, and Confessional Politics in Russia’s Volga-Kama Region, 1827–1905 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002); and Daniel Brower. Important studies of Russia as an empire had emerged, of course, beforehand: on the steppe and Cen4

tral Asia, see Thomas G. Winner, The Oral Art and Literature of the Kazakhs of Russian Central Asia (Durham: Duke University Press, 1958); Elizabeth E. Bacon, Central Asians under Russian Rule: A Study in Culture Change (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1966); Richard A. Pierce, Russian Central Asia 1867–1917: A Study in Colonial Rule (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960); Edward Allworth, ed., Central Asia: A Century of Russian Rule (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967). In general, however, most Western historians of Russia and the Soviet Union remained unaware of the importance of empire to past and present ideologies and policies, despite the prophetic works of Carrère d’Encausse that demonstrated the continuing legacy of imperial policies and predicted a collapse of the Soviet Union along national lines. See her L’Empire éclaté (Paris: Flammarion et Cie, 1978); appearing in English as Decline of an Empire: The Soviet Socialist Republics in Revolt, trans. Martin Sokolinsky and Henry A. La Farge (New York: Newsweek Books, 1979). Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Random House, 1978). Said’s legacy for the study of Russia as an empire, although undeniable, remains at once in dispute and rarely fully explored. Some authors have simply noted his seminal influence: see Katya Hokanson, “Literary Imperialism, Narodnost′, and Pushkin’s Invention of the Caucasus,” Russian Review 53, 2 (July 1994): 338; and David Wolff, To the Harbin Station: The Liberal Alternative in Russian Manchuria, 1898–1914 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999). Nathaniel Knight has questioned the application of Said’s theories on Orientalism to Russia, but Adeeb Khalid has convincingly demonstrated his scope and meaning for the case of the tsarist empire. See Nathaniel Knight, “Grigor′ev in Orenburg, 1851–1862: Russian Orientalism in the Service of Empire?” Slavic Review 59, 1 (Spring 2000): 74–100; and the exchange between Knight and Khalid: “Orientalism in Russia,” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 1, 4 (Fall 2000): 691–727. For the evolution of Russia as a “European” empire, see Wortman, Scenarios of Power, vol. 1 and Mark Bassin, “Russia between Europe and Asia: The Ideological Construction of Geographical Space,” Slavic Review, 50, 1 (Spring 1991): 1–17; see also Jeff Sahadeo, “Creating a Russian Colonial Community: City, Nation, and Empire in Tashkent, 1865–1923” (Ph. D. diss., University of Illinois at 5

Urbana-Champaign, 2000). Michael Khodarkovsky, Russia’s Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500–1800. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002). Virginia Martin, Law and Custom in the Steppe: The Kazakhs of the Middle Horde and Russian Colonialism in the Nineteenth Century (Richmond: Curzon, 2001). The following authors should be mentioned among the authors of modern educational manuals for students dedicated to such courses as “History of Kazakh Journalism,” “Foreign Journalism,” “History of Local Publicists”: S. K. Kozybaev, G. Zh. Ibraeva, B. O. Zhakyp, A. V. Rozhkov and L. P. Noda. Each of them has its own peculiarities and corresponds to the goals set in every specific case. This educational manual, in contrast to the listed editions, is fully dedicated to the process of studying Kazakhstan in the USA, complex research of ideas, stereotypes and mode of thinking which have formed about Kazakh people abroad. The educational manual consists of three chapters. Each chapter contains test questions for students, list of sources (publications of Western authors) and recommended (analytical) literature for deeper acquaintance with the research topic. In the Appendix the reader will find course tasks, as well as examples of topics for reports, presentations and course works. List of recommended literature dedicated to the whole course, is placed at the end of the educational manual.

Chapter 1

MAIN STAGES AND DIRECTIONS FOR STUDYING KAZAKHSTAN IN THE USA

1.1 LITERATURE AND SOURCES ABOUT KAZAKHSTAN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 19TH – BEGINNING OF 20TH CENTURIES Plenty of historic and literature materials about Kazakhstan have accumulated for many centuries, and especially in the 19th century. Collecting, systematizing and researching the accumulated material contributes to revealing one of the facets of spiritual mutual inter-exchange, mutual communication of nations with peculiar history and literature connections. Notes of the travelers, who visited Asian countries for various purposes, including traders, missionaries and diplomats, confirm that Americans were aware of the existence of Kazakh nation since ancient times; and in the late centuries the USA knew about it from descriptions in scientific books and literature works. However, even though those messages about our country had certain historic and cognitive importance (in their scale, content, character and authenticity), they still cannot be compared to the texts written about Kazakhstan in the 19th century, when it had voluntarily joined Russia causing a dramatic change in multi-century development of these nomadic nation and created basis for the commonwealth with Russian and other nations. Being separated from each other both territorially and by typological peculiarities of their cultures, Western countries and Kazakhstan got to know each other through a variety of mediation forms involving Russia. The process of studying Central Asia and Kazakhstan in the second half of 19th century was marked by formation and establishment of ethnography, history and other branches of human knowledge 7

into as separate scientific disciplines. As V. Bartold concluded: “In the sphere of language studies, history and ethnography only in the 19th century scientists have elaborated those methods, which allowed these branches obtaining character of scientific disciplines for the first time”1. Previously ethnography was viewed as predominantly a natural science and was closely tied to typology, general science about humans, and in English speaking countries it was called ethnology. In the 60th-70th it has “stood on its feet,” developed general concepts conceptualizing facts of material and spiritual culture, as well as everyday life of nations. Scientific ethnographical and anthropological societies appear during this period. One of such organizations in “American Ethnological Society” which has formed in New York (the USA) in 1842. Western literature has accumulated various factual materials about social and economic development of pre-revolutionary Kazakhstan. These accumulated historic, ethnographic, geographic materials about Central Asia and Kazakhstan required systematization, comprehension and generalization, as well as bringing them into scientific circulation. Scientists began matching geographic features of separate parts of this material against lifestyle of population revealing the meaning of geographic factor, as a “main reason” defining fate of separate countries and nations. Many historians and ethnographers, being inspired by successes of natural sciences, have spread the idea of evolution to human society development, applying methods and principles of natural sciences to studying national history and culture. Historians and ethnographers, as representatives of natural sciences, adhered to the following: the idea of human kind unity and originating from it principle of uniform cultural development; the standing about single line of its development – from simple to complex; derived laws of public organizational structure and culture from individual psychic features. Separate representatives of evolutionary direction looked at these ideas at different angles. Number of historic works have appeared in the last quarter of 19th century attracting researchers’ attention. They include two editions by 1 V. Bartold. Studying Eastern History in Europe and Russia. –2-nd ed., 1925. – P. 126.

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a notable American linguist Dj. Carten “Journey to the Western Siberia”; essays of American poet, novelist and traveler Bayard Taylor. The latter has accepted a diplomatic post in Russia intending not only earning a “bunch of money,” but also studying Central Asia. However, only American diplomat Eugene Skiller and New York Herald newspaper correspondent Y. MacGahan succeeded in this, having become eyewitnesses of final actions of the Russian troops aimed at “joining” Central Asian khanates. They have departed to Saint-Petersburg in a company of Chingiz – older son of the last khan of Bukey Orda. According to E. Skiller, he was a “cultural gentleman, with deep knowledge of French literature.” On the way, the American diplomat has turned to Tashkent intending to “describe political and social situation in the regions which had been recently conquered by Russia; make a comparison of living conditions of local residents with those who were still living under the khans’ despotism.” Skiller had spent eight month in Central Asian and Kazakhstan having written two-volume labor “Turkestan”; and MacGahan has described “Campaigning on the Oxus, and the Fall of Khiva”2. They cover a broad circle of problems connected with history and ethnography of regional population, colonial policy of Tsarism in Kazakh steps, its economics and nature. In 1876 Eugene Skiller gave a true description of the situation in Kazakhstan: “These people have stood for their clans or families protecting their honor and safety of members. At the same time they were respecting bravery, attacks, courage and loving their independence; Kazakhs have always been ready to follow any “Batyr’s” or hero’s flags, which might have appeared in steppes, like they followed Sarim Arungazi or Kenesari…” “I found him sitting in an open tent, wrapped up in a Bokharan khalat, or gown, taking tea, and smoking a cigarette. A man between forty-five and fifty, bald, and rather small of stature for a Russian, blue eyes, moustache, no beard, and a pleasant, kindly expression of countenance…” – this is how American Journalist Januarius MacGahan describes a Russian General, who headed military actions of the Impe2 Januarius Aloysius MacGahan. Campaigning on the Oxus and the Fall of Khiva. New York, 1874.

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rial Army in Central Asia3. Konstantin P. Kaufman was a progressive and educated person who felt sympathy for advanced ideas of his time. MacGahan was one of the first foreign journalists to see vast lands of Central Asia. Population consisted of local tribes which were not aware of the Russian laws and didn’t know Russian language. But in spite of this, all official papers and documents were written only in Russian. American journalist continued his impressions as follows: “He shook hands with me, asked me to sit down, and then remarked that I appeared to be something of a mohdyetz (a brave fellow), and asked me, with a smile, if I knew what that meant4. Really, General Kaufmann knew that American, sitting in front of him, reached the place of military actions without an official permission from the Imperial authorities in Petersburg. MacGahan appeared in Petersburg in the first half of February 1873. As a journalist of an American newspaper he asked permission of the Russian Government to accompany one of the troops going against Khiva. Having found out that many foreign correspondents were refused in their request to participate in Central Asian march of the Russian army, MacGahan consulted the American Consul Eugene Skiller, who had an official permission and accompanied military and state official Gabaydulla Djangirov, decided to join them. 35-year-old MacGahan, as military men who met him in the steppes, described him as a very strong, who knew English, French and German language, but did not know neither Russian, nor the languages of the people whose lands he planned to cross heading towards the set goal. He had only passport allowing him to live in Russia. With this passport and a condition to meet Skiller and Djangirov in Kazalinsk on March 10th, he takes a train to Petersburg and soon appears in Saratov. In order to get to Kazalinsk, the American now needed to change transportation means from an “arba” (fire carriage) – how Kazakhs called steam engine and carriages at that time – to a “steppes’ vessel” – camel. Way to Kazalinsk took MacGahan many days since weather was changing abruptly and, beginning from Orsk the traveler continued his trip in foul weather. The American arrived to Kazalinsk only on April 8th where he met with Skiller and Djangirov. They were 3 4

10

Ibid. P. 47. Ibid. P. 48.

staying all together in this area until April 30th. In Perovsk MacGahan parted with his compatriot, who headed off to Tashkent with Djangirov. To Kazalinsk and Perovsk MacGahan was accompanied by a state servant Akhmatov having been recommended by Orenburg’s official Bekchurin. The American didn’t find fifty-five-year-old Tatarian Akhmatov from Orenburg to a very nice person even though he knew Russian and talked all “Central Asian dialects.” MacGahan didn’t like that his companion was lazy and got extremely drunk at the first opportunity. From Kazalinsk to Perovsk MacGahan was accompanied by a Kara-Kalpak Musatirov and a Kazakh teenage boy who helped to carry his belongings. The journalist had a whole arsenal of weapons: heavy English double-barreled rifle, double-barreled hunting rifle, Winchester rifle, three revolvers, one regular rifle, several hunting knives and sabers. The route of the American is worse paying attention to: Erkebay – current Kazalinsk, then Perovsk, currently – Kyzylorda town, where MacGahan had lunch with a glass of red wine, said farewell to his companions heading off to Tashkent. In Hal-Ata MacGahan met military posts and began getting acquainted with representatives of the imperial army. In these torrid steppes he met General fon Kaurman; Colonel Veysmar was attached to him. In Adam Kirilgan Kudik locality the American was speaking with Colonel Novomlinskiy and Baron Croff – officer of the 3rd rifle battalion. On August 28th MacGahan joins General Golovachev’s detachment whose people accompany him to “Samarkand” steamboat sailing along the Amu-Daria River. In his noted the journalist mentioned sympathetic attitude to him from the side of captain Sitnikov. According to the notes of the American journalist, military officials tried sending the unwilling guests away from the center of military actions. His observations concerning life of Kazakh auls in ethnological regards are of special interest for us. In one episode of his travel essays MacGahan describes the following case: “Our supper over, I asked my young friend for some music, pointing at the same time to the guitar (the traveler called dombra guitar and, according to the deep-rooted habit Kazakhs – Kyrgyzs). He complied very readily, and sung three or four songs, accompanying himself on the instrument. One or two of the songs were hailed with shouts of laughter and merriment. He also sung one or two war songs, in which he celebrated the feats of some Kirghiz hero against 11

the Turcomans, and these also were greeted with applause. The guitar was a small instrument, with a body in shape something like a pear cut in two lengthwise, and about a foot long, while the neck was three feet. It was made of some dark wood resembling walnut, and had one brass and two catgut strings. The airs of the songs would, I think, have been pretty, though very peculiar, but for the shrill high key and disagreeable long nasal whine in which they were sung. This manner of singing is universal in Central Asia; I remarked the same thing at Khiva, and among the Bokhariots who accompanied the Russian expedition. This, however, did not prevent the singing from being very amusing, and, taken together with the surroundings, very interesting. The place, the wide desert without, the cheerful fire within, throwing a ruddy light over the wild faces and strange costumes, the arms, saddles, bridles, and accoutrements, and the two young girls with their wild beauty, made up a very pretty picture5. Reading these lines of the American journalist, we find out that our forefathers had three-stringed music instruments, where one string of such dombra was made of copper. MacGahan’s travel essays contain very interesting observations which precisely underline some peculiarities of the nomads’ psychology and mentality. “I would here remark that my sojourn with the Kirghiz left a most favourable impression upon me. I have always found them kind, hospitable, and honest. I spent a whole month amongst them; travelling with them, eating with them, and sleeping in their tents. And I had along with me all this time horses, arms, and equipments, which would be to them a prize of considerable value. Yet never did I meet anything but kindness; I never lost a pin’s worth ; and often a Kirghiz has galloped four or five miles after me to restore some little thing I had left behind. Why talk of the necessity of civilising such people? What is the good of discussing, as Mr. Yambery does, the comparative merits of Russian and English civilisation for them? The Kirghiz possess to a remarkable degree the qualities of honesty, virtue, and hospitality – virtues which our civilisation seems to have a remarkable power of extinguishing among primitive people. I should be sorry indeed ever to see these simple, happy people inoculated with our civilisation and its attendant vices.” 5 S. Satayeva. Journalist without a Visa (about MacGahan’s Trip to Kazakh Steppes) // Thought. – 2000. – No 8-9. – P.70-72 (in Russian).

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MacGahan in his notes mentions one of Kazakh customs: “In case the husband dies, it is the custom, as in the old Jewish dispensation, for his brother, if he have one, to marry the widow - a custom which probably arose from a desire to keep the property in the family.” Of course, there is no sense to ruminate over Jewish laws here; however, MacGahan obviously, due to his difficulties in communication with Kazakhs, and moreover with Kazakh women, couldn’t fully understand the wisdom of this harsh law when, in the majority of cases, its observation followed just one goal – not to leave children without a father. Their native person became their father and they didn’t have to get used to alien people and unfamiliar environment – this was a true reason and wisdom of this custom. In connection with this, MacGahan mentions a lyrical narrative about relationships of dzhigit Bolat and his girlfriend Minayim from the family of Togalaks. They were brought together from the cradle and girl’s father Eszhan received a ransom for the bride to be paid for his daughter. After their wedding the dzhigit has suddenly died and his younger brother Suluk wanted to inherit his brother’s wife intending to marry Minayim. But Minayim didn’t want to marry Suluk since she liked a dzhigit from another Aul called Azim. Older women in the aul, who, being young girls, have experienced all misfortunes of these customs which have not always matched the dictate of hearts, had beaten Minayim up. Suluk even tried tying her to a horse tail and let it run into the steppes; then he, even more severely than old women, had beaten her up. However, Minayim didn’t give up. This tragic case reached “Zharim-Patsha” (Kazakhs called a General Governor “half of the Tsar”), General fon Kaufmann. Upon his order Suluk was sued and sent to “Itzhekken” i.e. to Siberia. Minayim, who had found protection from the side of Tsar’s General, recovered and married Azim. MacGahan retold this steppes’ elegy in his travel notes. In 1830 the USA occupied a second place in the world in cotton production (after England). They were seeking for markets in the Eastern countries, in particular, on Kazakhstan’s territory. Charles Massa, native of the Kentucky state, was developing the issues of US economic expansion to Kazakhstan and Central Asia6. Almost simul6 N. Halfin. American Penetration into India and Afghanistan in the First Half of the XIX c. // Zvezda Vostoka. - 1952. – No 11. - P. 84 (in Russian).

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taneously with him, American Djosia Harlan, whose literature works were published in London in 1939 under the title “Middle Asia,” revealed interest to this region. The book by English artist and traveler Thomas Whitlam Atkinson stands out among similar works having appeared in England and partially in the USA in 30th-40th of the 19th century. In 1848 Atkinson together with his wife travelled from Petersburg across Kazakhstan and Siberia to the Altay mountains which took him seven years. According to T. Atkinson, he began thinking about this trip after A. Gumbold’s remark regarding numerous geographic, ethnographic and other issues to be resolved inside of Asia. During 1849 Atkinson visited Karatau, Zailiyskiy Alatau, Aktau and Mustau regions having reached Kopal lying underneath Zailiyskiy Alatau – at that time it was the extreme Russian outpost on the South. Thorough (for this times) description of Eastern oblasts of Kazakhstan, their dwellers, relationships between separate heads of families, sultans and imperial authorities, lifestyle of Kazakh auls and Cossack villages was given in this book. Sketches of domestic scenes make the book quite interesting in ethnographic regards. Upon returning to London, Atkinson’s wife issued her own book of memories. US historiographical works pay significant attention to studying various aspects of colonial policy of Tsarism in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. In 1867 David Mackenzie in his article “Kaufman of Turkestan: An Assessment of His Administration in 1867-1881” having been published in “Slavyanskoe Obozrenie” criticized some conclusions of E. Skiller regarding colonial administration in Central Asia. In this connection, another American historian Franc Siskou published his article entitled “Eugene Skiller, General Kaufmann and Central Asia” in which he accused D. Mackenzie of “undermining Skiller’s authority, one of the most talented American diplomats of that period.” He extolled scientific level of Skiller’s labor. Denying D. Mackenzie’s arguments about short-term presence of E. Skiller in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, F. Siskou (based on archival data stored in the USA) wrote that E. Skiller was interested in newly acquired lands in Russia in 1868. To confirm his thoughts, F. Siskou brought words of some American officials, opinions of Western European press and abstracts from E. Skiller’s correspondence having been stored in the US Library 14

of Congress. According to F. Siskou, bias of Mackenzie’s article was justified by the fact that he used only certain sources, for example material published in “Golos” and other Russian newspapers, which used to criticize Skiller’s data. In his response article published in the same edition of “Slavyanskot Obozrenie,” D. Mackenzie hasn’t denied that E. Skiller was “obviously, talented and diligent American and his book “Turkestan” contains rich and precious material about the region, its population and Russian impact on Central Asia.” However, As Mackenzie noted, E. Skiller was disoriented by Kaufmann’s enemies who had envied his “prestige and independent authority”; the majority of E. Skiller’s materials are taken from doubtful and inauthentic sources, as well as from the chronicles of “Kaufmann’s bitterest enemy” – General M.G. Cherniyev. Referring to these and other information, D. Mackenzie came to conclusion that E. Skiller’s descriptions are “far from being completely true.” Western historiography acknowledges that Trarizm resettlement policy had grave consequences for the main Kazakh economic industry – nomadic cattle breeding; methods and reasons of colonization, its role in consolidation and establishment of the “Russian power” in Kazakhstan were subject to analysis. According to R. Pears, S. Zenkovskiy and other Western historians, construction of towns and fortresses, fortified barriers, even Cossacks, who have settled down on the territory of Kazakhstan, have not guaranteed stability of “Russian rule” in this region. Therefore state, military interests, goals of final establishment of the “Russian power” required colonization of Kazakhstan by a representative part of Russian society. However, R. Pears mentions as the reasons for resentment tightness of lands in Russia and Tsarism’s striving to weaken agrarian tension in the center having created a bearing in the steppes. Works of D. Williams, V. Lezar and R. Luice contain information about the quantity of Ural and Semirechie Cossacks, cover the course of resettlement movement, creation of resettlement administration, expropriation of the most fruitful Kazakh lands and other issues. Reporting data about the flow of migrants into other Kazakhstani regions, S. Zenkovskiy asserted that they were provided with the most fruitful lands in climatically most favorable regions without taking into consideration nomadic routes of Kazakh auls. “Inevitable results of steppes’ colonization was tension which had ap15

peared in relationships between nomads and newly arrived farmers,” he wrote. They even took away sawing areas cultivated by Kazakhs; in many places water sources had also been transferred to resellers and Cossacks. The course of resettlement from the time of abolishing serfdom in Russia (1861) to the beginning of the First World War is described in the book of American historian D. Treadgold “Great Siberian Migration.” Process of studying Kazakhstan abroad has not been interrupted, but acquired a new content. Authors clarified and replenished information and thoughts about the main stages of Kazakh people’s genesis, about the ratio of Turkic and Mongolic components in it, Kazakh families and their settlement across zhuzes, ethnonym and etymology of the term “Kazakh,” formation of ethnic territory, lifestyle and national customs. Travelers had plotted new routes to Northern and Eastern regions, having significantly expanded zone for geographic research which resulted in accumulating extensive material about the state of this region. Important discoveries, which have laid the foundation for studying archeological and written monuments, had been made. 1.2 KAZAKHSTAN IN THE FLOW OF HISTORY: FOREIGN PUBLICITY Among various literature works having been issued in the USA before the Revolution, the book by American publicist and traveler George Kennan “Siberia and the Exile System7” is worth mentioning for its progressive approach. This book caused a deep discontent of the Russian ruling elite. George Kennan has visited Siberia in 1865-1867 for the first time; in 1885-1886 – for the second time to examine servitude prisons and exile places for Russian revolutionaries. Explaining the motives, which induced him undertaking this distant journey, G. Kennan wrote: “For an average American of that time Siberia was almost the same as Central Africa or Tibet…Alexander’s II murder in 1881 and subsequent exile of a significant part of Russian revolutionaries to Transbaikal mines, made my interest to Siberia even stronger; 7

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George Kennan. Siberia and the Exile System. – New York: Century, 1891.

I wanted to not only study exile conditions on-the-spot, but also get acquainted with Russian revolutionary movement, exactly that part of the state where such acquaintance seemed to me the most successful – exactly on the place of revolutionaries’ exile8”. During his second trip G. Kennan together with artist D. Frost travelled 8 thousand km. across Siberia. Having returned to America, Kennan in his series of articles, a two-volume labor and hundreds of lectures read in American (and subsequently in English) towns, had truly depicted unbearable conditions for political exiles in Siberia. Even “Nov” magazine acknowledged that “in regards to the ability of observing, quickly grasping the most peculiar features, he should be given proper respect.” The work of American journalist found resonance all over the world. Kennan felt immense sympathy for Russian people; he was deeply touched with the fate of “misfortunate.” Information of Kazakhs’ life is scarce, but objective and precious. He visited Omsk, Semipalatinsk, Ulbinsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk. In the conversations with political exile A. Leontiyev in Semipalatinsk Kennan found out about Abay Kynanbayev who visited city library and read works of Western classics9. The book was translated into all European languages and made a huge impression on American and European public opinion. However, the book left the greatest impression in Russia where it became popular in the 90th in illegal Russian editions. Hot discussions have been going on around “Siberia and the Exile System” in America. Later G. Kennan greeted dethronement of monarchy with fervor and energetically opposed all attempts of military intervention into Soviet Russia. In 1861-68, upon the order of Russian and American Telegraph Company, G. Kennan visited the far North-East of Siberia to research the possibility of installing telegraph from America through the Bering Strait and Siberia; his journey resulted in a book: “Tent Kifa in Siberia” (1870; Russian translation “Nomadic Life in Siberia. Adventures among Koraks and other Tribes in Kamchatka Northern Asia,” Saint-Petersburg, 1872). In 1870-71 he travelled to Caucuses. In Ulbinsk the American journalist also met “Doctor Vitert from Warsaw.” According to Kennan, during his stay in Ulbinsk Vitert was 8 9

Ibid. P. 81. Ibid. P. 140.

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45 years, he has been exiled three times and had spent ten years in prison since he, perhaps, was quite a dangerous “political criminal.” “Exiles and prison deprived him of health, and, apparently, he wouldn’t be a threat for the government for a long period.” Even though Kennan hadn’t mentioned his name, we suppose that this exile could be Yan Vitort, one of the main activists of Wilensky Polish clubs having been exiled to Archangelsk oblast in 1975. All political exiles in Ulbinsk lived in “extremely poor houses rented from Kazakhs; the interior inside indicated deprivation and scarce subsistence means, but it was obvious that exiles were extremely sturdy in their ability to bend to circumstance.” All exiles, in spite of extremely poor furnishings, had own writing implements, books and periodic editions, for example “Russkiy Vestnik” and others. It should be noted that “Statute on Police Supervision,” adopted on March 12th, 1882, deprived Siberian exiles of all their rights. As soon as they arrived at the destination point, authorities took away their passports giving document with special marks permitting them to live only in certain places. They were obliged to show up in police office upon the first demand. Policemen had the right to enter exiles’ houses or rooms at any time of the day, institute a search and confiscation of any personal belongings they considered necessary. Exiles were not permitted to occupy state and public service positions before the end of their punishment. They were allowed to take “writing classes” only upon police permission. Exiles were provided with allowances “judging by the state and consumption of needy people.” Persons of noble birth were paid 15 kopek per day. People of “lower orders” were given prisoners’ allowances “and only if they were not capable for any works due to old age or diseases.” Thus, material and legal state of political exiles was quite difficult. In such remote places as Ulbinsk they were practically deprived of subsistence means. Nevertheless, as Kennan noted, the “political” he met in Semipalatinsk, Ulbinsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk, were treated quite well and they lived better conditions compared to those ones in Tomsk where he discovered all the tragicalness of the exiles’ situation.” As follows from the American biographic sources, author of the book “Siberia and the Exile System” was a typical “selfmademan.” In 1870 he issued his first book “Nomadic Life in Siberia.” It immediately attracted public attention by its live and precise descrip18

tions, mild humor and adolescent freshness. This work turned out to have a happy reader’s fate. “Nomadic Life in Siberia” survived over twenty editions at its motherland (the last edition was published in the USA in 1970) and was several times translated into foreign languages, including three times into Russian! The book helped Americans to overcome prejudice connected with their northern neighbors. The life of Kamchatka and Siberian natives, their traditions and customs are presented in travel notes quite vividly and fully. However, Kennan has never mentioned exile and exiles, most likely because he had no chance to meet them. “Nomadic Life in Siberia” appeared on shop shelves in New York at the time when its author was in Petersburg again. From there he set off to the south, travelled down the Volga River and spent four month alone in Dagestan. Only in spring of next year Kennan returned to the United States having visited Constantinople, Vienna and London on the way. New trip made his sympathies for Russia and its government even stronger. Even in Russian conquests, in the Caucasus region, he saw only positive sides – spreading of civilization. During his last years of life Kennan served in a bank in Medina, continued reading lectures and publishing materials having been gathered at the Caucasus. In 1877 he becomes a professional journalist and, having moved to Washington, worked at first as a reporter and later as a night editor for the Associated Press Agency. Kennan convinces his compatriots that Siberia is not that scary as they imagine it. But in April of 1884 some Mr. Armstrong has interfered with his voice. Having thoroughly studied political and socialeconomic conditions in Russia, Armstrong came to conclusion that there are no basis to expect some progressive reforms from tsarism, and called governance system of the country barbarian. The provided facts and arguments were so unexpected and contradictory to accustomed impression that the majority of listeners were perplexed. However, when the lecture was over, an indignant young man rose to the tribune and, referring to his personal impressions and official data, started to deliriously protect Russian Government. It was him, George Kennan, whose opinion was different from the speaker’s opinion both in details and its essence. Russian Government, he said, is not less democratic and liberal than American. Kennan considered data about 19

the number of exiles during the last year of Alexander II ruling, provided by the Armstrong, to be overstated (and he was right in this), and brought other data (obviously understated) taken from the official Russian statistics. This polemics reached newspaper pages the majority of which shared Kennan’s view point. Events in Russia, struggle of the “People’s Will” with monarchy attracted greater and greater attention on the West. Therefore, the “problem of exile” acquired such a big importance that even participants of the International prison congresses in London (1872), Stockholm (1878) and Rome (1885) made special reports on it, including political exile in Russia; moreover exile has been practiced only in France and Russia in the last quarter of 19th century. Excitement around polemics of Kennan and Armstrong continued in American newspapers. Who was right? Publics were waiting for the answer. And then a respected New York magazine “The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine” or simply “The Century” decided to send a special expedition to Russia for impartial research of dark and positive sides of Russian life. Armstrong couldn’t go since now Russian Government would not let him come. Kennan’s candidature suited more. He protected Russian Government, maintained scientific relationships with Russian Embassy in Washington. His authority of researcher and publicist was acknowledged in literature and scientific world. In Semipalatinsk Kennan had his first meeting with political exiles. They ended up in Siberia without any judicial investigation based on the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Tsar. Moreover, it turned out that these people are not “dangerous conspirers.” They were simply considered to be “insecure” people i.e. were connected with prohibited organizations and took part in student disturbances. And now they experience immense poverty and deprivations since the allowance, granted to them, is barely enough for avoiding death from hunger. On the top of all that he visited one young exile, some Lobanovskiy, who earned his living by decorating a stage curtain for a city theater. Kennan wrote in his travel notes: “Madame Dicheskula lived in one half of the house occupied by Mr. Lobonofski in Semipalatinsk; Madame Breshkofskaya occupied a room adjoining that of Mr. 20

Shamarin in Selenginsk; and I found the same state of affairs existing in a dozen other parts of Siberia. In fact, it is inevitable. Among the political exiles are defenseless girls from sixteen to twenty years of age, and young married women whose husbands are in other parts of Siberia or in penal servitude at the mines. They cannot live entirely alone under a system of surveillance which authorizes a runaway convict, in the uniform of a police officer, to enter their apartments at any hour of the day or night10.” Lobanovskiy’s friends, he had met, left the same pleasant impression in the soul of the American publicist. They didn’t have a hint on eccentricity and bloodlines, and amazed him with their education, diverse interests and friendliness. In the beginning of his journey Kennan paid attention to the fact that “all exiles, in spite of poor furnishing, had own writing tables, books and periodic editions…” In summary, small town Semipalatinsk was bound to become a turning point and not only in the Kennan’s Siberian Odysseus, but in all his life. He had to acknowledge to himself that he will have to change his view drastically11. When he had later met several hundred live nihilists, and got acquainted with representatives of the opposite side too, Kennan publicly asserted about complete and absolute predominance of the first ones over the second ones and about his solidarity with Russian freedom movement. While travelling through Siberian towns and settlements, Kennan and his friend-photographer Frost had an opportunity to closely observe life of political exiles having established friendly relationships with many of them. Kennan had “over 500” acquaintances in this community. Perhaps, at the expense of these people in the first place, George Kennan’s values have been reevaluated. In 1882 in London English missioner Henry Lansdale published his completely apologetic book entitled “Across Siberia”. According to one English newspaper, the author “was looking at everything through pink glasses of Russian officials.” It turns out that the angle of looking at the facts is important. It is 10 11

Ibid. P. 54. Ibid. P. 96.

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crucial to collect just enough facts to make really serious conclusions and not omit details which are often so eloquent. Kennan had “plenty of precious confidential materials obtained from secret or liberal officials, or through political exiles.” As a matter of fact, from the first days of staying in Russia, many people with various political outlooks and social status supported and made friends with the American. Administration and exiles started to provide travelers with recommendation latter to their acquaintances pursuing their own interests in this case. Having been guided by exiles, who had well-established connections with local institutions everywhere, Americans had been discovering what no foreigner would find out from official sources. For example, in Ust-Kamenogorsk they were given not only recommendation letters, but also a detailed list of 700 exiles from all over Siberia, including last names, age and place of exile. S. M. StepnyakKravchinskiy wrote to his friend, English socialist E. Pizz: “He has now completely changed his views and fully confirms everything we wrote in our books. His facts are newer and larger in number than those we could have had available.” He further wrote: “It’s a true pleasure to hear what he says about Russia. You would never believe that a foreigner could know behind-the-scenes sides of our public life so deeply. His book will be published as a series of articles in “Century” beginning from January. It will mean an epoch in conquering European and American public opinion in the favor of our business 12.” In his book Siberia and the Exile System, Kennan writes: “An hour or two after breakfast I was surprised and a little startled by the sudden reappearance of Captain Nikolin, the gendarme commandant of the political prison. He desired to see Major Potulof on business, and they were closeted together for half or three-quarters of an hour in the major’s writing-room. I was, at the time, in another part of the house trying to write up my notes; but Mr. Frost was at work upon a crayon portrait of the major’s children in the drawing-room, off which the writing-room opened. At the first opportunity after Captain Nikolin’s departure Mr. Frost came to me in some anxiety and whispered to me that he had accidentally overheard a part of the conversation between 12

22

P.A. Kropotkin “Revolutionary Notes” – Misl, 1966. – P. 182 (in Russian).

Captain Nikolin and Major Potulof in the writing-room, and that it indicated trouble. It related to my intercourse with the political convicts, and turned upon the question of searching our baggage and examining my papers and note-books. As Mr. Frost understood it, Captain Nikolin insisted that such an investigation was proper and necessary, while Major Potulof defended us, deprecated the proposed search, and tried to convince the gendarme officer that it would be injudicious to create such a scandal as an examination of our baggage would cause. The discussion closed with the significant remark from Nikolin that it the search were not made in Kara it certainly would be made somewhere else. Mr. Frost seemed to be much alarmed, and I was not a little troubled myself. I did not so much fear a search, at least while we remained in Major Potulofs house, but what I did fear was being put upon my word of honor by Major Potulof himself as to the question whether I had any letters from the political convicts. I thought it extremely probable that he would come to me at the first opportunity and say to me good-humoredly,” George Ivanovich, Captain Nikolin has discovered your relations with the political convicts; he knows that you spent with them the greater part of one night, and he thinks that you may have letters from them. He came here this morning with a proposition to search your baggage. Of course, as you are my guests, I defended you and succeeded in putting him off; but I think under the circumstances it is only fair you should assure me, on your word of honor, that you have no such letters.” Kennan continues his description of a significant encounter: “In such an exigency as that I should have to do one of two things either lie outright, upon my word of honor, to the man in whose house I was a guest, or else betray people who had trusted me, and for whom I had already come to feel sincere sympathy and affection. Either alternative was intolerable unthinkable and yet I must decide upon some course of action at once. The danger was imminent, and I could not bring myself to face either of the alternatives upon which I should be forced if put upon my word of honor. I might perhaps have had courage enough to run the risk, so far as my own papers were concerned, but I knew that the letters in my possession, if discovered, would send Miss Armfeldt and all the other writers back into prison; would leave poor, feeble Mrs. Armfeldt alone in a penal settlement with a new sor23

row; and would lead to a careful examination of all my papers, and thus bring misfortune upon scores of exiles and officers in other parts of Siberia who had furnished me with documentary materials. All the rest of that day I was in a fever of anxiety and irresolution. I kept, so far as possible, out of Major Potulof’s way; gave him no opportunity to speak to me alone; went to bed early on plea of a headache; and spent a wretched and sleepless night trying to decide upon a course of action. I thought of a dozen different methods of concealing the letters, but concealment would not meet the emergency. If put upon my word of honor I should have to admit that I had them, or else lie in the most cowardly and treacherous way. I did not dare to mail them, since all the mail matter from the house passed through Major Potulof’s hands, and by giving them to him I might precipitate the very inquiries I wished to avoid. At last, just before daybreak, I decided to destroy them. I had no opportunity, of course, to consult the writers, but I felt sure that they would approve my action if they could know all the circumstances. It was very hard to destroy letters upon which those unfortunate people had hung so many hopes, letters that I knew would have such priceless value to fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers in Russia, but there was nothing else to be done. The risk of keeping them had become too great to be justifiable.” “Russian part of the Kennan’s archive, as it was already noted, was located in New York public library. It contains over seven hundred manuscripts, including especially precious prisoner’s diaries and biographic notes of political exiles, a great epistolary heritage, such as letter of Russian writers, editors, revolutionaries, substantial quantity of periodicals, 650 books and brochures and about 500 photographs. Of course, this whole precious collection couldn’t have been taken out of Siberia at once; Kennan had been collecting it for many years as he passed his “Russian university.” Kennan spent the entire year on arranging the materials he had brought from Russia. He was sorting papers, putting them into folders and envelopes, making a subject index from ten thousand cards for all his travel pocket notebooks, “Sibirskaya gazeta,” “Vostochnoe obozrenie” and various documents and memoirs brought out from Siberia. People, who knew the American publicist closely, argued that detailed knowledge of material had always been an indispensable condition without which he couldn’t have started working. 24

However, not the accuracy for the sake of accuracy induced Kennan to such a lengthy and profound preparation. During his trip to Siberia he proved for himself falseness of his initially biased opinion and, perhaps, chose not to assert or reject anything without a thorough research, comparison and checking. It also appears obvious that while realizing all significance of the subject, the author of the future book could not foresee future battles he was supposed to be ready for being armed at all points. The first stone into the foundation of this book was laid in May of 1888 when the author’s preface to “Siberia and the Exile System” and first chapter “Across the Russian Boarder” had appeared in the XXXIV volume of “Century” magazine. Since that time new chapters followed every month until November of the next 1889 year. By the way, comments to various editions mentioning or quoting “Siberia and the Exile System,” define the birth of its magazine version otherwise: one can meet 1887-1889, 1888-1890, 1889-1891 years. Such chronologic discrepancies have quite a simple explanation. Being half-way to the reader, the American publicist published in Century so-called zero series consisting of six big article – sort of prelusion to “Siberia and the Exile System.” In this work he showed some dark sides of Russian life, having explained why there are underground organizations and terrorism in Russia; told how authorities treat political prisoners before sending them to Siberia. This preliminary series should have had only prepare American readers to perception of the entire book, but since content of the articles had much in common with the main series, they are often included into the composition. Therefore, various sources often confuse the dates. Magazine variant of Kennan’s book includes 19 articles published in 1888-1889. Later, in 1890-1891, he included four more articles each of which appeared to be a revelation for American public and a telling blow on Tsarizm. Publication of the Kennan’s magazine articles had not been completed yet, when the majority of Americans already defined which side the truth was at. “If you come to the United States by the end of future year, American publicist assured S.M. Stepnyak-Kravchinskiy in his letter dated October 15th, 1888, you will hardly find a person who would feel sympathy for Tsar or his ministers, but you will find mil25

lions of people feeling deep and active sympathy for Russian revolutionaries…”13 Be the circulation ever so big at the time of publishing “Siberia and the Exile System,” it reached unprecedented numbers for that time – 200 thousand issues, actual number of readers was a lot bigger. According to Kennan, almost 1.5-2 million people read his auricles. Reporting about this to his Russian friends, the American proudly noted that he “receives hundreds of letters from all over the United States expressing sympathy for Russian revolutionaries and hatred to the Imperial government.” The first two-volume edition of “Siberia and the Exile System” saw the light in New York in December, 1891. In the same period the book was reissued in London: thousand pages of text and over two hundred illustrations. The appendix included list of literature (261 titles), chronicle of censured abstracts and numerous documents. Currently one can see both these editions (they are identical) only on the shelves of very large libraries. “Siberia and the Exile System” was translated into all main European languages. The first translations started appearing even before publishing a separate edition and were sold out quite fast. This book was so demanded that, for example, in Austrian Poland in was reissued three times. “Siberia and the Exile System” became quite widespread in Germany where its four different translations were almost simultaneously published in the beginning of 90th. The book by American publicist was immensely successful in Bulgaria, where Russian foreign revolutionary literature appeared at the times of Gertsen and Chernishevskiy. Five translations saw the light here in the 90th. Comments about them appeared on the pages of local press. And only in Russia Kennan’s book remained “completely prohibited.” Summarizing book by G. Kennan, it should be noted that “Siberia and the Exile System” is precious for us with the fact that it contains 13

227.

26

S.M. Stepnyak-Kravchinskiy “In London Emigration” - М., 1968. - P. 407,

information about those people, political exiles in Semipalatinsk, with whom Abay Kunanbayev maintained warm and friendly relationships. On the whole, the material, included into the collection, gives a comprehensive idea that in 19th century Kazakhstan was involved into allRussian orbit; Western literature revealed significant interest to Kazakh land. Poetic and prosaic works on Kazakh topic started appearing in Western editions. Even though not everything in these works is written from the positions of progressive socio-political outlook, appearing of such type of materials had certain cognitive and scientific value. Those truthful romantic and realistic stories and poems about our region, being written by western poets and writers of 19th century, had acquainted foreigners with many centuries of Kazakh culture. 1.3 MODERN WESTERN LITERATURE ABOUT KAZAKH LIFE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION The process of studying other aspects of social and economic life of pre-revolutionary Kazakhstan continues in modern Western literature. Materials about Middle Asia and Kazakhstan, having been published in western literature, were generalized in substantial works of A. Hudson, E. Bekon, V. Ryazanovskiy, L. Krader and others. K.L. Esmagambetov wrote about American scientist M. Danlop, who described the story of Hazar Kaganate14. For that time, these researches made a significant contribution into Western oriental studies15. Books by Alfred E. Hudson “Kazak Social Structure”, employee of Cornell University (the USA) Elizabeth Bekon, “Central Asians under Russian rule. A study in Culture change” were dedicated to studying Kazakh society’s social structure before the revolution16. A. Hudson and E. Bekon’s works cover a vast circle of issues, including history and ethnography of Kazakh people. The author touches upon the Dunlop M.D. The history of Jewish Khazars. Princeton, 1954. Esmagambetov K.L. Chto pisali o nas na Zapade. – А., 1992. – P. 87. 16 Hudson A.E. Kazak social structure. Yale Univ.press, 1938., Bacon E.E. Central Asians under Russian rule. A study in Culture change. Cornell Univ. press, Ithaca, N.Y., 1965. 14 15

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issues concerning organization of Kazakh families, inheritance law of Kazakhs, gap between the rich and the poor and concealed form of exploitation, housing, food, marriage customs and ceremonies17. A. Hudson’s book contains the following chapters: “History of Kazak,” “Nature of Kazak Social Groups,” “Kazak Social Groups in Relation to Economic Life,” “The Family and Marriage,” “Class Stratification,” “Political Groupings,” and “Inter-group Relations.” Hudson idealized pre-revolutionary Kazakh society having noted only its “patriarchal” character, and omitting the existing social contradictions. Attempts to justify “patriarchal” character of Kazakh society have been undertaken by Indiana University Professor, Valentin Ryazanovskiy. In his book “Customary Law of Siberian Nomadic Tribes” in chapter “Kyrgyz Legal Customs” Ryazanovskiy wrote: “the main source of Kyrgyz right is steppe’s customs… Its basis is the patriarchal family order; administrative and judicial proceedings were based on family principles18.” The author analyzes Tauke Khan’s code of laws, imperial judicial procedures; lists clans of three Kazakh Zhuzes and specifies number of Kazakhs. Achievements, gaps and methodological limitedness of bourgeois historic and ethnographic sciences in studying the problem of Kazakh national ethnogenesis were reflected in general research carried out by Indiana University Professor Laurence Krader. In the course of studying public relationships in pre-revolutionary Kazakhstan, he pays primary attention to patriarchic principles, viability of clannish and tribal institutions. One of his first works was called “Ethnonyms of Kazakh.” Bringing various view points of pre-revolutionary and Soviet authors on problem of etymology and ethnic content of the word “Kazakh,” the author concentrates upon the information contained in Russian records about Kazakhs19. After this work, Krader completed his research initiated and supported by the Far-Eastern and Russian Institute of the Washington University and Russian Research Center under the Harvard University. In the process of collecting materials, the author visBacon E. Op.cit. PP. 31-35, 40, etc. Riasanovsky V.A. Customary law of the nomadic tribes. R. 120 19 Krader L. Ethnonyms of Kazakh (American Studies in Altaic linguistics.) Ed. by N. Poppe. Indian Univ. publications of the Uralic and Altaic series. Bloomington. Vol. 13. 17 18

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ited Kazakhstan and obtained specialists’ consultations. His work is called “Social Organization of the Mongol-Turkic Pastoral Nomads20.” “The main objective of this research is to demonstrate economic and ecological regions where social and political organization of nomadic societies developed following ones and the same principles21.” In his other work “Peoples of Central Asia22,” L. Krader examined formation of Kazakh ethnos, gave a geographic description of Kazakh lands, and exposed some issue of Kazakhstan’s history until 1917 on the basis of works written by pre-revolutionary and Soviet authors. He used compositions of C. Valihanov and V.V. Velyaminova-Zernova, as well as A. Samoylovich to study the issue of Kazakh’s ethnogenesis. Krader also published the article about principles and organizational structure of Asian steppes nomads-cattle-breeders23. In all the above-mentioned publications Krader included special chapters about Kazakhs where he described formation of ethnic territory, times and reasons of separation into three Zhuzes, myths about the origin of Turkic people. According to Nikolas Ryazanovskiy, Professor of the Californian University (Berkley), the reasons of accession of Central Asian territory to Russia lie “in Russian national features24.” American sociologist and historian David T. Lindgren noted: «Weakness in resistance which Russians met here before revolution is relative, was explained by poorly developed national consciousness of the Central Asian people, and also that they were pacified by some improvement by the Russian administration of their financial position – streamlining of systems of land rent and the taxation, creation of a transport and communication network, adjustment of medical care»25. Krader L. Social Organization of the Mongol-Turkic pastoral nomads. The Hague, 1963. 21 Ibid. P. 12. 22 Krader L. Peoples of Central Asia. The Hague, 1963. 23 Krader L. Principles and structures in the organization of the Asiatic Steppe pastoralists // Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 1955. Vol. 11. No. 2. PP. 67-92. 24 Riasanovsky N.V. Old Russia, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe // The American Slavic and East European Review. Oct. 1952. Vol. XI. N. 3. PP. 171-182. 25 Lindgren D.T. Racial and ethnic conflict in Soviet Central Asia // Ethnic Autonomy-comparative dynamics: the Americans, Europe and the Developing World / Ed. by Raymond L. Hall. N.Y., etc., 1979. P. 239. 20

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Empire remains a hot topic among historians of Russia and Eurasia. Studies over the last decade have pointed to the transformative force of imperial expansion and the colonial encounter both along the borderlands of the Russian state and in the metropole. Two major developments facilitated the importance of studying Russia as an empire. First, the collapse of the Soviet Union not only opened the eyes of scholars of the region to continued repression of non-Russian nationalities but opened the doors of regional archives and libraries to foreigners. At the same time the explosive field of colonial studies appeared, inspired by Edward Said’s seminal text. Even if Said and other colonial theorists convinced of the centrality of empire building to the politics and culture of Great Britain and France remained ambivalent on the application of their conclusions to Russia, numerous scholars working on the Russian borderlands clearly saw the parallels between their subjects and those invoked in studies of West European empires. Empire, in fact, as numerous scholars have argued, played an even more important role in Russia than elsewhere in Europe, for it was through the acquisition of territories from the 16th to the 20th centuries that Russians sought to overcome their sense of political weakness and marginality and to prove their always-fragile status as a truly “European” state. The intersection of Russian imperialism and the pastoralism of the steppe nomads provides a particularly useful lens to view motivations and processes of empire and their impact on politics and economics, society, and culture. Empire building on the steppe followed a long period during which tribes emerging from the region had held control over Moscow through the Golden Horde. Charles J. Halperin and Donald Ostrowski have noted the influences, cultural as well as political, of the tribes on the Slavic princedoms of the era26. From the 16th century onward, therefore, as power in the region shifted increasingly to the Muscovite state, Michael Khodarkovsky argues that Russian leaders employed steppe peoples as a gauge against which they judged Charles J. Halperin, Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987); and Donald Ostrowski, Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-Cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier, 1304–1589 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). 26

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their rising power, their identity as conquerors, and increasingly, their “civilization.” On the one hand, new works on colonialism seek not only to give a voice, and agency, to the colonized but to explore the wider significance of their role in shaping the colonial encounter and the ideology and practices of empire itself27. As such, not only can the colonized engage and manipulate a colonial system, but they can alter its very foundations. More recent work has questioned the dichotomy of colonizer and colonized, as the workings of empire, for example, often favored native elites over poor settlers28. On the other hand, scholars want not to minimize the destructive power of the conquerors. European colonialism was an extremely violent process, and brutal military force remained the ultimate arbiter of disputes between agents of empire and those they subjugated. A continued willingness to resort to violence to overcome resistance and subdue rebellions at any cost demonstrated the centrality of empire to both the image and practice of rule in European empires, particularly in Russia. Taken together, these recent studies of empire on the steppe demonstrate its manifold effects on people and institutions from the tsar and central policy makers in St. Petersburg to pastoral Kyrgyz nomads in the Tien-Shan mountains. Even as Russians proclaimed their military and cultural superiority over steppe nomads, they recognized the legacy and continuing power of tribal leaders to shape the practices and politics of empire in Central Eurasia. Steppe peoples, meanwhile, as Virginia Martin and Chinara Ryskulbekovna Israilova-Khar′ekhuzen argue, sought to exploit the machinery of colonial rule and adapt new practices of empire to their own cultures in the face of tsarist administrators and, subsequently, waves of Slavic colonists. Such efforts grew more and more 27 Martin pays homage in this regard to the influence of “history from below,” as constructed in Lynn Hunt, ed., The New Cultural History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989) and the colonial ethnographers John Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, Ethnography and the Historical Imagination (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992). 28 On the permeability of the categories “colonizer” and “colonized,” see Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994); Mrinalini Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The “Manly Englishman” and the “Effeminate Bengali” in the Late Nineteenth Century (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 1998).

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difficult as both the ideology and the exercise of empire proved hostile to the very existence of pastoral societies29. In the middle of the 19th century some Kazakhs began to receive Russianstyle education. It was from this group that the first modern Kazakh intellectuals appeared. They included the well-known scholar Shoqan Walikhanov, the famous pedagogue Ibrahim Altynsarin, and some intellectuals who worked for Dala Walayatynyng Gazeti (a newspaper of the Governor-Generalship of the Steppe). Their activities were multi-faceted, but one noteworthy aspect was that they zealously collected pieces of oral literature. The collection of oral literature was a part of a phenomenon that Peter Burke calls the “discovery of the people,”30 which, in my view, can be interpreted as both the “discovery of the folk” and the “discovery of the nation.” By collecting pieces of oral literature and other kinds of folk culture, intellectuals rediscovered and defined the peculiarities of the Kazakhs and confirmed their devotion to a single Kazakh community which included both intellectuals and the masses. Another interesting thing about the first modern intellectuals is that some of them were worried about the influence of Islam and the Tatar language. They were very proud of the Kazakh language and traditions, and feared that Islamic doctrines and Tatar culture would “contaminate” the purity of Kazakh culture. This anxiety strengthened their national consciousness. A different position was represented by Abai, a great poet. He wrote: “Kazakhs have evil intentions toward each other, they do not share others’ wishes, they seldom speak the truth, they like to compete for positions, they are lazy. Why? ...All these things happen because their sole care is to increase livestock. If they devoted themselves to other things such as agriculture, trade, art and scholarship, these things would not happen.”31 Although his identity as a Kazakh was clear, he was critical about the Kazakhs’ Jeff Sahadeo. Conquest, Colonialism, and Nomadism on the Eurasian Steppe. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Volume 4, Number 4, Fall 2003 (New Series), pp. 942-954 (Article). 30 Peter Burke. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe. New York, 1978. PP. 3-22. 31 “Ushinshi soz,” in: Abai, Shygharmalarynyng eki tomdyq tolyq zhinaghy, Vol. 2 (Almaty, 1995), p. 160. 29

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national character and took a relativistic approach to the content of the national culture. He proposed learning from Russians, Tatars and other peoples. In the 19th century Kazakh intellectuals were small in number. They were scattered on the vast steppe and lacked regular contact with each other, which Lewis Coser regarded as an essential condition for the intellectual vocation to become socially feasible.32 Media through which they could have an influence on ordinary people were also limited. By the beginning of the 20th century, however, with the spread of both Russian and Muslim systems of education, intellectuals increased and became a social stratum which was strong enough to organize social, cultural and political movements. The book Steven Sabol “Russian Colonization and Genesis of Kazak National Consciousness” has shown that Kazakh society was governed by its nomadic culture and evolving in its internal and external relations. The nineteenth and twentieth century intelligentsia conceptualized Kazakh national identity around the unifying cultural and social symbols of the Kazakhs nomadic pastoral past. To accomplish this the Kazakh intelligentsia had to overcome centuries of traditional social structure whose principal sources of strength and history relied upon smaller units of identity than any specific national persona. Aul, clan, and zhuz designations, though all Kazakh, were inherently stronger loci of identity. Keeping these symbols and their functions within Kazakh society in mind, it is necessary next to examine the KazakhRussian relationship and its effect upon the Kazakh economy, culture, and society. Paralleling this relationship is the growth of the Kazakh intelligentsia, which undertook the complex effort to define the Kazakh national identity. In the nineteenth century as Russia’s presence in the steppe increased so did its desire for a better educated indigenous population to serve the needs and interests of the state. The Kazakh intelligentsia emerged as the social and economic relationship intensified between the Russian state and its non-Russian population. The relationship between colonization and the Kazakh intelligentsia development during the nineteenth century is crucial to understanding the dynamic forces 32

Lewis A. Coser, Men of Ideas: A Sociologist’s View (New York, 1965), pp. 3-4.

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that shaped the intelligentsia’s socio-political agenda in the last decade of the tsarist empire. While it is difficult, and indeed precarious, to characterize the nature of a group bound more by its national identification than shared ideology, certain particulars do surface which permit some meaningful analysis of this specific social group. The term intelligentsia, introduced into the Russian language only in the 1860s, designated not only the revolutionary opposition to the tsarist regime in whatever manifestation, but independent thinkers, often of aristocratic background, who by virtue of their intellect felt separated from the ordinary, typically uneducated, masses. In Soviet parlance the term came to designate simply someone who toiled with their mind rather than their hands33. To describe the Kazakh intelligentsia with such clarity - such as a group with a distinct social identity, or as an element of society that would, or did, designate itself as the ‘intelligentsia’ - is impossible. They almost never referred to themselves in such a way. They did occupy a distinct position in both Kazakh and tsarist society, yet they neither represented nor conformed to any of the social or economic categories often reserved for intel­lectual groups. Although in the nineteenth century, the Kazakh intelli­gentsia operated between the two societies and cultures, by the twentieth century, representing only a small segment of Kazakh society, they sought to mediate between the state and its subjects and to pre­serve and advance the cultural and economic development of a people who were steadily becoming subjugated and impoverished. Thus, those individuals referred to in this chapter as the ‘Kazakh intelligentsia’ were in fact Kazakhs trained by the Russian government initially to be trans­lators, scribes, educators, scientists, or others who, by virtue of their economic well-being, sought to enhance the economic and social status of the Kazakh people through education and literacy. Their efforts involved two gradual stages. The first required introducing the cus­toms, history, language, social structure, etc. of the Kazakhs to the Russians. The second was participatory, in that Kazakh intellectuals were teachers and scientists and by the twentieth century also journalists and politicians, working in the tsarist system to influence the colonial relationship. 33 Martin Malia. What is the intelligentsia? In The Russian intelligentsia, edited by Richard Pipes. 1961. PP. 2-3.

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During the Soviet period, three individual Kazakhs - Chokan Valikhanov, Ibriham Altynsarin, and Abai Kunanbaev - were regarded as the pillars, or ‘democratic-enlighteners’, of the nineteenth-century Kazakh intelligentsia. Martha Olcott referred to them as the leading ‘secular elite’, influenced by Russian liberal exiles as well as Western literature34. These descriptions, however, diminish their attention to Islam, which was an important, but not dominant, facet of their lives. Many of the other Kazakhs, poets and those educated predominantly in the mekteb or medrese, did not fit into Soviet interpretations due to religious themes in their work and were consequently ignored by scholarship. There existed a conflict between what Thomas Winner called the ‘nationalist traditionalists’ and the ‘Westerners’. This struggle manifested itself in many ways, but most notably in literary and educational initiatives. For Soviet scholars, many of the tradi­tionalists were aqyns, or bards, whose works influenced many of the intelligentsia, but due to a reliance upon Islamic themes lacked the ‘new attitude’ necessary to be designated as a member of the ‘intelli­gentsia’. Some were scholars, similar to Valikhanov, but whose con­tributions to our understanding of Kazakh history and culture has been mysteriously neglected35. “Beginning in 1870, however, the tsarist government sponsored the first of two newspapers that had notable influences on the development of a Kazakh intellectual community and the advancement of a written Kazakh language. The first, Turkistan ualaiatynyng gazeti (The Turkistan Regional Newspaper) (1870-1882) was published in Tashkent in both an Uzbek and Kazakh edition using the Arabic script. Often regarded by Soviet scholars as an instrument of the government and an obstacle to nationalist movements, native Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tatars, and others nevertheless contributed frequently to its pages. The second important newspaper, Kirgizskaia stepnaia gazeta (the Russian language title), also known in Kazakh as Dala ualaiatynyng gazeti, was published as a weekly from 1888 to 1902 in Omsk. Appearing simultaneously in both Russian and Kazakh (using an Arabic script), Martha Olcott. The Kazakhs. Stanford, 1987. P. 104. Sabol S. Russian Colonization and the Genesis of Kazakh National Cons­ ciousness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. P. 55. 34 35

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it published works by many notable Kazakhs, including Altynsarin, Abai Kunanbaev, Spandiiar Qobeev, and Alikhan Bokeikhanov. It is credited with efforts to standardize literary Kazakh and for being one of the first forums advocating Kazakh women’s emancipation. It also published many articles opposing the forced sedentarization of Kazakh nomads, while simultaneously publishing articles that urged Kazakhs to learn trades and take up farming36”. Under the initiative of Mukhamedzhan Seralin, a leading intellectual and educator, in 1907 Kazakhs in Troitsk started the newspaper Kirgizskoi gazeti (Qazaq Gazeti). It was closed by the authorities after only one issue37. Similar to earlier government sponsored publications, this paper appeared in both Kazakh and Russian. Another venture, Sirke (Vinegar), led by Duma deputy Shaihmerden Qoshchyghulov, appeared only once and as an appendix to the Tatar newspaper Ulfat38. Seralin, writing in 1924, believed that despite the ‘glimmer’ of hope offered by the 1905 revolution, Kazakhs were unorganized and therefore unprepared to ‘profit’ by its results. Kazakh book and pamphlet publishing after 1905 swelled and temporarily became the primary vehicle for Kazakhs to share ideas and express their deepening alarm with government policies in the steppe region. Much of this expanded activity continued to remain oriented toward poetry, translations, and textbooks 39. Indeed, the poetry followed traditional tales of heroes (batyr) and the like, or showed Western influences in style and subject40. The first novels and satirical works also appeared in this period, such as Sabit Donentaev’s disparaging Ultshylgha (For the nationalist) Ibid., P. 60. S. E. Zimanov and K. Ibrisov. Obshestvenno-politicheskie vzgliady Mukhamed­ zhan Seralina. Alma-Ata, 1962. P. 276. 38 Seralin M. Qurmetly oqushylar! Aiqap. No. 1 (1911); U. Subkhanberdina. Qazaqtyng revoliutsiiadan burynghy merzimdi baspasozinigdegi materialdar. AlmaAta, 1962. P. 276. 39 Edward Allworth. Central Asian Publishing and the Rise of Nationalism. New York, 1965. P.13. 40 A. M. Zhirenchin. Iz istorii Kazakhskoi knigi, Alma-Ata, 1987. PP. 91-9. Batyr is the Kazakh word for hero and in Kazakh oral literary traditions the batyr played a prominent role. See Winner Thomas. The Oral Art and Literature of the Kazakhs of Russian Central Asia. Durham, 1958. PP. 71-5. 36 37

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and Zaman kimdiki? (Whose time is it?) and Spandiiar Qopeev’s novel Qalym (Bride-price), which criticized the practice of the title. There was an explicitly sharper political edge to many of the new publications, for example Mashgyr-zhusup Qopeev’s Khalahkuali. Qopeev was highly critical of the oppressive Russian administration and local Russian authorities, as well as native leaders, and advocated political and spiritual freedoms for Kazakhs, eliminating poverty, opening Kazakh schools, and freedom of speech and press. It is a small work, only twenty pages, but influential enough to be republished in 1912, five years after the first edition41. In 1909 one of the most important works was published, one which had meaningful influence upon the development of Kazakh national identity and consciousness. Mirzhaqyp Dulatov’s Oian Qazaq! (Awake Kazakh!), a small collection of poems, attempted to rally Kazakhs to oppose the increased Russian migration to the steppe and its impact upon the nomadic culture and economy42. For Dulatov and many other Kazakhs, the seizure of land came to symbolize colonial oppression and national humiliation. He wrote: Every year our lands and water become less; they become the property of the Russian peasants. The tombstones of our glorious ancestors are already to be found paving the streets of their towns. Thou, oh Russian peasant, thou dost not scruple to take the stones of these tombs to build thy house nor their timber to warm thee. In 1911 Seralin started publishing Ai qap would also publish articles in Russian, vital forum in which Kazakh intellectuals could collectively articulate their growing social concerns. The journal provided like-minded national leaders that initial unifying medium and gave Kazakhs a channel around which they could coalesce and discuss the S. Sabol. Russian Colonization and the Genesis of Kazakh National Consciousness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. P. 66. 42 Mirzhaqyp Dulatov. Oian Qazaq! (1909, reprinted 1991). A contemporary French journal translated the title of Dulatov’s book as ‘The Joyous Cossak’ (‘Les Joyeux Cosaque’), mistakenly identifying not only the Kazakhs but the nationalist intent behind his work. See ‘Statistique des Publications Musulmanes de Russie’, Revue du Nonde Musulman, 26 (1914, pp. 218-20). The article also mistakenly translated Qopeev’s work as ‘The Situation of Situations’. 41

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various issues confronting the Kazakh economy, culture, language, and national future43. The first number appeared in January 1911 and continued uninterrupted until September 1915. It started as a monthly, publishing twelve editions in its first year, but in 1913 it increased to twice monthly. In its four and a half year existence Ai qap published a total of 88 numbers44. Never sufficiently capitalized, the journal finally succumbed to the material and economic pressures brought on by World War One. Ai qap’s success was clearly due to Seralin, who gathered reformists and nationalists together as well as a host of diverse scholars, educators, politicians, writers, etc. Ai qap devoted attention to a myriad of subjects during its exis­ tence. Education and land dominated, but other issues graced its pages. It published numerous articles about Kazakh history, a topic that Kazakhs often recorded in great historical epics, but had neglected in a scholarly monographic form. Another subject that received wide attention in the pages of Ai qap concerned the Kazakh diaspora in China, Mongolia, and other regions beyond Russia’s borders. The journal’s editors were strong proponents of female emancipation and published numerous articles advocating women’s equality and edu­cation. Among the many articles, the theme of education for young girls was quite prominent. Indeed, as part of this commitment to women’s issues, Ai qap published works by Kazakh women45. Ai qap addressed religious, linguistic, and economic issues in almost every issue. Akhmet Baitursynov wrote several articles about educa­tion and orthography. In his article, ‘Zhazu tartibi’ (Writing sequence) Baitursynov strenuously argued for using the Arabic script, but one modified to correspond more closely with Kazakh vernacular. To that end, he published an alphabet primer in 1914, which was republished in 1991. In the newspaper Kazakh, his script was used and is 43 Bennigsen Alexander and Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay. La Presse et le Mouvement national chez les musulmans de Russieavant. Paris, 1920. PP. 151-2. 44 U. Subkhanberdina. ‘Aiqap’ betindegi maqalalar men khat-khabalar. AlmaAta, 1961. P. 149. 45 S. Sabol. Russian Colonization and the Genesis of Kazakh National Con­ sciousness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. P. 68.

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more standardized. The written Kazakh in Ai qap lacks similar consistency. Both periodicals reflect a strong Arabic-Persian influence, particularly in vocabulary. For example, the word khikaia, originally Arabic, mean­ing story or tale, was used more frequently than the Kazakh anggime or oleng. Another word often encountered in Ai qap was the Persian word shahar (city), rather than the Kazakh word qala. While it is not sur­prising to see these words used, many Kazakhs objected to the inclu­sion of non-Kazakh words and argued for a standardized written Kazakh, free from Russian, Arabic, and Persian. Interestingly, Dulatov wrote an article about the artificial language Esperanto. While never advo­cating its use among Kazakhs, primarily because it is based upon word foundations common in European languages, he claimed that after only a few months it could be ‘similar to someone’s mother tongue’. He even provides an address in Warsaw where one could purchase textbooks for learning this ‘future’ language. Except for the sporadic Qazaqstan, Ai qap had no rival in the steppe, until 1913 when a group of Kazakh lead by Bokeikhanov and Baitursynov, as editor, started to publish the newspaper Kazak. In the first year of publication Kazak totaled 3,0000 copies per edition, easily surpassing Ai qap which never published more than 1,200 copies per issue at any time in its existence46. Indeed in 1914 Kazak published the geographic distribution of the newspaper: Turgai – 694, Semipalatinsk - 612, Akmolinsk - 586, Syr-Darya – 327, Ural – 301, Semirech’e - 57, Bukei Horde - 36. Interestingly, the newspaper was also received by subscribers in China and Turkey (10 and 5 respectively). Unfortunately, no subscriber list was published or appears to have survived. According to Benedict Anderson, print-languages laid the foundation for ‘national consciousness’47. It tied the language to antiquity, which, for the Kazakhs, formed a subjective idea of the nation based upon traditional oral tales and dastans. The social values, historical memories, and spiritual life of the Kazakhs were expressed through O. Abdimanov. ‘Qazaq’ gazeti. Almaty, 1993. P. 37. R. N. Nurgaliev. Ai qap. Almaty, 1995. PP. 21-2. 47 Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London, 1991. PP. 44-5. 46

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their oral traditions, and Ai qap and Kazak tried to evoke the same emotional response through literary Kazakh. After Ai qap ceased operations, Kazak was indisputably the most influential periodical among the Kazakh intelligentsia. Two other newspapers started publishing, Alash and Saryarqa. The newspaper Alash was the organ of the political party Ush Zhuz (Three Hordes) and Saryarqa editors came from Kazakh youth groups, such as Birlyq (Unity), and followed the editorial line of Kazakh. Following the February 1917 revolution, Kazakh became the official organ of Alash Orda and continued publication until September 1918 (although sporadically after April of that year). Throughout 1917 numerous other newspapers started operations, but all failed after a few editions48. Stiven Sabol write: Many scholars draw a distinction between ‘western-oriented intellectuals’, with Ai qap being their principal organ, and ‘nationalist-traditionalists’ and their publication Kazakh49. The contrast and distinction, however, are not that simple or accurate. Ai qap’s editorial board was comprised of many leaders of the future political parties Alash Orda and Ush Zhuz and it embraced ideas espoused by both. In addition to Bokeikhanov, Baitursynov, and other Alash Ordists, Turar Ryskulov, Saken Seifullin, Sabit Donetaev, Sultanmakmut Toraighyrov, Maghzhan Zhumabaev, and others contributed to both periodicals and participated in their intellectual and political maturation. Ai qap and Kazakh’s contribution to early Kazakh nationalist thought lay less in their collective readership, or the variety of articles published (although this should not be underestimated), but rather in the assortment of individuals who contributed to their pages, who participated on their editorial boards, and who went on to influence subsequent Kazakh nationalist movements. But there is still a more obvious transition, or perhaps more correctly evolution, that occurred between, for example, Valikhanov’s thinking and that of Seralin or 48 S. Sabol. Russian Colonization and the Genesis of Kazakh National Consciousness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. P. 71. 49 See for example, Winner. Oral Art and Literature. P. 121. Winner does not even mention Seralin, though he does discuss briefly the role of Ai qap as an influential publication.

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Baitursynov which demonstrates the maturation of the Kazakh intelligentsia. Valikhanov worked alone, as did Altynsarin, in his efforts to influence Russian policy and raise the level of education or even the national consciousness of the people. Both men functioned within the system, yet remained outsiders, without the recognition of their efforts and sacrifices by their fellow Kazakhs. There was not unity of action, only objectives. By the twentieth century action and objectives were united. Foreigners’ information about Kazakhstan, contained in publications of the specified historians, is fragmentary. No source contains a full overview and characteristics of this literature. The first such attempt is presented in Soviet historiography in K. L. Esmagambetov’s works50. 1.4 FROM NOMADISM TO NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS Kazakh nomadism and culture as they existed in the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries provides the necessary contextual references for understanding the Kazakh intelligentsia’s social and economic grievances and programs. Kazakh national identity, both prerevolutionary and Soviet, was configure by the intelligentsia around the cultural symbols (real and imagined) of a nomadic past. Recognizing these symbols, and their functions within the nomadic society, is crucial to discerning the complex effort required by the Kazak intelligentsia to define a national identity and to disseminate their program among the Kazakh population51. Numerous works exist from the tsarist period, individual travelers accounts from both foreigners and Russians and reports by Kazakhs themselves, describing Kazakh nomadism, tsarist policies in the steppe regions, and the difficult economic situation that evolved for 50 Esmagambetov K.L. Reality and falsification. Anglo-American historiography of Kazakhstan. Alma-Ata, 1976., It is. Kazakhstan in the works of Western authors. Alma-Ata, 1979 (in Russian); 51 S. Sabol. Russian Colonization and the Genesis of Kazakh National Consciousness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. P. 9.

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the nomads. Soviet scholars have also made important contributions to understanding the economic and cultural nature of Kazakh society, which clarifies the concepts and strengthens the comprehension of Kazakh nomadism. “The term ‘nomadism’ here is used synonymously with ‘pastoral nomadism’. It needs to be understood, however, that not all nomads are pastoralists. For example, some American Plans Indians were nomadic, but they did not maintain livestock and, instead, followed wild herds which were their principal food source, a form of behaviour referred to as transhumance52.” Many recent studies clearly demonstrate that nomadic cultures vary considerably. Among those groups who depend on livestock and spatial mobility as their principal survival strategies, there is a tremendous range of herd management techniques, social organization, land tenure and utilization, agricultural production, differentiation of tasks by gender and age, and interactions with outside groups and sedentary societies. Before their incorporation within modern political systems, nomadic societies were noted for their self-sustaining social structures, sociocultural homogeneity combined with horizontal and vertical mobility, and a distrust of formal, centralized authority. Up to the late nineteenth century, in the absence of technological prowess and centralized political authority structures, pastoral nomadism remained the basic economic and social framework in the Kazakh steppe region among the steppe nomads. Many commentators have underscored the egalitarian and democratic character of the Kazakh nomadic organization, underlining its diffused and localized authority structure and an open and fluid pattern of leadership53. The Kazakh nomadic system lacked the complex social or occupational stratification that is characteristic of agrarian societies. However, the Kazakh nomadic organization was internally differentiated by informal hierarchies of status and seniority within clan segments and clan agglomerations. S. Sabol. Russian Colonization and the Genesis of Kazakh National Consciousness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. P. 10. 53 Bravna Dave. Kazakhstan: Ethnicity, language and power. New York: Routledge, 2007. P. 32. 52

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Nurbulat Masanov, one of Kazakhstan’s foremost scholars o nomadism, refers to a pervasive ‘cult of seniority’ among the nomads, a cult that was produced by genealogical knowledge and memory (the ability to remember the shezhire) and revolved around demonstrating the position of one’s segment in the historical chain of lineage in order to claim pre-eminence. Edward Evans-Pritchard has described the segmentary lineage system as one containing a balanced opposition between tribes and tribal segments, that is able to preserve a fixed and self-regulated structure in the absence of a single centralized authority structure in a tribe54. The Kazakh clan-tribal organization, on the contrary, was highly fluid and resilient, as the pastoral nomadic life of the Kazakhs was dependent on their continued mobility in the face of challenges posed by the harsh climatic conditions and the outside world of settlers. Although numerous oral epics and aphorisms romantically portray the free-willed nature of the nomads and their love of an unfettered life style, pastoral nomadism was primarily a mechanism of survival in the arid ecology of the steppe in the absence of other means of livelihood. Nomads roamed about and engaged in livestock breeding not for the ‘love for it’, but because they had few other options for supporting themselves in a pre-technological setting55. The Kazakh nomads first experienced some form of administrative regulation and centralized political control with the introduction of tsarist institutions and laws. Though the new administrative units established in the Kazakh steppe from 1822 onwards were intended to coincide with the prevalent territorial divisions among the three clantribal agglomerations, they also interfered with the informal, albeit regularized migratory patterns of clans and auls. Similarly, the tsarist officials attempts to draw administrative boundaries on the basic Edward E. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer: A Description of the Models of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. P. 142. 55 Briskin A. Stepi kazakhskie. Kyzyl Orda: Kazizdat, 1929. Masanov N. Kochevaia tsivilizatsiia Kazakhov. Almaty: Sotsinvest, 1995; sees pastoral nomadism as ‘ecologically determined’, noting that the arid climate, vast geographical expanse and harsh ecological conditions on the Eurasian steppe rendered livestock breeding the only available mode of survival. 54

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of what they assumed to the natural demarcation between the settled agrarian groups and the nomads did not take into account the continuing seasonal migrations across the newly drawn borders and the interdependence between the settled and nomadic groups56. The Russian military conquest of Turkestan in 1865 and incursions into the emirates of Khiva, Bukhara and Kokand brought the Kazakh steppe under the direct control of the tsarist administration. In 1868, the steppe territories were divided into three separate administrative entities or governorates - Orenburg, West Siberian and Turkestan - which were subdivided into provinces, or oblasts. Kazakh society was in a constant state of evolution. Although change was sometimes forced, which will become clearer further on, the culture was not stagnant. Finally, while the genesis and subsequent evolution of pastoral nomadism and the domestication of animals are important topics, and briefly discussed below, it is more critical to understand that pastoral nomadism was, and is, a historical fact that was constantly in flux depending upon the various pressures (political, economic, climatic, etc.) being exerted internally and externally. The Kazakhs were pastoral nomads whose social, economic, and political structures were tightly interconnected to their specific way of life and to 2,500 years of Central Asian nomadic heritage57. The nomadic economy was capable of producing many of its own basic supplies, such as food, clothing, housing, fuel, and transport, whereas settled communities might be more susceptible to drought or disaster which created a deficiency and potentially hindered the supply of essential materials. Nomads wee also vulnerable to those conditions, in addition to others that might not as adversely affect agricultural communities, but individuals in a mobile community have freer, and perhaps faster, access to necessities not available everywhere, for example salt, metal, wood, water, shelter, and fodder, According to this argument, mobility aided survival58. 56 Bravna Dave. Kazakhstan: Ethnicity, language and power. New York: Routledge, 2007. P. 36. 57 S. Sabol. Russian Colonization and the Genesis of Kazakh National Consciousness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. P. 11. 58 Lattimore Owen. Inner Asian Frontiers of China. New York, 1951. P. 329.

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Nomadism in some cases made more sense for marginal communities and their existence became more secure, particularly in those environments unsuited to rainfall agriculture. A vital symbiosis existed in pastoral nomadism between man and animal. The herder benefited from the basic supplies listed above, while the livestock was protected from predators and guaranteed other necessary intervention critical for survival59. This is not to suggest that nomads were purely independent and existed unconstrained by towns, for there was clearly a symbiotic relationship between nomads and sedentary peoples too. A pastoral economy was unable to stand alone for extended periods. According to Lattimore: it is the poor nomad who is the pure nomad: by stripping themselves of the accessories and luxuries that a prosperous nomadism as quires they establish afresh the possibility of survival under strictly steppe conditions, and even in the harshest parts of the steppe, and thus attain once more the extreme phase of departure from the edge of the steppe... they can actually repeat the history of the creation or evolution of steppe nomadism, and thereby reinforce the stock of the steppe nomad society. Trade was beneficial for both groups. Accumulated goods, such as wools, hides, livestock, and so on, which could not be consumed or utilized, or became a burden to transport, had to be jettisoned or traded. Most scholars reject the earlier images of nomads, particularly the romanticized stereotypes, namely pillaging goods which they were unable to supply for themselves or acquire through legitimate exchange in the typical form of contact with towns and villages. Nomadic communities understood that they formed a part of a larger, complex interacting system, although they, at times, tried to avoid the association60. The transformation, regardless of where it occurred, was a rapid process and once it began the consequences were ‘sudden and farreaching’61. Indeed, he contends, that although the total number of no59 Krader Lawrence. Ecology of Central Asian Pastoralism. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 11. 1955. P. 303. 60 Bacon Elizabeth E. Central Asians Under Russian Rule. A Study in Culture Change, 1996 (Ithaca and London). 61 Lattimore Owen. Inner Asian Frontiers of China. New York, 1951. P. 453.

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mads did not necessarily increase greatly, the much wider scope of movement and the ability to disperse rapidly and concentrate suddenly made the pastoral society of the steppe nomads in its new form more elusive when defending itself and much more formidable in attack62. This new mobility probably appealed to some segments of the nomadic population and induced them to continue the pastoral life. Most likely, the new military capabilities and security also attracted some and justified their decision. “Moving from theory to the historical record, the first nomads of Central Asia were the Scythians, although other peoples, such as the Cimmerians, engaged in semi-nomadic economies and shared simi­lar features in their art and culture63. Called in Persian and Indian sources ‘Saka’, the Scythians have left kurgans, or tombs, scattered about the steppe, which aided scholars in understanding their cus­toms and culture. In the territory that makes up present-day Kazakhstan, a civilization known as Androvno, probably a predecessor to the Scythians, existed during the neolithic period which shared many common characteristics with the Scythians. Central to all of these societies, from the Scythians to the later Turko-Mongolian peo­ples, was the horse, whose magnificence was often displayed in their art and weavings. It provided the main source of transportation and an important source of sustenance, especially qymyz, commonly transliterated as kumiss (fermented mare’s milk)64.” “Kinship systems evident in Central A notions of clan, had a decisive influence Indeed, Lattimore’s fundamental dictum understanding of Inner Asian systems (both social and political) is an ‘appreciation of the dynamics of social groups’. Central Asian social organization among nomads was conceived in terms of blood relationships and ties of affinity65. This structure was endowed with a patrilineal system, Ibid., P. 454. Rolle Renate. The World of the Scythians. Translated by F. G. Wells. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, 1989. P. 93. 64 Nurila Z. Shakhanova. The System of Nourishment Among the Eurasian Nomads. In Ecology and Empire: Nomads in the Cultural Evolution of the World, edited by Gary Seamen. 1989. P. 113. 65 Charles Lindholm. Kinship Structure and Political Authority: The Middle East and Central Asia // Comparative Studies in Society and History, 28, 1996. P. 337. 62 63

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underlined with a common ancestry, and typically identical in political and consanguineal units. Genealogies provided the locus of authority between families, auls (the nomadic unit), ru or taipa (clan or tribe), and zhuz (horde). Their formation was, according to Lawrence Krader, based on a ‘rigorous application’ of the principal of patrilineal descent and each init was thereby confirmed with a common territory and functions. Maintenance and knowledge of the genealogy was paramount because the common principals of descent affirmed the perception of a shared cultural heritage, which sanctioned the mutual responsibilities and rights of each member66. The patrilineal system, however, possessed limited political organization and depended more upon the agnatic kin for authoity; although, even this structure was highly adaptable. This common social organization was based also on fixed annual rounds from winter to summer pastures67. The Kazakhs inherited these centuries old traditions and social organizations”. The origins of the Kazaks are uncertain. The name itself, and specifically its derivations, remains a matter of debate and pure conjecture. Most sources agree, however, that Kazakh, as an ethnic term, was in use by the sixteenth century. Prior to that time, it designated groups who had, according to Alfred Yadson, ‘either established themselves independently or transferred their allegiance from one to another of the numerous khans then reigning in the steppe’68. Sandzhar Asfendiarov, a Kazakh scholar, claims the Kazakhs appeared as a distinct group in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries when the Nogai-UzbekKazak union dissolved. The word itself according to the noted linguist Vasilii (Wilhelm) Radlov, is of Turkish origin and means ‘wanderer, freeman, vagabond, and tramp’. One nineteenth century source claims the word was of ‘Tatar’ origin meaning ‘steppe-person’. Vasilii Bar66 Krader Lawrence. Social Organization of the Mongol-Turkic Pastoral Nomads. The Hague, 1963. PP.4-5. 67 Three types of nomadism can generally be discerned among Eurasian nomads: meridional, vertical, and circuitous. Kazakhs typically practiced the first, usually in north and south routes, sometimes travelling distances of up to 1,000 kilometers. See ‘Seasonal Nomadism’, Central Asian Review, 4. PP. 226-227. 68 Hudson A.E. Kazak social structure. Yale Univ.press, 1938, Bacon E.E. Central Asians under Russian rule. A study in Culture change. Cornell Univ. press, Ithaca, N.Y., 1965. P. 12.

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told traces the word’s origins to the Timurid period (late fourteenth century) when it was used to contrast pretenders, called Kazakh, from the true rulers. Later, those Uzbeks who had abandoned their ruler, Abulkhair, were designated Uzbek-Kazak, or simply Kazakh69. By the late fifteenth century, rulers emerged, namely Kirei and Janibek, who identified themselves as ‘rulers’ of the Kazaks70. The Uzbeks of the former confederation migrated to Transoxiana where they settled and abandoned nomadism. Over time, other Turkic nomads joined the Kazak hordes and the name soon signified an ethnic identity rather than a political federative one71. Indeed, according to one Soviet scholar, the ethnonym Kazak became the dominant identity of the steppe region, being a suitable designation for other smaller groups not hitherto characterized as such. According to Krader: The process of Kazakh self-appellation underwent the intervening step of political application; ‘Kazakh’ designated first a social estate, then a political union, and finally a people politically72. This tendency to fission and separation resulted in a notable feature of the Kazaks’ socio-political structure. By the mid-sixteenth century, the Kazaks had divided into three zhuz, or hordes, a sociopolitical formation which existed until the early twentieth century.43 The oldest, and largest in territory but not population, was the Uly Zhuz (Great Horde), located to the southeast, occupying Semirechie, the Syr Darya and some surrounding areas. North and west of the Great Horde was situated Orta Zhuz (Middle Horde), which occupied regions around some major rivers, such as the Chu, Irtish, Sary-Su, and Tobol. Further west, located north and between the Aral and Caspian Seas, was the Kishi Zhuz (Little or Younger Horde). Each horde had its own genealogy, history, and traditions, while maintaining a common Kazak culture, language, and religion. This division was not permanently fixed. An example cited by Krader illustrates that when elements of Kangly, Bartold V. V. Kazak. Sochineniia, vol. 5. 1968. P. 535. Elias N. The Tarikh-i-Rashidi of Mirza Muhammad Haidar, Dughlat: A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia, translated by E. Denison Ross. Reprint edition, Academia Asiatica, 1973. PP. 272-273. 71 Krader Lawrence. Ethnonymy of Kazakh // American Studies in Altaic Linguistics, 13. 1962. P. 123. 72 Krader Lawrence. Peoples of Central Asia. Bloomington, IN. 1963. P. 66. 69 70

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Chaichkly, and Kereit clans of the Uly Zhuz separated from it and nomadized with the Kongrad clan of the Orta Zhuz; they obtained the fictive genealogical right necessary to assert their membership73. According to Bacon and Hudson, all these groups, at whatever genealogical level, had names, but ‘there was no terminological means of distinguishing groups of one genealogical level from those of another except by reference to the tribal genealogy’74. In some parts of the steppe region zhuz was applied indiscriminately to all groups, from the Kazak nation down to the lineage; in other regions zhuz was replaced by ru, uru, or siok75. The social groupings, which influenced political relations, were extremely perplexing and create numerous terminological problems. This does not, however, prevent a general understanding of their use within Kazakh society, regardless of how they might differ from strata to strata. The Kazaks have a tradition of descent from a single primogenitor, the mythical Alash, and at the tribal or clan level a genealogical tree76. Usually the clan bore the name of an eponymous ancestor, or, on some occasions, borrowed the name. According to Alikhan Bokeikhanov, Kazakhs describe themselves as ‘the children of the three hordes’ whenever a stranger asks them ‘Who are you?’. Only when one Kazakh asks another Kazakh the same question will the clan be identified77. Thus, the clan was employed by Kazakhs in order to produce for one another an expression of their mutual relatedness and commonalities. Indeed, some names recur again and again, often the most renowned and glorious from history or mythology. This name would also be the clan uran, or battle cry, and was invoked during war, 73 Krader Lawrence. Social Organization of the Mongol-Turkic Pastoral Nomads. The Hague, 1963. PP.192-193. 74 Bacon Elisabeth E. OBOK: A Study of Social Structure in Eurasia. New York, 1958. P. 68. 75 Hudson A.E. Kazak social structure. Yale Univ.press, 1938, Bacon E.E. Central Asians under Russian rule. A study in Culture change. Cornell Univ. press, Ithaca, N.Y., 1965. PP. 17-19. 76 Bacon Elisabeth E. OBOK: A Study of Social Structure in Eurasia. New York, 1958. P. 67. 77 Bokeikhanov A. Kirgizy. In Formy natsional’nogo dvizheniia v sovremennykh gosudarstvakh. Avstro-vengriia. Rossiia. Germaniia., edited by A. I. Kastenianskii. 1910. P. 591.

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at great gatherings, and other settings that evoked strong recollections or passions of membership in the clan. The political organization at all levels was similar to the genealog­ical structure and extremely fluid. Leadership usually consisted of, at the aul level, an aqsaqal, literally ‘white-beard’, and a bii, sometimes translated as judge, or khan at the larger tribal level78. Leadership, as described by Levshin, was often based upon the ability to render jus­tice, because of wealth and social standing, age, and numerous fam­ily members ready and able to offer support. Personal integrity and fairness inspired respect and elevated one’s standing, attracting larger numbers to one’s side79. Authority was, according to Bacon, ‘directly proportionate to the willingness of the followers to accept the leader’80. Success in war and peace perpetuated one’s rule. Failure meant replace­ment or, in some cases, desertion by followers to another. Indeed, the noted nineteenth-century Russian Turkologist Vasilii Gregoriev com­plained that nowhere in the world had the heads of the nation and the aris­tocracy of birth so little meaning, so little real strength, as the Kirghiz [Kazakh] Khans and Sultans. If any one of them attained to any influence, so as to be able to draw a crowd after him, he reached this not because of his ‘white bone’ but on account of his personal worth, and personal qualities have gained exactly the same influence for simple Kirghiz [Kazakh] of the ‘black bone’81. The strong emphasis on individual leadership quite naturally meant political groupings lacked cohesion. Rarely in Kazakh history was one leader able to organize all three hordes into one political and military unit. In the early sixteenth century, Kasym Khan, son of Janibek, assumed a fragile authority over the Kazakhs; however, after his death in

Radlov V. V. Opyt’ slovaria turkskikh’ narechii, 4 volume. St Peterburg, 1899. PP. 1737-1738. 79 Levshin A. Opisanie kirgiz-kazach’ikh, ili Kirgiz-kaisatskikh, ord I stepei (1832). Almaty, 1996. PP. 163-165. 80 Bacon Elisabeth E. OBOK: A Study of Social Structure in Eurasia. New York, 1958. P. 71. 81 Grigorief V. The Russian Policy Regarding Central Asia. An Historical Sketch’, in Turkistan by Eugene Schuyler, vol. 2. 1877. P. 405. 78

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1518, that feeble unity dissolved82. The last, and most successful, was Khan Tauke (Tiavka) in the early eighteenth century (1680-1718)83. SELF-CONTROL QUESTIONS 1. Describe George Kennan. Why was he significant as a publicist of Kazakhstan? 2. Who were some of the major Western writers in prerevolutionary Kazakhstan? What were some of their contributions to publicity of Kazakhstan abroad? 3. Which books were published about Kazakhstan in the prerevolutionary period? What image of Kazakhstan did they paint? 4. What subjects did journalist Ya.Mak-Gahan follow in his notes, and why did he chose them? 5. Discuss some of the major ideas of 19th-century historians and ethnographers. How did views shift in the 20th century, and why? 6. When and why was the American Ethnological Society was formed? What role has it played in shaping knowledge about Kazakhstan among non-Kazakh peoples? 7. Describe the learning process in Central Asia and Kazakhstan in the second half of the 19th century. What methods and information were emphasized? Has this changed in more recent years? 8. How have Kazakhstan and the U.S.A. established and maintained recognition of one another? 9. Historically, how much attention has been paid in the U.S.A. to the colonial policy of Tsarism in Kazakhstan? What were the journalist Skyler’s contributions in this area? Please mention coverage of specific events. 10. Why did George Kennan’s book resonate so strongly with readers across the globe?

Hambly Gavin. Central Asia. New York, 1969. P. 143. Levshin A. Opisanie kirgiz-kazach’ikh, ili Kirgiz-kaisatskikh, ord I stepei (1832). Almaty, 1996. PP. 144-5. 82 83

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REFERENCES 1. Bartol’d V. Istoriya izucheniya Vostoka v Yevrope i Rossii. –2-ye izd. – L., 1925. 2. Januarius Aloysius MacGahan. Campaigning on the Oxus and the Fall of Khiva. New York, 1874. 3. Satayeva S. Zhurnalist bez vizy (o poyezdke amerikantsa Mak-Gakhana po kazakhskoy stepi) // Mysl’. - 2000. - № 8-9. - S.70-72. 4. Xalfin N. Amerikanskoye proniknoveniye v Indiyu i Afganistan v pervoy polovine XIX v. // Zvezda Vostoka. - 1952. - №11. - S. 84. 5. George Kennan. Siberia and the exile system. – New York: Century, 1891. 6. Kropotkin P.A. Zapiski revolyutsionera. – M.: Mysl’, 1966. 7. Stepnyak-Kravchinskiy S.M. V Londonskoy emigratsii. - M., 1968. 8. Dunlop M.D. The history of Jewish Khazars. Princeton, 1954. 9. Yesmagambetov K.L.. Chto pisali o nas na Zapade. – A., 1992. – S. 87. 10. Hudson A.E. Kazak social structure. Yale Univ.press, 1938. 11. Bacon E.E. Central Asians under Russian rule. A study in Culture change. Cornell Univ. press, Ithaca, N.Y., 1965. 12. Riasanovsky V.A. Customary law of the nomadic tribes. 13. Krader L. Ethnonyms of Kazakh (American Studies in Altaic linguistics.) Ed. by N. Poppe. Indian Univ. publications of the Uralic and Altaic series. Bloomington. Vol. 13. 14. Krader L. Social Organization of the Mongol-Turkic pastoral nomads. The Hague, 1963. 15. Krader L. Peoples of Central Asia. The Hague, 1963. 16. Krader L. Principles and structures in the organization of the Asiatic Steppe pastoralists // Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 1955. Vol. 11. No. 2. PP. 67-92. 17. Riasanovsky N.V. Old Russia, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe // The American Slavic and East European Review. Oct. 1952. Vol. XI. N. 3. PP. 171-182. 18. Lindgren D.T. Racial and ethnic conflict in Soviet Central Asia // Ethnic Autonomy-comparative dynamics: the Americans, Europe and the Developing World / Ed. by Raymond L. Hall. N.Y., etc., 1979. P. 239. 19. Yesmagambetov K.L. Deystvitel’nost’ i fal’sifikatsiya. Anglo-amerikanskaya istoriografiya o Kazakhstane. Alma-Ata, 1976. 20. Yesmagambetov K.L. Kazakhstan v trudakh zapadnoyevropeyskikh avtorov. Alma-Ata, 1979. 21. Charles J. Halperin, Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987); and Donald Ostrowski, Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-Cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier, 1304–1589 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

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22. John Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, Ethnography and the Historical Imagination. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992. 23. Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994. 24. Mrinalini Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The “Manly Englishman” and the “Effeminate Bengali” in the Late Nineteenth Century. Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 1998. 25. Jeff Sahadeo. Conquest, Colonialism, and Nomadism on the Eurasian Steppe. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Volume 4, Number 4, Fall 2003 (New Series), pp. 942-954 (Article). 26. Peter Burke. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe. New York, 1978. PP. 3-22. 27. “Ushinshi soz,” in: Abai, Shygharmalarynyng eki tomdyq tolyq zhinaghy, Vol. 2 (Almaty, 1995), p. 160. 28. Lewis A. Coser, Men of Ideas: A Sociologist’s View. New York, 1965. PP. 3-4. 29. Martin Malia. What is the intelligentsia? In The Russian intelligentsia, edited by Richard Pipes. 1961. PP. 2-3. 30. Martha Olcott. The Kazakhs. Stanford, 1987. P. 104. 31. S. Sabol. Russian Colonization and the Genesis of Kazakh National Consciousness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 32. S. E. Zimanov and K. Ibrisov. Obshestvenno-politicheskie vzgliady Mukhamedzhan Seralina. Alma-Ata, 1962. P. 276. 33. M. Seralin. Qurmetly oqushylar! Aiqap. No. 1 (1911); U. Subkhanberdina. Qazaqtyng revoliutsiiadan burynghy merzimdi baspasozinigdegi materialdar. Alma-Ata, 1962. P. 276. 34. Edward Allworth. Central Asian Publishing and the Rise of Nationalism. New York, 1965. P.13. 35. A. M. Zhirenchin. Iz istorii Kazakhskoi knigi, Alma-Ata, 1987. PP. 91-9. 36. Winner Thomas. The Oral Art and Literature of the Kazakhs of Russian Central Asia. Durham, 1958. PP. 71-5. 37. Bennigsen Alexander and Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay. La Presse et le Mouvement national chez les musulmans de Russieavant. Paris, 1920. PP. 151-2. 38. U. Subkhanberdina. ‘Aiqap’ betindegi maqalalar men khat-khabalar. Alma-Ata, 1961. P. 149. 39. O. Abdimanov. ‘Qazaq’ gazeti. Almaty, 1993. P. 37. R. N. Nurgaliev. Ai qap. Almaty, 1995. PP. 21-2. 40. Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London, 1991. PP. 44-5. 41. Bravna Dave. Kazakhstan: Ethnicity, language and power. New York: Routledge, 2007. P. 32.

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42. Edward E. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer: A Description of the Models of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. P. 142. 43. Briskin A. Stepi kazakhskie. Kyzyl Orda: Kazizdat, 1929. 44. Masanov N. Kochevaia tsivilizatsiia Kazakhov. Almaty: Sotsinvest, 1995. 45. Lattimore Owen. Inner Asian Frontiers of China. New York, 1951. P. 329. 46. Krader Lawrence. Ecology of Central Asian Pastoralism. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 11. 1955. P. 303. 47. Bacon Elizabeth E. Central Asians Under Russian Rule. A Study in Culture Change, 1996 (Ithaca and London). 48. Rolle Renate. The World of the Scythians. Translated by F. G. Wells. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, 1989. P. 93. 49. Nurila Z. Shakhanova. The System of Nourishment Among the Eurasian Nomads. In Ecology and Empire: Nomads in the Cultural Evolution of the World, edited by Gary Seamen. 1989. P. 113. 50. Charles Lindholm. Kinship Structure and Political Authority: The Middle East and Central Asia // Comparative Studies in Society and History, 28, 1996. P. 337. 51. Krader Lawrence. Ethnonymy of Kazakh // American Studies in Altaic Linguistics, 13. 1962. P. 123. 52. Krader Lawrence. Peoples of Central Asia. Bloomington, IN. 1963. P. 66. 53. Krader Lawrence. Social Organization of the Mongol-Turkic Pastoral Nomads. The Hague, 1963. PP.192-193. 54. Bacon Elisabeth E. OBOK: A Study of Social Structure in Eurasia. New York, 1958. P. 68. 55. Radlov V. V. Opyt’ slovaria turkskikh’ narechii, 4 volume. St Peterburg, 1899. PP. 1737-1738. 56. Levshin A. Opisanie kirgiz-kazach’ikh, ili Kirgiz-kaisatskikh, ord I stepei (1832). Almaty, 1996. PP. 163-165. 57. Grigorief V. The Russian Policy Regarding Central Asia. An Historical Sketch’, in Turkistan by Eugene Schuyler, vol. 2. 1877. P. 405. 58. Hambly Gavin. Central Asia. New York, 1969. P. 143.

Chapter 2

MODERN KAZAKHS: WHO ARE THEY?

2.1 DEPICTIONS OF KAZAKHS IN WESTERN MEDIA Modern Kazakhstan is the world’s ninth largest country and the second in the CIS after Russia in terms of territory, and is one of the world’s richest countries in terms of natural resources; it is considered to be the most stable of the former Soviet states. Our country has been attracting the world’s attention over the past two decades with its successes in the creation of institutions of statehood, the implementation of market reforms in the economy and the formation of a tolerant multi-denominational and multiethnic society. Kazakhstan is famous for its contribution to the strengthening of global stability and nuclear security, as an initiator and active player in many processes in the sphere of disarmament, confidence building and the creation of a collective system of security. Located in the very centre of the great Eurasian continent, Kazakhstan is a country in which different and diverse phenomena have become intertwined and synthesized. This country simultaneously belongs to both the East and the West. Our country is populated by people that belong to different ethnic groups and cultures. The country is populated by many different peoples and cultures. In the course of a history that has been far from simple, Kazakhstan has acquired uniqueness in the nature of enterprising and resilient individuals who still remember the traditional values of collectivism. Their principal features are tolerance and openness. Each generation and each social group in Kazakhstan prize their personal experience and have their own values: the older generation draws strength in the nomadic tradition and ancient culture; the middle generation relies on its knowledge and splendid education, for which it has the Soviet system to thank; young people are turning more and more to the West, they are fluent in 55

European languages, they drink in democratic values and make wide use of the Internet84. Thanks very peculiar sense of humor British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen Kazakhstan in 2006 is not absolutely unknown to the world the country. The name of this country has become very widely known, although drawn Cohen portrait of Kazakhstan is absolutely far from reality. But mostly, people only knew about Borat, the comic creation of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who pretends to be a Kazakh «media personality.» The joke depends on an audience’s absolute ignorance of Kazakhstan and its culture. I made the somewhat PC point to a female fan that no comedian would dare to traduce the identity of Jews, African-Americans or Welshmen in such a crude way. «Well, of course not,» she said puzzled, «that’s why he invented a country!»85 Modern Kazakhstan occupies a region of Central Asia that a lacuna in the knowledge of most of the West. After the collapse of the USSR, Central Asian countries that were not well known to the general international community have increased their role on the international economic and political landscape. There is a Chinese proverb that it is a great happiness and unhappiness simultaneously to be born when empires collapse and are created. The collapse of the Soviet regime opened new alternatives for the development in the post-Soviet world. Post-Soviet transformations are influenced by a variety of national and international factors. There are several theoretical international relations frameworks that have been used to analyze Central Asian developments: neoliberalism, neo-realism, constructivism, primordialism and geopolitics. A neo-liberal approach to Central Asian developments was especially popular during the initial period, following the collapse of the USSR86. However, starting from 2000, increased 84 Chokan and Murat Laumulin. The Kazakhs children of the steppes. – London: GLOBAL ORIENTAL LTD, 2009. – 187 p. 85 Christopher Robbins. Apples are from Kazakhstan. New York, 2008. – p.9. 86 Zabortseva Y.N. From the “forgotten region” to the “great game” region: On the development of geopolitics in Central Asia. Journal of Eurasian Studies 3 (2012) 168–176.

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political and economic confrontations prompted scholars world-wide to refer to neorealism to understand the turbulent developments in the region. In addition to these traditional schools, constructivism – specifically defining aspects of regional integration, and primordialism – related to the formation of national identity have been taking an increasingly stronger niche in the post-Soviet theoretical debates. New geopolitical studies, focusing on Central Asia, echo concepts that originated before the establishment of the USSR. The geopolitical approach was proposed by Sir Halford Mackinder87 in his concept of Heartland. His Heartland Theory is apparently the most well known geopolitical model, emphasizing the ascendancy of land-based power over sea-based power. The pivotal area, or the Heartland, was roughly defined by Central Asia, from where horsemen dominated Asia and Europe. On the eve of political transformations in the CIS, Brzezinski, the former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, and the US scholar Huntington presented their theories of Eurasia, whichwas characterized as a potentially dangerous geopolitical and ethnically unstable region. This agitated many scholars in the former USSR. However, it soon became evident that stability in the region had been seriously threatened by the number of conflicts in the region, and the unstable political and economic regimes in the independent countries. Freedom from the Soviet empire created an opportunity for elites of each former Soviet Socialist Republic to “nationalize” their newly independent state. Most observers of contemporary Kazakh politics would agree that Kazakhstan has taken advantage of this historic opportunity, and can thus be classified as a nationalizing state. For Rogers Brubaker, a nationalizing state is perceived by its elites as a nation-state of and for a particular nation, but simultaneously as an “incomplete” or “unrealized” nation-state. To resolve this problem of incompleteness and to counteract perceived discrimination, Brubaker argues, “nationalizing elites urge and undertake action to promote the language, culture, demographic preponderance, economic flourishing, or political hegemony of the core ethnocultural nation.”88 While the Mackinder H. Democratic ideals and reality a study in the politics of reconstruction. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1996. 88 Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 9. 87

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foundation of any Soviet successor state’s nationalization program is a cluster of implemented formal policies that privilege the titular nation, these policies are often reinforced by informal practices, primarily discriminatory personnel practices, with the same function. Much has been written about Kazakhstan’s nationalization strategy, and not surprisingly scholars rely on what they know about formal policies and informal practices to characterize that strategy89. In the foreign policy of Kazakhstan, Central Asian countries objectively occupy a key position. Although Russia, China, and the USA are comparatively more prominent in economic terms, Kazakhstan holds the potential to take a more prominent position. Currently, Kazakhstan is actively developing cooperation with the USA in almost all spheres of bilateral relations. The USA was one of the first countries to officially recognize Kazakhstan’s independence (October 25, 1991) and establish diplomatic relations. So what is today’s Kazakhstan? It is a country that has successfully rid itself of the negative elements of the Soviet legacy; it is a country that is building an open and democratic society with a liberal spirit. Kazakhstan is already coming out of the transition phase, where economic reforms come before those of a political nature. Encountering many problems and difficulties, Kazakhstan and its political elite have learnt to resolve them and this should be recognised as the principal achievement of the post Soviet era. “Kazakhstan is not a country that faces significant external See, for example, Ian Bremmer, “Nazarbaev and the North: State-Building and Ethnic Relations in Kazakhstan,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 4, 1994, pp. 619–635; Anatoly M. Khazanov, “The Ethnic Problems of Contemporary Kazakhstan,” Central Asian Survey, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1995, pp. 243–264; Neil Melvin, Russians beyond Russia: The Politics of National Identity (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995); Robert Kaiser and Jeff Chinn, “Russian–Kazakh Relations in Kazakhstan,” Post-Soviet Geography, Vol. 36, No. 5, 1995, pp. 257–273; Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Martha Brill Olcott, “Kazakhstan: Pushing for Eurasia,” in Ian Bremmer and Ray Taras, eds, New States, New Politics: Building the Post-Soviet Nations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 547–570; and Sue Davis and Steven O. Sabol, “The Importance of Being Ethnic: Minorities in Post-Soviet States-The Case of Russians in Kazakstan,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 26, No. 3, 1998, pp. 473–491. 89

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threats. Unique in the post-Soviet Central Asian region for its significant and sustained economic growth which has translated into consistent standard of living increases for the population, Kazakhstan has also had a measured foreign policy since independence. Although Russia and China, its two economically and militarily sizable neighbors, are perceived as threatening by some Kazakhs, it is not in a military sense. Rather, Kazakhs worry about Russian and Chinese investors exerting influence as a result of economic power, and they express concern about political bullying. They have managed these problems predominantly by maintaining good relations with these countries, as well as building ties with the United States. Kazakhstan has sought not so much to balance any one partner against others as it has to ensure that a network of good relationships prevents conflict. In its own region, Kazakhstan has aspired to Central Asian leadership with variable success. Tiny neighbor Kyrgyzstan is generally acquiescent to Kazakh pressures and influence, while Uzbekistan has tended to be more hostile, with its own goals of local hegemony. Turkmenistan has remained singularly isolationist, and Tajikistan primarily focused on its internal problems. None of these countries pose a significant military threat. Although Uzbekistan has mined borders with its Tajik and Kyrgyz neighbors, and relations with Kazakhstan have been tense (in part because both countries aspire to lead the region), there is little concern about significant stateto-state military conflict90.” Kazakhstan is the main producer of oil in the region, with current output of crude at 1,106,000 barrels per day (b/d). The country has proven oil reserves of 9 billion barrels, or 1.2 billion metric tons. Its surplus has reached 915,000 b/d-a greater than four-fold increase over 1995. Kazakhstan’s hydrocarbon reserves are contained in 153 occurrences, including 80 petroleum, 24 gas-petroleum, 21 petroleum-gas condensate, five gas condensate and 19 gas fields. The main hydrocarbon reserve base is concentrated in western Kazakhstan’s Guryev, Mangistau, Uralsk and Aktubinsk regions. The hydro90 Olga Oliker. Kazakhstan’s Security Interests and Their Implications for the U.S.-Kazakh Relationship. China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, Volume 5, No. 1 (2007) pp. 63-72.

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carbon resources of these regions are almost equivalent to those of Western Siberia91. “Kazakhstan has the advantage of resources when it looks out into the world and selects its partners. Its substantial oil and natural gas deposits may not rival those of the Gulf or of Russia, but they have to date been sufficient to guarantee a flow of investment and a consistently rising standard of living for Kazakh citizens. This growth also helps play into Kazakhstan’s conservativism when it comes to foreign policy choices. The Kazakhs want good relations with both prospective customers and those who can help support investment. All the more reason to get along with the neighbors, the Americans, the Turks, the Europeans, and whoever else may come calling. Thus, Kazakhstan has pursued political, economic, and security ties with this broad range of countries, including those that might appear threatening, since independence92.” Kazakhstan is considered the most successful Central Asian country in terms of both economic and political reform. The government actively encourages international trade and foreign investment. For purposes of tourism promotion in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the country has developed a certain standard-and-legal basis. It embraces virtually all types of tourism and specifies legal, economic, social and organizational fundamentals of undertaking tourism activities. In addition, in 1997 Kazakhstan has developed a strategy for tourism development up to 2030. Over 370 hotels of various types and 430 tourism agencies function in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Investment areas cover sectors such as hotels, health centers, business tourism, adventure tours, sport tourism, museums and parks, equipment for hotels and event tourism93. The two major coal producers in Central Asia are Kazakhstan and Xinjiang, China. Kazakhstan is estimated to contain 120 billion metric James P. Dorian. Central Asia: A major emerging energy player in the 21st century. International Energy Economist, 6201 Benalder Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 20816, USA. Energy Policy 34 (2006) 544–555. P. 546. 92 Olga Oliker. Kazakhstan’s Security Interests… P. 67. 93 Kemal Kantarci. Perceptions of foreign investors on the tourism market in central Asia including Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. Tourism Management 28, 2007. PP. 820–829. 91

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tons of coal in Karaganda and other areas, but the quality is generally poor, and the deposits are distant from major industrial locations. Limited rail capacity for transporting coal is a structural bottleneck to expanding the exploitation and use of this resource. Xinjiang, China possesses large amounts of high-quality coal resources, with reserves of approximately 3.03 billion metric tons. Kyrgyzstan is reported to have substantial coal reserves, but these are located in an inaccessible part of the country, with no railroad to transport the coal to market. Kazakhstan has 37 primary coal deposits. Since coal is inexpensive in the country, government officials are considering the possibility of constructing a plant for converting coal into synthetic oil to alleviate energy shortages in southeast Kazakhstan. Coal for this purpose is likely to come from the eastern half of the country94. “As Operation Enduring Freedom began, Kazakhstan offered the U.S. overflight and basing, although the latter did not prove necessary, due in large part to Kazakhstan’s geographic location being less than ideal for U.S. needs. The end of Taliban rule in Afghanistan was certainly viewed as beneficial in Almaty, as it was in capitals throughout the region. Kazakhstan has accepted U.S. assistance to eliminate the weapons of mass destruction and related infrastructure that remained on its soil after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has also been happy to accept U.S. military training and other assistance, including in the areas of health care, export control, economic reform, regional stability, and law enforcement. The U.S. also provides democratization reform assistance95.” “But, as noted above, Kazakhstan also pursues a range of counterterrorism initiatives with its broad range of partners. It is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Russiandominated Collective Security Treaty Organization, and NATO’s Partnership for Peace. Kazakhstan sent about two and a half dozen troops to Iraq: army engineers specializing in mine clearance and helping to supply water to Iraqis. One of their peacekeepers was killed in 2006. KazakhJames P. Dorian. Central Asia:.. P.549. U.S. Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Government Assistance to and Cooperative Assistance to Eurasia – 2005, January 2006. 94 95

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stan also maintains good bilateral military relations with Russia and has held recent military exercises with China, under SCO auspices.” “Thus, while Kazakhstan has sought to build ties with the United States, these should not be seen in a context of a zero-sum game with either China or Russia. Kazakhstan sees friendship with the U.S. as a means to continued growth and stability, and it sees ties with Russia and China the same way. From its perspective, ideally, Russia, China, and the U.S. will each balance the other’s influence and each contribute to Kazakhstan’s own goals. It sees all three as useful partners to promote Kazakhstan’s continued economic growth and political stability96.” 2.2 APPLES ARE FROM KAZAKHSTAN “Robbins’ engaging travelogue is an educational antidote to misperceptions about the country spread by the movie Borat (2006). Robbins, the author of The Empress of Ireland (2005), among other works, intermingles tales of his own adventures in Kazakhstan with stories of the country’s Soviet history and various rulers. Over the course of his travels, Robbins speaks with a local philosopher, fends off a prostitute, and, of course, visits the country’s apple orchards. He learns that tales of King Arthur may well come from Kazakh legends, and he journeys through the country with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev. From describing his visits to Kazakhstan’s wealth of oil fields to hearing a perfect John Lennon impersonation during his explorations, Robbins brings to light a complex and fascinating Kazakhstan unknown to most Westerners,” – Katherine Boyle. “Modern Kazakhstan occupies a region of Central Asia that is not only a lacuna in the knowledge of most of the West, but has also been shrouded in mystery from the beginning of time,” – wrote Christopher Robbins. To the ancients it was an unexplored and inaccessible world more myth than reality, a place perhaps of dragons and monsters. Herodotus wrote of impenetrable deserts and impassable mountains wreathed in eternal mists, and of a tribe of fearsome fe96

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Olga Oliker. Kazakhstan’s Security Interests… P. 68.

male warriors known as Amazons. This was the land of the Scythians and Sarmatians, ancient races that were to vanish from the face of the earth. Alexander the Great had crossed the great Central Asian river, the Oxus, but he never penetrated into Kazakhstan; Marco Polo saw the country’s towering mountain peaks on his travels. but he never crossed them97. Every time I went into a greengrocer and saw piles of Bramley, Pink Lady and Cox’s apples, I thought of the Arkansas romantic and Kazakhstan98. The idea that the country was the birthplace of the apple had somehow captured my imagination, although I had no idea if it were true. Apples, of course, are to be found on every fruit stall in every country in the world, but it had never occurred to me that they must once have originated from a specific location. Over drinks I asked Umbetov, the Kazakh businessman, about the apples. “Yes, apples come from Kazakhstan. Tulips too. I’m surprised you find it so interesting. Most people want to know about oil - the Caspian possibly has as much as a quarter of the planet’s remaining reserves. But the real wealth of the country is its minerals - coal, copper, uranium, platinum... gold.” The real story out of Kazakhstan isn’t Borat, it’s oil. No sooner did this sprawling Central Asian state declare independence in 1991 than foreign investors began jockeying for a piece of the action. But for the excitable Arkansan heading there to meet his mail-order bride at the start of Christopher Robbins’s engaging if somewhat starry-eyed travelogue Apples Are from Kazakhstan, the place still smacks more of myth than of reality. “That country’s got gold and every other metal, and more oil than the Arabs. And they’re building a shiny new capital out in the middle of the prairie, pretty as a picture,” the bridegroom enthuses to Robbins. Two years later, Robbins himself makes the trip in the hope of uncovering an unsung Eden in the land where apples reportedly originated, only to find orchards heavy with unpicked fruit while shrink-wrapped imports fill supermarket shelves. “The first thing on my agenda was the country’s wild apple orchards. I accept that it is an unorthodox way to set about telling the 97 98

Christopher Robbins. Apples are from Kazakhstan. New York, 2008. – P.9. Christopher Robbins. Apples … P.6.

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story of a country and its people, and it immediately became clear that the locals considered my mission eccentric. There were many more beautiful things to see in Kazakhstan than apple trees, people insisted. The wild flowers of spring, for instance, when the mountains are covered with tulips (Kazakhstan is home to thirty of the world’s eighty species), and the steppe is carpeted with blood-red poppies, yellow and blue irises, and delicate wands of desert candles six feet tall.99” – writes Christopher Robbins. It took the apple six thousand years to reach the West. Around ten million years ago, the Tian Shan mountain range emerged out of the landmass of Central Asia. Then, about 2.75 million years ago, deserts began to form around the range, particularly in the East where the massive Gobi stretches over twelve hundred miles from north to south. The isolation of the Tian Shan, cut off from the rest of Asia and Europe, created enormous variability in the wild apple population - every tree is different in some way - and the inaccessibility of its homeland meant that its origin would remain a mystery until the twentieth century. In Tsarist times the Aport was valued above all other varieties, and was correspondingly pricey - thirty apples cost more than a chicken. When the apple was exhibited at the Mannheim International Exhibition in Germany, in 1907, a judge enthused: “The giant Aport apple exhibited by the Verny Orchard School is creating a furor ... the size, taste and color of the Central Asian fruit is amazing.” Horticulturalists rushed to plant the trees in Great Britain and the USA, but their efforts proved a failure. For some reason the capricious Aport was only truly happy around Almaty, in the foothills of the Tien Shan. “The Aport could grow as large as a baby’s head. and it was famous for its flavour and scent throughout the Soviet Union. Kazakhs travelling to Moscow took bulging string bags of apples to give as presents, and traditionally piled the fruit in bowls throughout the house as a natural air-freshener. In Soviet times, 20,000 tons were sent every year to Moscow in wooden crates, each apple individually wrapped in paper and packed in sawdust. All the large State orchards had designated “Kremlin plots” where the best trees received special care. The trees were carefully watered and fertilized, the fruit covered in gauze, and 99

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Ibid. P. 12.

each apple hand-picked by gloved hands. At State banquets, bowls of Aport apples were as ubiquitous as caviar.”100 But the collapse of the State collective system after independence in 1991 limited the Aport to an ever-diminishing domestic market. “When we stopped by the side of the road, we were surrounded by mountainsides of neglected orchards, heavy with unpicked fruit. The apples were thick on the ground and as we walked the heavy smell of syrupy cider rose from them. Many of the trees were diseased and untended, and yet even on the higher slopes the grass between each one had been cut and stacked into neat little ricks that looked like oldfashioned loaves of Hovis. It seemed hard, hard work for very little return, as all the apples were left to rot.” “I took to Almaty, the apple city, from the beginning. The site, inhabited by humans since at least the sixth century, became a secondary staging-post on the Silk Road during the eighth and ninth centuries, and the city itself was founded in 1854 as a fortress named Verny. It was maimed by Cossacks and was one of the furthest points on the map of the expanding Tsarist empire. Today the ruins of the old fortress walls can be glimpsed, crumbling and neglected, in what has become a seedy part of town mostly inhabited by Meskhetian Turks from Georgia, deported to Kazakhstan by Stalin101.” “My plan for the day was to visit the Red Canyon, through which the Charyn river flows. Said to be one of the most spectacular sights in Kazakhstan, it lies close to the Chinese border, a four-hour drive from Almaty102. To reach the canyon we had to drive back through the checkpoint, then cut across the steppe along a dirt road for about twenty-seven miles. All I could see was more steppe. I began to fear that the Red Canyon was going to be a disappointment. It was either a very long way away or a good deal smaller than advertised. Suddenly, to our right, the steppe was pulled away from beneath us like a carpet to reveal two massive red sandstone canyons that fell away for hundreds of yards. It was a breathtaking sight, made doubly impressive by the abrupt way in which it came into view. It seemed impossible that Christopher Robbins. Apples … P.19. Ibid. P. 30. 102 Ibid. P. 33. 100 101

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such an enormous natural feature could remain so completely hidden. One of the canyons had a dry bed, while the other contained the ribbon of a river. A mile or so away, far below, there was an island green as an oasis103. Here was a unique and spectacular feature of their native land that neither the tsars, nor the Soviets, nor even globalization could ruin. It was as if we had a scaled-down Grand Canyon all to ourselves, with its fantastic, wind-sculpted red towers and arches. One of the deepest of the northern Tien Shan, the canyon runs for 100 miles and contains a number of astonishing rock formations with names like Ghosts’ Gorge, the Devils Gorge and the Valley of Castles.” “I walked across the road to Panfilov Park. General Panfilov had seen action in the First World War, and had been sent to Kazakhstan to form a division at the beginning of what the Soviets called the Great Patriotic War. More than a million Kazakhs served in the Red Army. The Panfilov Division was multiethnic, but mostly made up of Kazakhs, and it was known as the Wild Division because it was from the east. The men were poorly armed, scarcely trained and taught to fight with tractors rather than tanks. They were also prepared to expect the worst. The Kazakh second lieutenant, Baurjan Momysh-Uly, who led the battalion that destroyed so many German tanks, had decided before the battle that if his men were overrun he would kill all his wounded so that they would not fall into the hands of the enemy, and then kill himself.104” “A five-minute walk south took me to a favorite haunt, the Green Market. Spurned by the grand and the upwardly mobile as too chilly in winter and somewhat flyblown in summer, the Green Market tends mostly to attract the city’s bargain-conscious residents. It struck me as everything a Central Asian market should be. Stall upon stall of dried fruit create a riot of color set off against billowing linen sheets strung over them to protect the produce from the sun. There are scores of vegetable stands, butchers and wet fish stalls, while in narrow alleys alongside, hundreds of small, open-fronted shops sell shoes, saws, bags of nails, electrical equipment and just about everything else. There are noodle stands and dark corner restaurants and a multi103 104

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Ibid. P. 41. Christopher Robbins. Apples … P.49.

tude of horse butchers. The fresh fruit is displayed like jewelry, each piece polished and carefully placed, while spring onions are stylishly trussed in their own stems, and green beans tied neatly in bundles. I first visited the market in summer, but I was later impressed to see the outdoor stalls open for business even in midwinter when old Kazakh women bundled in cardigans and hats sit in the snow, their wares skimpily covered in polythene, as indifferent to the cold as statues.105” The Arkansas romantic had told me that the Kazakhs had built themselves “a shiny new capital out in the middle of the prairie, pretty as a picture.” C. Robbins writes: “Astana – Kazakh for “capital” – is bang in the middle of nowhere. It takes twenty-eight hours to reach by regular train from Almaty, or nine hours by a special high-speed Talgo train built by the Spanish. Even by air it’s two hours, and every flights is packed or, more precisely, stuffed in winter when passengers bulk up in fur coats and felt boots. The experience is like travelling in a clothes basket. Men and women go through the elaborate ritual of wrapping their fabulous mink hats in newspaper – usually KazakhPravda – and placing them in plastic bags for the flight. The overhead compartments are filled to bursting point.106” In the center of Astana there is a tall, spiky tower with an aluminium and glass cap perched on top of it. It is a place that Kazakhs insist the outsider visits for a view of their new city. I did as directed, entered the tower, bought my ticket and rode the lift to the bubble at the top. A guide of great beauty and passivity droned the story of the tower’s creation in a robotic monotone. I learned, among other things, that the tower was ninety-seven meters high to reflect the move to Astana in 1997. The guide then recited the legend behind the tower, perhaps for the hundredth time that morning. No wonder her eyes had the faraway look of an alien species. The legend, according to Kazakh folklore, tells of a holy tree in which every night a mythological bird laid a beautiful egg bright as the sun. And very night, sure as eggs is eggs, an evil dragon devoured it. Over time, good Kazakhs grew tired of this routine and slew the dragon. And 105 106

Ibid. P. 54. Ibid. P. 96.

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ever since, the guide droned, the sun has shone eternally, a symbol of the eternity of creation107. “We flew on to Kyzylorda, a town on the edge of the desert not much visited by foreigners. The name is Kazakh for “Red Capital,” for in 1925-7, before the railway reached Almaty, the town was briefly the capital of Soviet Kazakhstan. Today it is the rundown provincial capital of the region with the highest ethnic Kazakh population108.” “Taraz is a nondescript town on the Silk Road with an ancient history, and over dinner I met a man who shot wolves from helicopters. The local hunter was a large, jowly Kazakh who looked prosperous, as I suppose a man would need to be to indulge in such a pastime. The hunting of wolves in winter was a passion of his, he explained. Foolishly, I tried to make the case for the wolf109.” Kazakhstan’s oil-rich economy may be booming, but the ironies of post-Soviet life are everywhere to be found. Robbins briskly crisscrosses the country, from the neo-Soviet chic of upscale Almaty to the bizarre moonscape of the Aral Sea, which has retreated from its former shoreline by as much as a hundred miles since its waters were diverted for a massively misguided irrigation project in the 1960s. Farther north, he visits a toxic area where nuclear weapons were tested and interviews a survivor of one of the country’s Stalin-era labor camps. Kazakhstan’s remoteness kept it high on the list for everything Moscow preferred to keep out of sight-including Chechens, Volga Germans, and other nationalities brutally deported there. These ethnic influxes, coupled with the resettlement of millions of Russians, left Kazakhstan with a majority non-Kazakh population when independence was finally declared. Robbins breathes life into this history by drawing on the accounts of prior visitors, from Dostoyevsky, Trotsky, and Solzhenitsyn, who were exiled there, to dissident physicist Andrei Sakharov, whose horror at the nuclear tests he witnessed turned him against the weapon he had helped create. “I had become weary of the steppe. I had flown over steppe for hour after hour in jet and helicopter, travelled through steppe by car Ibid. P. 104. Christopher Robbins. Apples … P.140. 109 Ibid. P. 154. 107 108

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and train, surrounded forever by the Sea of Grass. After awhile the steppe’s featureless enormity bred the sort of negative thoughts and moments of loneliness that castaway might feel adrift on an ocean flat as a millpond. No wonder the Kazakh nomadic tradition contains so much music and song to fill the emptiness110. I was going to the edge of southern Siberia to visit the town of Semey - known previously to the Russians as Semipalatinsk. It’s true, there’s not much to see in Semey. The town’s moment of glory came in 1917 when it was the capital of the short-lived Alash Orda government of briefly independent Kazakhstan. This region of the country is the land of the Middle Horde, known for their intellectual and artistic prowess. Kazakhstan’s greatest writer, Abay Kunanbaev - the founder of Kazakh literature who died in 1904 - was born in a village close by, and a large museum in the town pays lavish tribute to his memory. Abay recorded Kazakh traditions and legends, and also translated Russian and European classics into Kazakh - making Alexander Dumas “The Three Musketeers” every Kazakh’s favorite foreign book. Abay also recognized the Russian contribution to Kazakh life: “Study Russian culture and art - it is the key to life.” “Kazakhstan, one of the largest and least known nations on earth, had found a place in my heart. I had become proprietary about the place and its hospitable people, and had greatly enjoyed my haphazard travels. A country that had once been little more than a name, had become real for me, with its sad history and unlikely motley of people. Few nations can have emerged so confident and optimistic from such an unhappy past as Kazakhstan, jangling its oil dollars and looking to the future. I retain a wealth of images and memories ... a golden eagle perched upon my arm in falling snow ... beggars sitting on the wall in front of the Orthodox cathedral snatching pigeons for their dinner ... feasting in a yurt beside the turquoise Aral Sea to the sound of a dombra ... snow blowing through the Green Market and powdering the fruit ... the unspoilt grandeur of the red-earth Charyn Gorge ... helicopters skimming across the endless steppe ... a president dancing in the street with an old Kazakh woman ... fermented mare’s milk drunk on a stud 110

Ibid. P. 175.

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farm in lush meadowlands in the shadow of mountains ... veterans of the Great Patriotic War in shabby jackets thick with medals seated in a line under a variety of Kazakh hats ... the delicious pickled tomatoes of the wife of a Gulag survivors ... too much vodka with men half my age ... the smell of wormwood crushed underfoot in springtime ... 111” 2.3 POSTCARD FROM THE STEPPES: A SNAPSHOT OF PUBLIC RELATIONS AND CULTURE IN KAZAKHSTAN Cultural revival in post-Soviet Kazakhstan in the early 1990s has led to the emergence of many national cultural associations, whose official aims were the revival of their own culture and language. While the promotion of Kazakh heritage has been used to assert the titular nationality’s legitimacy (that is, Kazakh nationality) and hegemony over the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, other nationalities have also been invited to develop their own culture and language, as well as to take part in the celebration of national unity and inter-ethnic harmony during republican festivities. Yet while linguistic and cultural claims played a crucial role in the crystallization of the political mobilization of the peoples of the Soviet republics, little has been written about this process among non-titular nationalities in post-Soviet Kazakhstan, with the exception of Russians. National cultural associations are used to working in collaboration with the Department of Culture and with local and national assemblies of the people of Kazakhstan. In most regions, offices of the national cultural centres are located within the building of the ‘House of Friendship’, which also encompasses the offices of the small assembly. Most chairmen of national cultural centres sit on the board of directors of the local assembly of the peoples of Kazakhstan. Some of them are also members of the national assembly of the people of Kazakhstan. One of the main tasks devoted to national cultural centres by the Assembly of the people of Kazakhstan is to diffuse and promote the Presidential policies on national issues. 111

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Ibid. P. 296.

In Central Asia an important form of dedicatory offering is the tying of rags on branches and other amenable surfaces at special places and sacred sites in the landscape. The phenomenon is found among the Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Turkmen and Uzbeks (e.g. Maksimova 1958; Tyson 1997) but it has been noted as a practice found among numerous peoples from Tibet and Afghanistan to Europe (Walhouse 1880; Hartland 1893). The nine-teenth-century account by the Kazakh scholar Chokan Valikhanov provides the essence of this and related offerings, which are still actively conducted today: ‘a single tree growing in the steppe ... serves as an object of worship. All who ride by this tree hang upon it scraps of their clothing, rags, pots are placed beneath it, offerings of animals are made there or are tied to it by horse’s hair’ (Valikhanov 1961 [1904]: 113). Though Valikhanov utilizes the simplistic nineteenth-century interpretation of ‘worship’, his description can be further illuminated by comparison with the practices of present-day Central Asians. Turkmen Muslims in Turkmenistan, for example, also tie rags and small objects to branches of trees and bushes at shrines and holy sites. The strips themselves are called άlem and signify a Turkmen’s wish or dedication to the saint of the place. Turkmen also call them mata or mata bӧlegi (a piece of cloth), while the Kazakhs call them mata112. During Kenneth Lymer field research, into the rock art of the Republic of Kazakhstan, she had found the practice of rag tying directly associated with the two important petroglyph sites of Tamgaly and Terekty Aulie. These sites are significant to Central Asian archaeology as they contain large concentrations of rock art depictions that date as early as the Middle Bronze Age and extend into other later periods up to the present day. Rags tied on bushes at these sites have been dismissed by scientists steeped in positivistic rationalism or Marxistbased atheism as the frivolous by-products of the ‘opium of the masses’, religion. This narrow focus upon past remains by investigators has ignored the fact that archaeological sites are engaged with by different kinds of individuals from a variety of cultural backgrounds. The 112 Kenneth Lymer. Rags and Rock Art: The Landscapes of Holy Site Pilgrimage in the Republic of Kazakhstan. World Archaeology, Vol. 36, No. 1, The Object of Dedication (Mar., 2004), pp. 158-172.

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thin strips of cloth may not be petroglyphs, lithics or metal artefacts, the stock in trade of archaeologists, but, as objects of dedication they are worthy of scholarly attention with direct implications for Central Asian archaeology: they lie at the centre of a web of religious practices which actively incorporate rock art sites in Kazakhstan into the landscape of Islamic pilgrimage. Present-day Kazakh Muslims of Kazakhstan have retained their Islamic heritage despite years of anti-religious campaigns enforced against Islamic and all other religious phenomena during the Soviet period (e.g. Bennigsen and Lemercier-Quelquejay 1967; Bennigsen and Wimbush1 985; Subtelny 1989). Islam in Kazakhstan was portrayed in the Soviet conception of religion as a superstitious relic, which had survived from earlier barbaric feudal times (e.g. Petrash 1981). However, this was based in the nine-teenth-century idea of the unilinear evolution of societies from ‘primitive’ to ‘civilized’. Kazakh religion has also been described by scholars inside and outside the former Soviet Union as ‘folk’, ‘popular’, ‘ritual’ or ‘everyday’ Islam (e.g. Basilov 1987; Olcott 1987; Mustafina 1992; Poliakov 1992). These terms have also been pejoratively employed in a way that implies a less than authentic form of Islam, and the everyday beliefs of Kazakh Muslims have been characterized as superstitious domestic rituals that lack the education of formal teachings (e.g. Olcott 1987: 197). This follows from another former Soviet policy of separating Islam into the everyday practices of local communities and ‘Orthodox’ or ‘official’ Islam tolerated by the state through the lens of pre-industrial tradition versus modernity (Saroyan 1997: 104-5). The practices of pilgrimages to sacred sites and tying rags by the Kazakhs and other Central Asian peoples could be seen as their unique negotiations in their adoption of aspects of Islam. The holy sites are not only abodes of miraculous power, which serves to maintain health and well-being and ward off harmful forces, but also places where local communities engage with facets of Islam and practice it in their own particular ways. It has been recognized that Sufism and pilgrimage together in many parts of the Muslim world have provided the primary foundation for the mediation of Islam (Geertz 1968: 51). At such sites in Central Asia, Muslims not only learn but also participate and pass down customs and rituals, and discuss issues of power, piety, 72

virtue and proper behaviour along with other Islamic values and teachings (Tyson 1997: 32). These holy sites are available to all persons in the community and the specific local character of the sites contributes to communal identity. Therefore, not only does a special place become an important local holy site but it also becomes a nexus point where the local community, its cultural heritage and their Islamic traditions intertwine, fuse and develop. Thin strips of cloth may not have the permanence of petroglyphs or stone tools, but they play an active role in re-incorporating archaeological sites into the contemporary religious practices of Kazakh Muslims. The rags visibly distinguish special places in the landscape, which are the focus of movements embedded in folk Islamic activities of ziyarat, holy site pilgrimage. Ziyarat, in turn, plays a larger role in Kazakh ancestral obligations, and visits to the saints and their shrines are inseparable from duties to the ancestors. The rags lie at the heart of complex processes of consumption, transformation and re-incorporation of significant places and represent the resistance of the Kazakh landscape through times of socio-political tension and upheaval. Through the lens of contemporary approaches to sacred sites and landscape, tied rags at archaeological sites and other significant places can be moved from the fringes of idle curiosities and relocated as central to the activities of people’s daily lives. Archaeologists and related professionals may be custodians and investigators of ancient sites, but they are not the only ones interacting with these places, as indicated, indeed, by the presence of rags. Though the fabric strips are archaeologically ephemeral they are significant in straddling the boundaries of personal, social and religious realities in the landscape. The importance of these and similar votive objects should not be overlooked as their contemporary roles provide an invaluable contribution towards furthering discussions about objects of dedication in the past as well as the present113. The climatic and living conditions for the Kazakhs’ ancestors and other peoples of Central Eurasia were harsh. Therefore, it became syn113 Kenneth Lymer. Rags and Rock Art: The Landscapes of Holy Site Pilgrimage in the Republic of Kazakhstan. World Archaeology, Vol. 36, No. 1, The Object of Dedication (Mar., 2004), pp. 158-172.

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onymous with the residents of these vast steppe expanses to take care over their food, which became more than just a simple source of nutrition, but an important element of social life. “Besbarmak is the national dish, usually of boiled beef or mutton, but traditionally of horse, cooked with onions and served on large, flat squares of pasta laid out on a massive ceramic dish. As we ate a trio of Kazakh girls dressed in traditional costume entered the yurt to dance and sing. A young man of extraordinary talent then played the dombra, an elegant, two-stringed instrument of great antiquity, with a long, slender neck and teardrop body. Terracotta figurines fashioned by Sak nomads 2,000 years ago and unearthed in Kazakhstan show men playing a form of the dombra.114” Kazakh etiquette built entirely on the principal of seniority. Wherever you happen to be in Kazakh society, there will always be one respected gentleman of venerable age. He will be shown marked signs of respect by the other members of the company gathered there. For example, this means shaking his hand as a greeting with both palms. In conversation, should never interrupt under any circumstances and attend closely to what he is saying, nodding your head, even if have not understood a thing. This aksakal will be seated in the place of honour (the torge), usually opposite the main entrance. Women in Kazakh society, be it traditional or contemporary society, are afforded considerable attention. Female representatives of the elder generation are shown the same marks of respect as their male counterparts. Moreover, many women who have raised children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren feel like matrons in any Kazakh company. As sovereign ladies of the family or clan they secretly demand attention that is befitting of their status and they receive it, too, perhaps with a feeling that is even more sincere than that afforded to the old men.It is probably a case of every Kazakh seeing their own mother or grandmother in these matron-like figures. The Kazakh mentality has evolved in a very complex manner. Ancient customs and more contemporary concepts have not contradicted one another over the course of history; rather they have supplemented one another and formed layers, one on top of another. They 114

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Christopher Robbins. Apples are from Kazakhstan. New York, 2008. – P.124.

often intertwined harmoniously, creating a wonderful blend of different concepts which present in their totality a certain well-structured philosophical system to explain the world they inhabit. From the very outset, when the Kazakhs first entered the historical stage, the rest of the world was not particularly friendly towards them. In fact, quite the opposite. Therefore, their customs formed in a way that would ensure the nation’s survival. The basis of the nation was the clan, a kind of expanded version of the family. The clan and the family, in turn, was formed by the generations, one replacing the other. Therefore, the first and most sacred duty of every Kazakh is to know their ancestors, going back a minimum of seven generations, chronologically accounting for an average of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty years. The tragic and the funny are closely interwoven in Kazakh folklore. This means that, taking account of the fact that life in the old steppe was full of hardship and deprivation, humour acted as a form of self-defence, communication and support for the necessary level of human warmth and mutual understanding between fellow tribesmen, without which the spiritual life of the nation is meaningless. Poetry went hand in hand with music and any resident of the steppe could use poetic imagery and symbols. The heavenly beauty of a girl, the majestic view of the mountains, the endless expanses of the steppe, the tender, cool oasis, the slow meandering of the river, or simply the green grass on the roadside; all this could bring a nomad to dream up poetry, which in turn would become a song, accompanied by the trusty dombra, always at their side just like their weapon. Travelling unhurriedly across the steppe and without getting off his horse, the Kazakh would take up his dombra and begin to compose a song. What about? Well, about anything at all, really. About the long road, about true friends, about the loved one waiting for him at the end of his journey, the loveliest in all the world, about dear parents, merry brothers and graceful sisters. At times this plethora of poetic improvization could yield a single musical or poetic masterpiece. An impetus could come in the form of an emotional shock, such as separation from a loved one, the death of a loved one, a cruel war, victory in a terrible battle and so on. Traditional forms of entertainment and games for Kazakhs, known to us from history, are reminiscent of similar leisure pastimes of many 75

patriarchal peoples. The only and important difference was imposed by the nomadic way of life of the Kazakhs and gave rise to wrestling (kazaksha kures), competitive horse-racing (baiga), singing contests and others. One popular competition was kokpar, in which two teams of players compete to carry a headless goat carcass into a goal. As far as the children are concerned, the favourite game was asyki, similar to marbles, gorodki or skittles, and bowling, only using small bones from the knees of sheep. The bones would be lined up and they would have to be knocked out with another bone of the same kind (only made heavier with a lead insert).The game of asyki, was still being played up until the 1990s and remains part of the culture today. Deserves special attention book “Kazakh Language Competencies for Peace Corps Volunteers in Kazakhstan”115. This book is intended to be used in the Kazakh language short-term training program. It was designed and written by a group of highly experienced instructors who took part in teaching the Kazakh language to Peace Corps Volunteers in 1993 and 1994. The competency - based education approach and principles of intensive learning form the basis of the curriculum. A competency - based approach focuses on the specific tasks that learners will need to accomplish through language, this approach focuses not only on language, but also on the cultural context and purpose of the communication. The material of the book will help volunteers communicate in everyday life in the Kazakh language. The book consists of three parts. The first part has a brief introduction to the Kazakh language. The second part has topics that cover basic living situations. It also includes exercises on phonetics, grammar and vocabulary which will facilitate the acquisition of basic language skills. The third part contains the Kazakh grammar for the students interested in grammatical rules. In the early seventeenth century Russians first penetrated into the Kazakh steppes. It took nearly two hundred years to complete their conquest, since the Russians were opposed at every step of their advance by their brave agin (oral poets). After the conqest, there were 115 Cirtautas, Ilse. Kazakh: Language Competencies for Peace Corps Volunteers in Kazakhstan. Peace Corps, Washington D.C., July 1992.

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numerous uprisings. One major revolt against Russian rule took place in 1916, when the Kazakh were joined by the Kirghiz, Uzbeks and all other Turkic peoples of Russian-occupied Central Asia. Each uprising was met with mass killings and deportations. The Soviet regime, established in 1917, not only continued the colonial policies of the Russian Empire but employed even more brutal methods, depriving the Kazakh nomads of their culture and language116. Until 1929, most Kazakhs remained nomadic, although their seasonal movements had been restricted due to land seizures benefitting Russian settlers. Then, in 1930, Stalin enforced his policy of collectivization throughout the Soviet Union. For the Kazakhs this policy meant first sedentarization and then collectivization. The harsh measures taken to separate the Kazakhs from their horses and sheep and to move them into re-education camps, resulted in near-genocide. Within two years the Kazakhs lost over half of their population, their numbers reduced from four million to less than two million. After the great famine of 1932, only small groups of Kazakhs managed to cross with their herds into Xinjiang, where they continued their way of life. The persecution continued. Between 1937 66,000 Kazakh intellectuals, poets and writers were put to death on Stalin’s orders. Again, during World War II and the years thereafter, Kazakhs perished in large numbers, not only on the battlefields, but also in prison camps and at home from starvation. The suffering of the Kazakh people was mathed by equally harsh attacks on the environment. The Soviet’s systematic exploitation of the natural resources of Kazakhstan led to a depletion of land and water resources. Large regions of Kazakhstan, such as the Aral Sea region, have become environmental disaster areas. Without regard for the life or health of the population, several regions in Kazakhstan (Semipalatinsk, Sariarqa) were turned into nuclear testing grounds. Despite this history of nearly 300 years of continuous deprivation and suffering, the Kazakhs have not succumbed to adversity. On the contrary, they have stood up again and again. On December 16, 1986 Kazakh students demonstrated and openly challenged Moscow’s 116 Cirtautas, Ilse. Kazakh: Language Competencies for Peace Corps Volunteers in Kazakhstan. Peace Corps, Washington D.C., July 1992. P. 11.

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appointment of a Russian to the position of Kazakhstan’s First Secretary of the Communist Party. Although the demonstration was brutally crushed, it nevertheless signalled the beginning of similar expressions of national assertiveness in all the republics of the former Soviet Union, leading to its final break-up. In the face of severe adversity, the Kazakhs also preserved their most precious cultural trait: the love of poetry, songs and music. There is hardly a Kazakh, man or woman, who does not love to sing and play the dombira (a two-stringed lute). Despite all hardships they did not lose their fondness for music. If two Kazakhs meet, they sing and challenge each other on the dombira. The ancient tradition of inprovising poetry, sung to improvised melodies, is still practiced in poetry-singing contests called aytis. These contests are now being revived, with contests for accomplished poets (agin), as well as for young children. Another notable characteristic of the Kazakhs is their decorum in greetings and terms of address. They have a saying, “in a man’s greetings lies his character”. Therefore, anyone who wants to know the Kazakhs well needs to become acquainted with their system of greetings and terms of address. Kazakhs, like other Turkic peoples of Central Asia, address each other with kinship terms which differentiate between younger and older persons. These terms of address are used both alone and in addition to a first name or title. For example, when a young Kazakh offers his seat on the bus to an older man, ha says, Ағай, отырыңыз! “Respected elder (lit.: respected older brother), please sit down!” An older woman will be addressed by a younger person with апай “respected lady (lit.: respected older sister)” The same terms are used to address a male teacher (ағай) and female teacher (апай)117. Addressing younger people Kazakhs use the following kinship terms: інім or бауырым “my younger brother”, қарындасым “my younger sister” (by a man; сіңілім “my younger sister” (by a woman). If the person being addressed is the same age as the speaker, the terms used are қүрбым, құрдасым, замандасым “my co-equal”. Kazakhs use the above terms primarily when other Kazakhs or other Turkic peoples. Foreigners who speak Kazakh and demonstrate 117

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Ibid. P. 20.

an understanding of the Kazakh culture will also be addressed with kinship terms, i.e. they will be accepted into the Kazakh family. Kazakh elders, who are demonstratively fond of children, will address the young with балам “my son. my child,” қызым “my daughter”. They will use elaborate terms of endearment, such as шырағым “my light”, қалқам “my shield”, ботам “my little camel”, қозым “my little lamb” or қүлыным “my little foal”. The most touching term of endearment which Kazakh elders use with children is айналайын “my dearest, my precious one” (lit.: I will turn around you in an act of sacrifice, i.e., I will sacrifice myself for you). In the Kazakh Family, the father was the head, surrounded by his many children, married sons and their children, all living together as a family unit in nearby yurts. During the years of Soviet rule, the Kazakh family suffered many changes. Instead of occupying stately yurts, the Kazakhs have had to move into crowded houses of poor quality. Young people from the countryside move into the cities for education opportunities and better living conditions, leaving behind their parents and grandparents, breaking family ties. Housing for young couples is not available in Almaty. As in other towns and cities, the housing shortage is so severe that even couples who have been married for many years have only a single room to call home. This housing situation has limited the size of the Kazakh urban family, which now usually consists of the parents and two children. There is seldom room for grandparents. Since both parents work, they had, until recenty, no choice but to leave their children in kindergartens where the only language of communication was Russian118. In the countryside a family still includes three or sometimes four generations, and the number of children is between five and ten. These rural children have been growing up in a Kazakh environment, while a whole generation of young urban Kazakhs have been raised without knowing much of their mother tongue - although this is now changing. The number of Kazakh schools and kindergartens in Almaty and other urban centers is increasing, and the emphasis is on the revival of Kazakh traditions. These traditions include the celebration of holidays. When a child 118

Ibid. P. 30.

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is born a feast called shildehana is held. Forty days after the birth the family invites female guests for the besik salar, marking the day the child is first put in its cradle. On the first day of school the til ashar is celebrated. Together with all other Central Asians, the Kazakhs are again celebrating their traditional New Year (Nauryz) on March 22, after being banned for over seventy years. All Kazakh celebrations feature a dombira player to play and sing Kazakh songs. An aqin (oral poet) might also be present to improvise songs dedicated to the person honored at the feast. The Kazakhs traditionally didn’t answer when asked about their family and the number of children for religious reasons, 1) they didn’t want to anger God, 2) they were afraid of getting the “evil eye.” They usually won’t tell you: “I have a big family or I have many children” In some parts of Kazakhstan this tradition remains, but younger people should give you a straight answer. Here are a few words about the relatives of a husband and wife. “Қайын - қайын аға (қайнара)” is usually used for an elder brother of a husband or a wife, “қайын сіңлі” - for a younger sister of a husband, “қайын ата” - for fathers of the husband or wife, “қайын ене” for mothers of the husband or wife. “Қайын жүрт” - close relativies of a husband or a wife, “жеңге” - elder brother’s wife119. Meat is the basis for the majority of Kazakh dishes, and it is obligatory to serve meat dishes to guests. The abundance of meat on the table is a sign of a host’s generosity. The way Kazakhs prepare meat reflects their heritage. For a nomadic people, the easiest and most economical method of cooking meat is to boil it in huge kettles over open pit fires, and even today preference is always given to boiling meat. Great importance is also placed on the long-term preservation of meat. When livestock is slaughtered a portion of the meat is salted, dired and sometimes smoked. From horse meat, for example, come such delicacies as qazi, shujuk, jaya, jal and qarta. Among drinks qimiz and shubat are always popular. Qimiz is a lightly sour, astringent drink of fermented mare’s milk with a high Vitamin С content. The Kazakh nomads waited impatiently for the warm spring days when the mares begin to produce milk. The milk 119

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Ibid. P. 34

was poured into special leather bags, which are essential to the fermentation process. Today qimiz is produced industirally, but the Kazakhs prefer the qimiz made in the traditional way. The Kazakhs claim that qimiz is a drink not only for merry making, but also to increase longevity. Information about the healing properties of qimiz and the ways of preparing it are handed down from generation to generation. Shubat is fermented camel’s milk with a preparation process much like that for qimiz. It is of snow-white color, thicker and fattier than qimiz. Both drinks are said to cure tuberculosis. In addition, shubat is known for its capacity to clear up gastric and intestinal problems. Always prepared for special guests, the most famous Kazakh dish besbarmaq (lit.: “five fingers”). This dish is made by boiling mutton, horse meat or beef in a broth which is later served in large bowls. The meat itself is thinly sliced and accompanied by square noodles and rings or onions. For formal affairs and calebrations besbarmaq is served together with the boiled head of sheep or lamb, which is ritually placed in front of the honored or oldest guest120. Deeply rooted in their nomadic past, Kazakh hospitality differs significantly from that of other Turkic peoples. Not so long ago a traveler unable to reach his destination would enter the nearest yurt and introduce himself as guday qonaqpin, “I am a guest sent by God”. The owner of the yurt would invite him to be his guest wit out even asking who he was. To honor a guest, Kazakhs would slaughter a sheep. This custom is still practiced in villages whenever a friend or relative has been invited for a visit. In cities, where slaughtering sheep is less convenient, the host buys a sheep’s head, has it boiled and then ceremonially places it in front of the honored guest, who occupies the seat of honor (төр) opposite the door. In traditional yurts, as in Kazakh homes in the villages, guests sit on quilts (korpese) around a spread-out tablecloth (dastaran) on which the food is placed. The floor itself is covered with carpets and cushions (jastiq) are placed for guests to lean on. The guest is expected to play an active role at a Kazakhstan feast. According to ancient custom, the honored guest cuts choice from the sheep’s head and, with eloquent words of well-wishing, he distributes 120

Ibid. P. 88.

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them to the other guests and members of the host family. For example, the guest might cut off an ear and present it to the youngest member of the family, saying “This ear is for you, my son (my daughter), may you always have an ear for the words of your elders”. The ears are usually given to the youngest member of the host family. The entire ceremony is usually officiated by the male head of a household. If the father of the honored guest is present, he should politely pass the sheep’s head to the eldest among the guests. At the end of the party the honored guest gives бата (his blessings) to the family. At a Kazakh dastarxan plenty of meat is served. Necessary dishes are besbarmaq (lit.: five fingers), horsemeat sausage (gazi) and other dishes made from horse meat (qrarte, jal, jaya). Although meat is usually boiled, a dish with fried meat, potatoes, onions and tomatoes, called quirdaq, might also be served. Fermented mare’s milk (qimiz), camel’s milk (subat), and tea with cream or milk are typical beverages. Traditionally Kazakhs did not drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes, but these habits have been introduced by the Russians. When alcohol is offered, guests usually say toasts121. Kenneth Lyber in article “Rags and Rock Art: The Landscapes of Holy Site Pilgrimage in the Republic of Kazakhstan” write: “Tamgaly is the most famous petroglyph site in Kazakhstan and it has received much scholarly attention since its archaeological discovery in 1957122. The Tamgaly valley is found along the northern edge of the Anrakhai mountains about 170-80 km north-west from the city of Almaty. Numerous petroglyphs were carved into the exposed sandstone bedrock and placed on surfaces along hills, valleys, summits and slopes. The majority of the petroglyphs are located in the main valley which is “enclosed” between Andronovo cist cemeteries (Middle to Late Bronze Age, c. 1400-1000 Bc) at either end of the valley123. The petroglyphs are argued, from associations with the surrounding AnIbid. P. 89. Francfort, H-P, Soleilnavoup, E, Bozellec, J-P, Vidal, P, D’Errico, E, Sacchi, D., Samashev, Z. and Rogozhinskii, A. 1995. Les petroglyphes de Tamgaly. Bulletin of the Asia Institute, 9: 167-207. 123 Rogozhinskii A.E. 1999. Mogil’niki epoki bronzy urochishcha Tamgaly. In Istoriya i Arkheologiya Semirech’ya, Vol. 1 (eds A. N. Mar’yashev, Yu. A. Motov, A. E. Rogozhinskii and A. A. Goryachev). Almaty, pp. 7-43. 121 122

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dronovo cemeteries, to belong predominantly to the Bronze Age (c. 1400-1000 BC). There are also petroglyphs stylistically correlating with the Sako-Scythian period (c. 500 BC) and the Early Turkic period (c. AD 500) as well as images from more recent historical times up to present-day graffiti124. Of all petroglyph sites in Kazakhstan, Tamgalyh as been the most extensively cited in the literature because of its scenes of the so-called “solar-headed” gods- anthropomorphic figures with large round heads emitting “rays”. The “solar gods” and their associated petroglyph imagery are coupled with the adjacent Andronovo graves by archaeologists who argue that Tamgaly was a great Bronze Age “ritual sanctuary125.” “The other large petroglyph site important to ziyarat activity is Terekty Aulie, which is located outside of the city of Zhezkazgan in Central Kazakhstan. The Kazakh word aulie (Muslim saint) refers directly to Terekty Aulie’s contemporary role as the focus of folk Islamic pilgrimage: the local Kazakhs have erected a small shrine upon the highest hill in the area (Plate 1), which is placed directly atop two large scenes of petroglyphs. The shrine hill of Terekty Aulie, as well as the two other adjacent hills, is covered with ancient petroglyphs, which are argued to be predominantly Bronze Age (c. 1400 BC) in date based on their stylistic proximity to animal figures on SeimoTurbino objects found in Kazakhstan126. Within the immediate vicinity there are a few Middle Bronze Age burials (c. 1500 BC) as well as a nineteenth-century AD Kazakh cemetery127. Rags have been tied to all stray bushes growing from the cracks in the granite hillsides of the Terekty Aulie area.” In particular, the day-to-day religious practices of the Kazakhs have been described as “a pattern of culinary events and ceremonial 124 Maksimova A., Ermolaeva A. and Mar’yashev, A. 1985. Naskal’nye izobrazheniya urochishcha Tamgaly. Alma-Ata: Oner. 125 Mar’yashev A.N. and Goryachev A.A. 1998. Naskal’nye izobrazheniya Semirech’ya. Almaty: Fond ‘XXI vek. 126 Samashev Z. and Zhumabekova G. 1996. Spatbronzezeitliche Waffe aus Kazakhstan. Eurasia Antiqua, 2: 229-39. 127 Samashev, Z., Kurmankulov, Zh., Zhetybaev, Zh. and Lymer, K. 1999. New archaeological research at the petroglyph site of Terekty Aulie in Central Kazakhstan. Newsletter of the Circle of Inner Asian Art, 10: 3-5.

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meals where food and a Quran recital are dedicated to the ancestorspirits128.” Miraculous events and special powers emanating from shrines and tombs are common in Sufi-based folk Islam in the Muslim world129. The grotto below the shrine at Terekty Aulie was used by women for night vigils, which also involved waiting for the reception of a significant dream. Privratsky notes from the activities conducted at shrines around Turkestan that women desiring to conceive a child will drink from a sacred well and sleep overnight at the shrine of Arstan Bab, in particular, in order to receive a dream message from the saint (Privratsky 2001: 160). Dreams may also call someone to a new vocation and, for Kazakh healers, it is essential that a helping spirit is sought in their dreams. The Kazakh healer falls within the tradition of the aulie by healing sick persons through the technique of breathing on them after reciting verses from the Quran (ibid.)130. Through the lens of contemporary approaches to sacred sites and landscape, tied rags at archaeological sites and other significant places can be moved from the fringes of idle curiosities and relocated as central to the activities of people’s daily lives. Archaeologists and related professionals may be custodians and investigators of ancient sites, but they are not the only ones interacting with these places, as indicated, indeed, by the presence of rags. Though the fabric strips are archaeologically ephemeral they are significant in straddling the boundaries of personal, social and religious realities in the landscape. The importance of these and similar votive objects should not be overlooked as their contemporary roles provide an invaluable contribution towards furthering discussions about objects of dedication in the past as well as the present.

Privratsky, B. G. 2001. Muslim Turkistan: Kazak Religion and Collective Memory. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon. 129 Geertz C. 1968. Islam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. PP.48-54. 130 Kenneth Lyber. Rags and Rock Art: The Landscapes of Holy Site Pilgrimage in the Republic of Kazakhstan. World Archaeology, Vol. 36, No. 1, The Object of Dedication (Mar., 2004), P. 166. 128

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2.4 WILLIAM FIERMAN: KAZAKH LANGUAGE AND PROSPECTS FOR ITS ROLE IN KAZAKH GROUPNESS The modern era required the emergence of countries with an established statehood together with national borders. “The gradual elimination of old elements brought new demands on the agenda of the newly emerging nation-states. The launch and then the enforcement of nationalist policies, thus, is a part of the transition process. The process of transition, however, is a never ending one as it requires a long period of adaptation and internalization by the people who are the subject of these policies. Therefore, the changing characteristic of nation-building depends on people and on their willingness of adopting these policies within their cultural, social, and political life. The successful achievement of the nation-building policies, hence, relies on the fact that the combination of official policies with the willingness of the people. Moreover, every country has its own domestic and external conditions which would effect the successful operation of the nationbuilding policies.” (Ipek Doganaksoy. “The role of language in the formation of Kazakh National identity.” / A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of Social Sciences of Middle East Technical University, September 2008) This part examines an aspect of the changing language balance in Kazakhstan, the Soviet republic which upon independence had the smallest proportion of titular nationality population. The research W. Fierman was focus on the language shift (from Russian to Kazakh) as medium of primary and secondary school education in the very late Soviet period and the years since independence. As in other former republics, the trends in language of instruction reflect not only the directives of the leadership of the emerging state but also broad economic, political, and social realities, as well as choices made by individual families. W. Fierman concentrated on urban schools. The reasons for this are that in the late Soviet era a high proportion of Kazakh rural pupils were already studying in the Kazakh medium. Moreover, unlike in urban areas, most rural Kazakh children lived in an environment where even without Kazakh-medium education, they learned Kazakh 85

through frequent contact with other Kazakh speakers. Finally, urban areas are especially important because cultural and educational elites, as well as the institutions where they work, are concentrated there131. Many of the factors that will affect language in the schools are related to economic and political decisions of an even broader sort. One area is mass media. Kazakhstan has passed laws that mandate an increasing share of television and radio broadcasts be in Kazakh. Although this law is subverted in practice, there are other ways to “kazakhize” the media, including providing funds to encourage the production of more and higherquality Kazakh television, radio, and print media, not to mention such newer channels as CDs and the internet132. William Fierman was focus on the prospects of the Kazakh language as it relates to commonality, connectedness, and groupness among the ethnic Kazakh population of Kazakhstan. Although the potential role of the Kazakh language to link Kazakhstan’s titular ethnic majority with the more than 40 percent minority population is worthy of study, this broader subject was largely remained in the background of the present investigation. William Fierman had previously visited Almaty and Astana numerous times, including almost annual visits to both in recent years. He had visited two of the other cities on several occasions (Qaraghandy and Pavlodar); also visited two cities in Kazakhstan’s west, Atyrau and Aktau. The kinds of contacts he had in each city varied from city to city. He was able to meet with students, faculty, and administrators during visits to a large variety of educational institutions. Some of the meetings were organized as lectures, typically with question and answer sessions at the end. He also spoke with students at various special forums, such as English clubs, and American corners. In every city along the way he met with civil servants of the Committee on Languages of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Culture and its oblast 131 W. Fierman. Language and Education in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan: KazakhMedium Instruction in Urban Schools // The Russian Review 65, January 2006. PP. 98-116. 132 W. Fierman. Language and Education in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan: KazakhMedium Instruction in Urban Schools // The Russian Review 65, January 2006. P. 115.

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branches. He gave numerous television, radio, and newspaper interviews. (Although the ostensible purpose of the interviews was for the local journalists to find out about his research, they also provided him information about language issues.) In addition to the above, he participated in a number of scholarly conferences and met with scholars at think tanks. Not surprisingly, some of the most valuable insights into language processes were provided by much less formal activities, such as visits to museums, riding public transport, observing language behavior on the street, speaking with clerks and taxi drivers, watching television, and visiting bookstores. “One of the most useful aspects of my research trip was to gain a fuller appreciation for the variety among the urban language environments in different regions of Kazakhstan. The relative positions of Kazakh and Russian are very different in Atyrau and Aktau than in Almaty or Astana, let alone Pavlodar or Qaraghandy. Although I was surprised by the prominence of Russian in public signage in the west, as well as by the degree to which people in the west seemed to mix Russian words in their Kazakh, it is obvious that even in the large urban centers of Atyrau and Aktau, Kazakh is the dominant language in the home and in most public domains. Although the ethnic composition and language environment in the two “capital cities” have noticeably shifted in the past decade (and even in the past five years), Russian is still the frequently the language of choice for many sorts of communications ­­­– even among Kazakhs. Russian is even more common in Qaraghandy and Pavlodar, where all indications suggest that Russian remains the dominant language on the street and in business133.” “After 1999, when Kazakhstan adopted a law mandating that at least of all television and radio broadcast time must be in Kazakh language, the initial response of broadcasters was to transmit a large share of the Kazakh programming in late-night hours when audiences were small; many “Kazakh programs” were simply rebroadcasts of Kazakh concerts. The situation has changed considerably. Even compared with five years ago, the share of Kazakh-language television broadcasts has increased, and a greater variety of programming is available. There 133 W. Fierman. Progress of Kazakh language spread in cities of Kazakhstan. IREX, Scholar Research Brief, 2010. P.3.

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was a broad consensus, however, especially in meetings with high school and college-aged students, that the quality of Kazakh programs still lags considerably behind that in Russian. Furthermore, although a substantial share of foreign films and other programs are now dubbed or subtitled in Kazakh, the quality of translation is allegedly inferior. Citing an example concerning a popular Korean-produced soap opera, one translator noted that the Kazakh-language version was translated from a Russian translation; this, she explained, was because it was much less costly to translate from Russian to Kazakh than from Korean to Kazakh134.” “Progress toward a higher status for Kazakh both as a language used by Kazakhs and as language known and used by all Kazakhstanis has been far slower than what Kazakh nationalists. Naturally, progress has been easiest in those areas of Kazakhstan, including certain cities, where the Kazakh population is largest. If we stand back and look at the larger picture for a moment, despite the problems of raising Kazakh’s status, its prospects look rather bright. One key reason relates to the independent state and its proclaimed ideology, which is granted at least grudging support by a large majority of Kazakhstan’s population, and enthusiastic support by a large and probably growing segment of it. This factor alone, of course, is insufficient to guarantee a higher status for Kazakh, but it is nevertheless a crucial component supporting it. In addition, however, the widespread popular mindset that identifies language, territory, and ethnicity is still basically intact. To the increasing majority Kazakh population, this lends a greater plausibility to the Kazakh linguistic nationalists’ argument that the government’s identification project should increase the prominence of what they (the nationalists) define as Kazakh135.”

W. Fierman. Progress of Kazakh language spread in cities of Kazakhstan. IREX, Scholar Research Brief, 2010. P.4. 135 W. Fierman Kazakh Language and Prospects for Its Role in Kazakh “Groupness.” // Ab Imperio, 2, 2005. P. 419. 134

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SELF-CONTROL QUESTIONS 1. What are some depictions of modern Kazakhs in film and other mass media? To what extent are they an accurate portrayal of the country, its people, and its culture? 2. What are the attitudes towards women in Kazakh society? In what ways are these attitudes communicated abroad? In what ways are they misrepresented? 3. In 100 words or less, describe the salient features of the modern “Kazakh mentality.” 4. Discuss some of the major stories and figures in Kazakh folklore. What traditions and/or values do they represent? How are these different from modern Kazakh stories/media? 5. Summarize the work of Kenneth Lymer. What are his unique contributions to the study and canonization of Kazakh culture? 6. What was Christopher Robbins’ film about? Why is this film different and significant among foreign pieces of media about Kazakhstan?

REFERENCES 1. Chokan and Murat Laumulin. The Kazakhs children of the steppes. Global Oriental LTD, 2009. 2. Christopher Robbins. Apples are from Kazakhstan. New York, 2008. 3. Zabortseva Y.N. From the “forgotten region” to the “great game” region: On the development of geopolitics in Central Asia. Journal of Eurasian Studies 3 (2012) 168–176. 4. Mackinder, H.. Democratic ideals and reality a study in the politics of reconstruction. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1996. 5. Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 9. 6. Ian Bremmer, “Nazarbaev and the North: State-Building and Ethnic Relations in Kazakhstan,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 17, No. 4, 1994, pp. 619–635. 7. Anatoly M. Khazanov, “The Ethnic Problems of Contemporary Kazakhstan,” Central Asian Survey, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1995, pp. 243–264. 8. Neil Melvin, Russians beyond Russia: The Politics of National Identity (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995). 9. Robert Kaiser and Jeff Chinn, “Russian–Kazakh Relations in Kazakhstan,” Post-Soviet Geography, Vol. 36, No. 5, 1995, pp. 257–273. 10. Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 11. Martha Brill Olcott, “Kazakhstan: Pushing for Eurasia,” in Ian Bremmer and Ray Taras, eds, New States, New Politics: Building the Post-Soviet Nations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 547–570. 12. Sue Davis, Steven O. Sabol, “The Importance of Being Ethnic: Minorities in Post-Soviet States—The Case of Russians in Kazakstan,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 26, No. 3, 1998, pp. 473–491. 13. James P. Dorian. Central Asia: A major emerging energy player in the 21st century. International Energy Economist, 6201 Benalder Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 20816, USA. Energy Policy 34 (2006) 544–555. P. 544. 14. Kemal Kantarci. Perceptions of foreign investors on the tourism market in central Asia including Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. Tourism Management 28, 2007. PP. 820–829. 15. Kenneth Lymer. Rags and Rock Art: The Landscapes of Holy Site Pilgrimage in the Republic of Kazakhstan. World Archaeology, Vol. 36, No. 1, The Object of Dedication (Mar., 2004), pp. 158-172. 16. W. Fierman. Language and Education in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan: Kazakh-Medium Instruction in Urban Schools // The Russian Review 65, January 2006. PP. 98-116.

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Chapter 3

BACK AND FORTH: SOCIAL ISSUES AND FUNCTIONAL INTERACTION

3.1 JOINT RESEARCH BETWEEN KAZAKHSTAN AND AMERICA Area and international studies refers to research and teaching about other countries. In the United States, until the 1940s, international studies were simply parts of academic disciplines. Over the past fifty years they have become more distinct, self-aware, and organized. Their growth has paralleled a more general trend toward the internationalization of American universities: the expansion of opportunities for study abroad by students and faculty; bringing more foreign students to the campus; staffing and managing technical assistance programs; developing formal overseas linkages including the establishment of satellite campuses abroad; and durable transnational links between faculty and students in the US and abroad. Here, only those aspects dealing with research and teaching about countries other than the US will be discussed. As international studies have grown, they have split into a number of specialties which for purposes of analysis will be divided into two segments; one, those that deal primarily with a single country or region, and the other, those that comprise studies of transnational phenomena. Two examples of studies focused on single countries or regions will be discussed: area studies and risk analysis. With respect to transnational research several overlapping specialties will be discussed: comparative studies, international relations and foreign policy analysis, security studies, peace studies and conflict resolution, and international political economy studies. While the centers play a key role in the organization of area studies, they tend not to be units of research collaboration. Research is carried out by individual scholars. Collaborative research, where it occurs, tends to link scholars across universities rather than within centers. Facilitating these transinstitutional links and serving as re91

search facilitators and accumulators are national area studies membership organizations: the African Studies Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, the Association for Asian Studies, the Latin American Studies Association, and the Middle East Studies Association. Individual scholars and students are also served by a series of more focused organizations that represent sub-sections of the constituency – e.g., the American Oriental Society representing scholars pursuing the textualist tradition in the Near and Far East. There are also a series of organizations promoting overseas research, some based in the United States, such as the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX) which awards fellowships for study in Russia, and some based abroad, such as the American Institute of Indian Studies whose headquarters are in New Delhi. Standing committees of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies, supported largely by the Ford Foundation, annually allocate dissertation-level fellowships and sponsor centralized planning and assessment for each world area. Over the years, the geographic domain covered by each world area, whose boundaries represent a residue of colonial cartography and European ideas of civilization, has remained fairly constant. The established geographic units are Africa, Central Asia, East Asia, East Europe, Latin America, Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Programs on smaller campuses may define particular areas more broadly. Scandinavian studies, Central Asian, and Oceanic studies constitute smaller area study groups. Scholars studying one or more Western European countries generally do not consider themselves part of the area studies communities, although West European studies have been added to the list of federally supported area groups. Within each world area particular countries tend to receive the bulk of scholarly attention: China and Japan in East Asian studies, Mexico and Brazil in Latin American studies, India in South Asian studies, Egypt in Middle Eastern studies, Thailand and Indonesia in Southeast Asian studies, and the former Soviet Union, now Russia, in East European studies. More recently, there has been a tendency among students to direct their studies to other countries within their world area. World area study groups tend to be almost totally discrete both on the campus and nationally. While there may be several area programs on particular cam92

puses and some faculty members may belong to more than one area studies group, each group has its own organizational style, intellectual tradition, professional association, and scholarly journals. There are recurrent attempts to create new geographic units, e.g., the development of the Pacific Rim studies, Diaspora studies, and research on the Muslim world as a whole. More recently, part of the rationale for the Ford Foundation’s ‘Crossing Borders’ funding project is to encourage the linking together of several world area studies groups. As writes R.D. Lambert in article «Area and International Studies in the United States: Institutional Arrangements»: «The forces that will shape future developments within international studies are already apparent. Internally, the various sub-specialties are likely to have different trajectories. International relations will broaden its perspective beyond interstate relations to include international business and other aspects of the global society. Peace and conflict studies, security analysis and risk analysis will come to resemble the other temporary coalitions of scholarly interest in International Political Economy Studies. Comparative studies will lose its distinctiveness. With respect to area studies, during most of its history area specialists have played an important role in linking the American academic world with events and scholarship in other countries. What made this role possible was the area specialists’ combination of language competence, area knowledge, familiarity with forefront disciplinary scholarship both here and abroad, and access to the American academic world. It will be interesting to see whether this role becomes less important as the spread of English becomes more pervasive, as strong academic communities develop within the countries being studied, and as more members of those communities themselves integrate with the American general academic community and with the increasingly interlinked global world of scholarship. These changes are occurring at a different pace with respect to different world areas. European studies never developed an area studies perspective in part because this intermingling of American and European scholarship was already well advanced. Latin American studies is already well along in this loss of the traditional role for area specialists. At the other extreme, in East Asian studies the difficulty of mastering Asian languages and the importance of a knowledge of their cultures will inhibit the transnational homogeniza93

tion of scholarship. African studies and Central Asian studies are at the very beginning of this cycle. Hanging over all of the components of international studies is uncertainty about the continuation of the external financial support that in the past has underwritten the special costs of international scholarship and, above all, the overseas sojourns of PhD students. It is clear that, in some form, international studies will continue to be a strong component of American scholarship in the behavioral and social sciences. See also: Area and International Studies in the United States: Intellectual Trends; Area and International Studies in the United States: Stakeholders; Foreign Language Teaching and Learning; Foreign Policy Analysis; Human–Environment Relationship: Comparative Case Studies; International Research: Programs and Databases». The Resource Center for American and Democratic Studies (ReCADS) is functioning on the base of the International Relations department of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KNU). It was opened by the assistance of Transregional Center for Democratic Studies (TCDS) of New School University (New-York, USA) in the framework of the “University as a site for democratic governance” project and began its activity from June 1, 2004. The Resource Center for American and Democratic Studies at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University is the info-scientific center. The users of the Resource Center for American and Democratic Studies are MA students and PhD students of Kazakh National University and other Universities of Almaty. The main purpose is Uniting students of Universities of Almaty for joint activity in studying, researching and exchanging ideas over internal and external policy of the USA. The main tasks of the Resource Center for American and Democratic Studies: Assistance to scientific and educational institutions of Almaty in providing access to e-mail information sources including informational and scientific sources of Internet; Research activity coordination in the field of democratization and American studies issues; Assistance in training of American studies specialists; Improvement of curriculum providing on history, political system and the USA foreign policy; Preparation to publication of scientific, educational-methodical and analytical references on the basic directions of the (ReCADS). 94

ReCADS conducts informational, educational, scientific and methodological activity. The Center conducts methodical conferences with invited American professors published educational manuals on the theory and practice of U.S. domestic and foreign policy, U.S. political system, the U.S. strategy in Central Asia and other regions of the world. One of the main directions of ReCADS’ activity is the organization of scientific-practical and methodical conferences devoted to the current issues of US domestic and foreign policy. The famous experts, US professors and US educational programs alumni participate in the interesting and important events. Summer schools are a form of professional development and a forum of scientific and personal interaction of summer schools participants. Since 2004 organizers of summer schools annually bring together students, undergraduates, doctoral students, young researchers and teachers and government structures, specializing in the field of American studies. Leading professors and experts of Kazakhstan and Central Asian universities, famous scientists from research institutes are invited as lecturers. Due to financial support of the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan and NATO Public Diplomacy Division it is able to invite American professors and representatives of NATO departments. During 8 years, over 200 young teachers and researchers specializing in American studies from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan, U.S., Russia participated in summer schools. American Studies Student Association (ASSA) is functioning from February 1, 2008. ASSA was founded by International Relations department students, studying history, foreign policy, economics, science, culture and education of the United States and who interested in the life of American students. Creating the ASSA has become possible thanks to the assistance of the U.S. Embassy in the RK. The Association has the following activities: teaching, research and information. The purpose of the ASSA: Integration of high school students in Almaty to work together in training, research and exchange ideas on matters of domestic and foreign policy of the United States; Establishing contacts with student organizations in the U.S. in order to find friends who are interested in the life of young people in Kazakhstan and are ready to cooperate with the ASSA; Popularization of American Youth of Kazakhstan to expand knowledge of the U.S; Issue a monthly newsletter “News of the ASSA”. 95

Association organizes simulation games, competitions. ASSA Members actively participate in the round tables and summer schools. They are regular participants Crossroads - meetings with American researchers, experts in various fields organized by the U.S. Embassy in the RK. From the August of 2004 the Resource Center for American and Democratic Studies issues the Newsletter, which is published once in two months and is distributed by e-mail. In the future it is planned the arrangement of the Newsletter on web-site of the center. The Newsletter reflects events held by the center, discussions on pivotal problems of American studies in Kazakhstan and abroad, review of the literature published in Kazakhstan and abroad on the topic and directions of the center. The American Back Institute for research on aging is collaborating with Kazakh scientists to try to solve the problem of longevity. The Institute for Research on Aging is a world leader in the field of fundamental and applied research about the mechanisms of aging. The 20 laboratories of the Institute are using the latest technologies and advances to find ways to prolong life and improve people’s health. Under the proposed cooperation, the parties intend to conduct joint research. Currently in Almaty, the medical Institute is conducting its first clinical study in five regions of the country to determine the basic factors of human aging. The researchers are trying to determine which organs of the human body most quickly wear and age. The next step will be joint research with the Back Institute to find solutions to these problems. According to Brian Kennedy, president of the Back Institute: “First of all, we hope to conduct joint research. The next step will be training scientists from Kazakhstan for our database; that is, they will learn the latest technologies in the field of anti-aging. We also want to introduce new therapeutic approaches to help people live longer, healthier lives.” The Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, Virginia, promotes international scientific and technical cooperation in more than 30 countries in Eurasia, the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Through its representative office in Almaty, CRDF cooperates with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Education and Science to improve scientific infrastructure in Kazakhstan and cooperation with the American scientific commu96

nity. Utilizing CRDF grants and equipment, Kazakh scientists conduct research related to health, the environment, and other priority areas, as well as work on successful commercialization of technologies. Since its inception, CRDF has contributed more than five million dollars to Kazakhstan. The Kazakh-American Center of Agro-Innovation opened at the Semipalatinsk State University after Shakarim. The goal of the center is to conduct agricultural science research, as well as provide methodological assistance and consultation to farmers in Kazakhstan’s northeastern region. The center consists of laboratories for food safety, diagnostic veterinary products, forage quality evaluation, environmental issues, and embryo transplantation & artificial insemination. The center opened in accordance with a Memorandum of Cooperation (April 2013) between the State University of North Dakota (USA) and the company Dakota Global, a relationship which came about due to Kazakhstan’s climatic similarities to the state of North Dakota and East-Kazakhstan region, great potential of East-Kazakhstan region for the introduction of advanced foreign technologies. Disseminating the experience of American farmers will create new opportunities for our agricultural producers, which will in turn contribute to modernization of Kazakhstan’s agrarian sector. 3.2 KAZAKH AND CENTRAL ASIAN ECOLOGICAL QUESTIONS IN WESTERN PUBLICITY Great uncertainties still exist in the projections of responses of drylands to global climate change and Central Asian states of the former USSR represent a region where potential impacts of climate change are highly uncertain. The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, WGI, 2007) has pointed once again to myriad gaps in our understanding of the contingent and nonlinear interactions between global climate change, regional land changes, and human vulnerabilities and adaptations to environmental change, whether in Central Asia or the planet’s many other arid regions. A Synthetic Assessment of the Global Distribution of Vulnerability to Climate Change published by CIESIN (Center for 97

International Earth Science Information Network) simply omits Central Asia, declaring it to be an area where ‘‘no data are available’’. The purpose study of E. Lioubimtseva, G. M. Henebry (Geography and Planning Department, Grand Valley State University, Mackinaw Hall 4-B202, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI 49401-9403, USA; Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence (GIScCE), South Dakota State University, 1021 Medary Ave., Wecota Hall 506B, Brookings, SD 57007-3510, USA) is to examine the vulnerability of arid and semi-arid zones of Central Asia to potential impacts of climate change and to discuss possible adaptations to these impacts. Central Asia has a distinctive continental arid and semi-arid climate with hot, cloudless, dry summers and moist, relatively warm winters in the south and cold winters with severe frosts in the north. Precipitation throughout most of the region has a spring maximum, which is associated with the northward migration of the Iranian branch of the Polar front. Meteorological data series available since the end of the 19th century show a steady increase of annual and winter temperatures in this region. Both aggregated temperature data downloaded from the Climate Research Unit dataset136 and our earlier study of individual weather stations across the region137 (Lioubimtseva et al., 2005) indicate a steady significantwarming trend in this region. Unfortunately, few stations in Central Asia have a period of observations spanning more than a century; most stations have records for 60–65 years with gaps. Steady temperature increases during the past century might be an indication of a general spatial shift in the atmospheric circulation in Central Asia. Monitoring land change in a region as large and as sparsely and unevenly populated as Central Asia presents multiple challenges. At over four million square kilometers, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajiki136 Jones P.D., New M., Parker D.E., Martin S., Rigor I.G., 1999. Surface air temperature and its changes over the past 150 years. Reviews of Geophysics 37, 173–199. 137 Lioubimtseva E., Cole R., Adams J.M., Kapustin G., 2005. Impacts of climate and land-cover changes in arid lands of Central Asia. Journal of Arid Environments 62 (2), 285–308.

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stan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan cover an area larger than India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh combined, and are home to more than 60 million people. There is a dearth of data, including few extant regional land cover/land use maps and global land cover maps that are too broad thematically to be of much use in change analysis. The satellite data record is relatively short and of uneven quality. Yet, it contains valuable synoptic views into the land surface of the recent past138. A complex and multifaceted concept with social, economic, physical and environmental dimensions, vulnerability can be defined and approached in more than one way. Physico-environmental vulnerability to climate change suggests that biophysical impacts of climate change will occur through various mechanisms, and that these may have significant influence on the future viability or integrity of physical resources139. Thus, agricultural and silvicultural productivities will be vulnerable to climate change, if the shifts in weather patterns can impact yields significantly140. Yet, the role of a variable and changing physical environment should not be overemphasized. In many geographic regions today, the vulnerabilities of the human systems arise less from physical sensitivities of the resource base that supports the human system than from the social, economic and political factors than affect how the human system interacts with the resource base. For example, southern Kazakhstan – where rainfall is very unreliable and soils are poor – is economically more robust due to political stability and rich geological resources; it is thereby less vulnerable to climate change in comparison with neighboring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Water issues take on special importance in Central Asia. With the rapidly shrinking Aral Sea, transgression of the Caspian Sea, an immense cotton industry, huge deserts, advancing desertification, and concerns over potable water Central Asia’s water problems are com E. Lioubimtseva, G.M. Henebry. Climate and environmental change in arid Central Asia: Impacts, vulnerability, and adaptations. Journal of Arid Environments, 2007. РР. 963-977. 139 Adger W.N., Arnell N.W., Tompkins E.J., 2005. Successful adaptations to climate change across scales. Global Environmental Change 15, 77–86. 140 Fischer G.M., Shah M., Tubiello F.N., Van Velhuizen H., 2005. Socio-economic and climate change impact on agriculture: an integrated assessment, 1990–2080. Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society of London – B 360, 2067–2083. 138

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plex and compelling. What would be the impact of climate change on this highly vulnerable area? Growing demand for water for irrigation, high levels of water pollution, and frequent droughts and widespread land degradation are among the key water-related issues for the region that already threaten human development and security. Water has been a major driving force for human development and civilization in history. Nearly, all ancient cultures developed in river basins that could provide enough freshwater for drinking and irrigation. Archeological findings indicate early colonization of the Aral Sea basin, especially along the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, and in the oasis located between both rivers. The ancient city of Samarkand, for example, was founded in the fourteenth century BC, and is one of the oldest cities in the world. The Aral Sea is a salt or brackish lake having the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya as main inflows and no outflow. Owing to the evaporation of lake water, salt concentration increases over time. Generally, salt lakes develop when the outflow of inland drainage (endorheic) basins is restricted. Next to the Aral Sea, lakes like the Great Salt Lake and Lake Walker in Nevada (all in the USA), or the Dead Sea in the Near East are other examples of endorheic lakes with increased salt concentrations. Interestingly, most of them are shrinking, however, to different extents. In prehistoric times, the Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea formed one big unit splitting up approximately 14 000 years ago. Since then, the size and shape of the Aral Sea changed depending on the amount of water arriving at the lake. Although its northern tributary (Syr Darya) flowing through the Kysylkum desert was always heading toward the Aral Sea, its southern tributary (Amu Darya) changed its course several times and was flowing toward the Caspian Sea for centuries. Both rivers have their origin in the Pamir and Tien Shan mountains, 1500 km southeast of the Aral Sea. Their water levels depend on the amount of rainfall in this area, as well as on meltwater contributions of glaciers. The water levels of the rivers have immediate influence on the level of the Aral Sea. Before finally entering into the sea, both rivers split up in wide deltas giving shelter to ecologically interesting ecosystems with a rich biodiversity. 100

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are the only riparian states to the Aral Sea. Compared to Kazakhstan, the economy in Uzbekistan is weaker and average income of the population is lower. Kazakhstan’s economy is larger than those of all the other Central Asian states combined largely due to the country’s vast natural resources and a recent history of relative political stability141. The Aral Sea is a large brackish inland basin in Central Asia. Its systematic investigation began in the second half of 19th century, and first results were summarized by Berg142. Even at that time, the Aral Sea was considered a very changeable natural phenomenon. Historiographic study allowed for a detailed reconstruction of lake level fluctuations that extended back several 100 years, and a less certain pattern back to antiquity. Geographic approaches were used to estimate the age of the modern basin (29,000 years). Research activity peaked again in the middle of the 20th century when intensive geological and geomorphologic studies were conducted. These studies were related to the Central Asian irrigation programs of the USSR and to excavations of the Khorezm Archaeological Expedition by the USSR Academy of Sciences. An increased scientific interest in the last decades coincides with the dramatic drop of the Aral Sea lake level, which has been qualified as an ecological catastrophe. Modern social, ecological, and environmental consequences of this event are under consideration by the world academic community. The main ideas about the development of the Aral Sea basin and changes of its level are based on the knowledge which existed in the 1970s. These interpretations are based primarily on geomorphology, geological correlations, biostratigraphy, and archaeology143, and they lack chronological data. “Throughout the first twenty years of the Aral Sea problem (196080), signs of change were appearing everywhere: wind erosion, saltladen dust storms, destroyed spawning grounds, the collapse of the L. Erdinger H. Hollert, P. Eckl. Aral Sea: An Ecological Disaster Zone with Impact on Human Health. Elsevier, 2011. 142 L.S. Berg, Aralskoe More. Opyt Fiziko-Geograficheskoi Monografii [The Aral Sea. An Experience of Physical–Geographical Monograph], Stasyulevich Publisher, St.-Petersburg, 1908 (in Russian). 143 A.S. Kes, in: E.G. Maev (Ed.), Palaeogeografiya Kaspiiskogo i Aralskogo Morei v Kainozoe, Part 2, Nauka Publisher, Moscow, 1983, p. 97 (in Russian). 141

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fisheries, secondary salinization, increased salinity of seawater, waterlogging, disruption of navigation, the likely division of the sea into separate parts, the need for extra-basin water resources to stabilize the sea level, the loss of wildlife in the littoral areas, the large reduction of streamflow from the two main tributaries, a change in the regional climate, the disappearance of pasturelands, and so on. Each of these adverse changes was mentioned in the Soviet literature in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1960s sea level dropped 3 m; in the 1970s large dust storms were spotted from space and their occurrence seemed to have become more frequent”144. Wildlife disappeared from around the delta and forests became decimated as the soils dried out or became salinized or waterlogged, depending on local soil conditions. Kuznetsov supported this view of the early detection of adverse impacts, when he wrote that ‘the degradation of wetland soils in the deltas was noted quite clearly as early as the second half of the 1960s. For the preservation of the most fertile soils of the Amudarya delta it was proposed that they be artificially irrigated, for which it was recommended that 3.0-3.5 km3/ year of river water be used. However, professional water managers and land reclamation specialists paid no heed to this recommendation, nor to many others145. The problems of the Aral Sea cannot be solved in the short term. The problems are a result of economic decisions made in the 1950s within a different political context on the basis of a Soviet-Union-wide organized economy. Now that small countries are struggling for survival of their local economies, there is, at least in the non-oil producing countries, not enough economic power for a rapid change. Small steps like the construction of the dam separating the Small Aral Sea from its southern part and projects improving the use of irrigation water and leading to an overall water saving effect are helpful and feasible. The area of the Aral Sea will enlarge with the amount of water left over in the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya, even if the Aral Sea probably will not regain its former size during the next generation. Michael H. Glantz, Alvin Z. Rubinstein and Igor Zonn. Tragedy in the Aral Sea basin. Looking back to plan ahead? / Global Environmental Change, June 1993. 145 N.T. Kuznetsov, ‘Geographical aspects of the future of the Aral sea’, Soviet Geography, December 1977, p 163. 144

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3.3 ECOLOGICAL DISASTER ZONE AND IMPACT ON HUMAN HEALTH The climate in the Aral Sea area is typically continental, with very cold winters of down to – 40C and very hot summers of up to – 45C. During the summer, evaporation of the lake water is driven by very low air humidity, whereas evaporation during winter is less significant. “Local residents frequently report that the incidence of sandstorms significantly increased and that health conditions of the population declined. However, there are no data for the documentation of these changes available. Without any doubt the climate in the former coastal cities, formerly moderated by the waters of the lake, changed to the very different and much harder conditions of the desert now surrounding these settlements. Additionally, as the climate is changing in many areas of the world, the impact of the shrinking Aral Sea on the local climate is hard to estimate and there is no information on the development of the climate in other remote areas of Kazakhstan. Up to now no state-of-the-art measurements on dust deposition rates or particle size distribution have been made. Measurements of deposition rates using dust traps indicate at least partially very high dust concentrations. From a medical point of view, these data are very difficult to analyze because in other studies linking particle size and concentrations to human health different sampling methods have been employed.” One of the first reactions of the former Soviet Union authorities to the falling water level of the Aral Sea was to declare the area to be a ‘Zone of Ecological Disaster.’ To the authors paper L.Erdinger, H.Hollert, P.Eckl (Aral Sea: An Ecological Disaster Zone with Impact on Human Health), this status is valid up to now giving the inhabitants of the area a basis to claim for a basic level of support by the state. A central point of argumentation for the establishment of this ‘Zone’ is the extent of environmental pollution and its influence on the ecological system as well as on the health of the people living in this environment. Next to high amounts of salt remaining after the retreat of the Aral Sea, there are speculations on large amounts of pesticides arriving in the area. Some authors even compare the 103

local situation in the Aral Sea area to environmental catastrophes like Minamata or Kyushu in Japan. However, there is a certain lack of scientific and plausible data to support this comparison. It seems as if at least in some cases the opinion of researches was biased by understandable pity for the local population. People living in the area are poor, even for Central Asian standards; they suffer from unemployment and accompanying social problems as well as from malnutrition and anemia. Iron deficiency anemia has recently been ranked as the third leading cause worldwide of loss of disability-adjusted life years for women aged 15 – 44 y146. Furthermore, numerous studies have demonstrated that anemia is not only detrimental to the health status of women themselves147, but it can also have significant negative effects on their pregnancy outcome148, thereby having a major impact on the well-being of future generations. It is therefore not surprising that iron deficiency anemia remains a major public health concern throughout the world. The study “Original Communication Haemoglobin status of adult non-pregnant Kazakh women living in Kzyl-Orda region, Kazakhstan”149 was undertaken in order to estimate the prevalence of anemia among adult Kazakh women in the Kzyl-Orda region of Kazakhstan. Among a random sample of 3625 non-pregnant Kazakh women aged 18 – 45 y, the prevalence of anemia was found to be 40.2%. While this value is substantially higher than average values Murray CJL & Lopez AD (1996): The global burden of disease in 1990: final results and their sensitivity to alternative epidemiological perspectives, discount rates, age-weights and disability weights. In: The Global Burden of Disease: a Comprehensive Assessment of Mortality and Disability from Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors in 1990 and Projected to 2020, Vol 1, eds CJL Murray & AD Lopez, pp 247 – 293. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 147 UNICEF=UNU=WHO=MI (1999): Preventing Iron Deficiency in Women and Children: Background and Consensus on Key Technical Issues and Resources for Advocacy, Planning and Implementing National Programs. Geneva: WHO. 148 Allen LH (2000): Anemia and iron deficiency: effects on pregnancy outcome. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 71(Suppl), 1280S – 1284S. 149 A.D. Dangour, H.L. Hill, S.J. Ismail. Original Communication Haemoglobin status of adult non-pregnant Kazakh women living in Kzyl-Orda region, Kazakhstan. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2001) 55, 1068–1075. PP. 1069-1075. 146

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found among adult females in Europe (14%), it is lower than average values found among African (48%) and South Asian women (57%)150. Detailed analysis in the current study demonstrated that the overall anemia prevalence of 40.2% for adult non-pregnant Kazakh women in Kzyl-Orda region hid considerable intra-sample variation at two distinct levels: the district and the individual. At the district level, there were significant differences in hemoglobin concentration (and hence anemia prevalence), with Djalagash having hemoglobin concentrations intermediate between the higher value of Zhanakorgan and the lower value of Kazalinsk. Although there were no consistent differences between the districts in socioeconomic or dietary factors (results not shown), there were striking socioeconomic, employment and infrastructural differences between the districts. Kazalinsk was the poorest of the districts with a rapidly deteriorating infrastructure, lack of sanitation, and water reportedly contaminated with pesticides, fertilizers and salt. In its principal town of Novokazalinsk where many people work on the railways, large-scale unemployment has recently been reported. In contrast, in Djalagash, a rice growing area, agriculture was a major source of employment. However, Djalagash has a relatively small population and consequently has few public facilities such as hospitals. Zhanakorgan, has a milder climate which permits extensive fruit production. Infrastructure, living conditions and provision of health services in Zhanakorgan are better than in the other two districts, and its proximity to Uzbekistan and the large urban centre of Chimkent may have commercially and financially beneficial sideeffects (Ismail & Hill, 1996). These differences correspond with those found in hemoglobin concentration, with Zhanakorgan being apparently wealthier and with better public facilities than either Djalagash or Kazalinsk. However, recently at least a couple of data trying to describe health factors of children in Aralsk have been published. The data for the current study were collected authors A.D. Dangour, A. Farmer, H.L. Hill, S.J. Ismail in the district of Kazalinsk, in the far west of Kazakhstan, in October 1992, between June and August 150 de Mayer E & Adiels-Tegman M (1985): The prevalence of anemia in the world. World Health Stat. P. 38, 302 – 316.

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1994, and in August 2000. Kazalinsk district lies in the west of KzylOrda region and is adjacent to the Aral Sea (Fig. 1), an area of increasing public health concern.

Fig. 1. Map of Kazakhstan showing location of Kazalinsk town in Kzyl-Orda region

This study presents anthropometric data collected among three cohorts of 4.0–4.9-year-old children on three separate occasions between 1992 and 2000 in Kazalinsk district, Kazakhstan. The data demonstrate that anthropometric status in 4.0–4.9-year-old boys remained constant over the 8-year-study period: there was no evidence of either an improvement or a deterioration in childhood growth performance. In contrast, 4.0–4.9-year-old girls showed a negative secular change between 1992 and 2000, with an average height loss of 0.25 cm per year. Unfortunately, there are only few data comparing results of medical examinations and data of human biomonitoring from the Aral Sea area to equivalent data from other remote areas in Central Asia, where people are living under comparable conditions except for the influence of the drying out Aral Sea. Therefore, most studies on body burden by environmental pollutants were performed at least in cooperation with Western universities or hospitals. Some preliminary analysis using pooled blood samples of local inhabitants seemed to prove that 106

the pesticide load of the population, especially of local children, is high compared to body burden measured in European children. Although these superficial analyses were scientifically not reliable, other evidence-based information on health effects on the population inhabiting the Kazakh and Karakalpak section of the Aral Sea is hard to obtain. Unfortunately, much of the information on the health status of local residents published so far does not meet even basic scientific standards but seems to be biased by political aspects and by (understandable) pity for the local population. There is no doubt that the health of inhabitants of the area is severely affected by the environmental conditions. From a scientific point of view, the proof of a direct and measurable impact of certain environmental parameters on the health of people compared to indirect effects caused by socioeconomic changes is very hard to obtain. Factors of significant health influence discussed so far include deterioration of the drinking water quality, lung problems induced by airborne dust and fine particles, and an increase in health problems related to high concentrations of diverse pesticides used in the irrigation areas. Other scientific data are pointing at an increased level of renal dysfunction in children living close to the Aral Sea compared to children living in other parts of the country. Reasons for the findings of this study remained unclear because no elevated concentrations of heavy metals in biomaterials like hair, nails, or urine could be shown. The authors speculated that elevated values for certain bioindicators could be caused by an increased uptake of uranium, but there are no data supporting this assumption. Additionally, in contrast to cadmium and lead, uranium has a much lower tendency for bioaccumulation in human bodies and its toxicity is lower compared to other heavy metals. In Western countries, groundwater may be polluted by uranium contaminations in phosphate fertilizers, and due to the intensive agriculture along the river valleys uranium contaminations from this source could be present too. However, as mentioned earlier in the text, up to now there are no data on this problem. The Semipalatinsk nuclear test site (SNTS), an area of 19000 km 2 in northeastern Kazakhstan, was the location for over 450 nuclear 107

test explosions during 1949-1989 with a total explosive energy of 17.4 Mt TNT equivalent. The majority of tests conducted before 1963 were on the surface or in the atmosphere, as opposed to the mostly underground tests conducted after that date. Determination of the radiation doses to residents of various areas downwind of the SNTS is important for estimating the likely health risks associated with exposure and for epidemiological analyses of radiation-related risks. Estimates of fallout deposition have been calculated from theoretical models on the basis of bomb characteristics (explosive power, location and altitude of detonation), the speed and trajectories of individual fallout plumes at different altitudes, wind and precipitation patterns, and measurements of radionuclides remaining in the soil at different times after detonation. Such models have been widely used to reconstruct fallout exposures from tests carried out by the United States, the former Soviet Union, and other countries. Considerable attention has been devoted to understanding and reconciling the different approaches used by Russian and American scientists, in particular, comparing methods used for dose reconstruction for areas downwind of the SNTS and the Nevada test site in the United States151. In general, the influence of environmental pollution seems to play about the same role for the total burden of disease compared to other remote areas of Kazakhstan. 3.4. COMING AND GOING: KAZAKH IMMIGRATION AND MIGRATION, AND THE IMPACT OF INDEPENDENCE Becker, Charles M., Musabek, Erbolat N., Seitenova, Ai-Gul S., and Urzhumova, Dina S. Urzhumova in paper “The migration response to economic shock: lessons from Kazakhstan” examines the determinants of migration between Kazakhstan and Russia for different age groups and by urban/rural residence, using monthly data for 151 A.A. Romanyukha, M. Desrosiers, O. Sleptchonok, C. Land, N. Luckyanov, B.I. Guseva. EPR Dose Reconstruction of Two Kazakh Villages Near the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site. Applied Magnetic Resonanc, 22, 2002. PP. 347-356.

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the period 1995 to 1999. Using reconciled migration data and a comparable macroeconomic data set for the two countries, these monthly data make it possible to assess different groups’ responses to differential economic events. Patterns of migration during times of economic and social stress tend to reflect escape from difficult and unpleasant situations. However, little analysis of the nature of lags in response to such a negative shock exists. This paper provides insights into both issues using detailed data from the Republic of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan affords a unique picture of people’s responses to economic pressure. “With the collapse of the Soviet Union, vast emigration occurred; on net, 13.0% of the urban population emigrated between 1990 and 1999, while 8.7% of the rural population left. Part of this reflected an opening of borders and fairly unrestricted repatriation of ethnic Germans to Germany and, on a much smaller scale, of ethnic Jews to Israel. Larger flows, but at lower rates, are found for ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians, and Tartars back to European parts of the former USSR. Of ethnic Russians, approximately 18% left Kazakhstan between the 1989 and 2002 censuses (Heleniak, 2002). These flows were consistently greater from urban than rural areas, although substantial emigration from the countryside occurred152.” “Emigration increased dramatically in the immediate post-independence period, especially following the dissolution of the ruble zone and the ensuing chaos in 1993 to 1994. Kazakhstan had the highest net emigration rate of any former Soviet republic from 1991 to 1997 (IOM, 1999). Net emigration rose from 3.5 per thousand in 1991 to 25.2 in 1994. Emigration declined with the economic recovery of 1995 and 1996, decreasing to 11.3 for the entire year, but it accelerated again in 1997 and the first eight months of 1998, peaking at 2.0 per thousand in August 1998 alone. A precipitous decline followed as net emigration in 1999 was slightly less than half of its 1997 level. The reason for this decline appears to have been Russia’s financial crisis and the ensuing economic collapse. Although the Russian crisis affected Kazakhstan, macroeconomic management was strong and the impact was modest. While complete current data are not available, 152

C.M. Becker et al. / Journal of Comparative Economics 33, 2005. PP. 107–132.

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Kazakhstan’s rapid economic growth since 2000, which has lead to a recovery of real GDP to its late Soviet peak as of 2004, appears to have resulted in the virtual cessation of net emigration. By 2001, the net emigration rate was 29% lower than in 1999 and about 77% below its peak in 1994 peak. A decline of 29% was recorded in 2002 relative to 2001, implying an annual net emigration rate of only 4.2 per thousand153.” “Of course, some people have moved into Central Asia during the period under discussion, but there have been no serious studies about this immigration,” – wrote Martha Brill Olcott. “The largest single group to return “home” are the Kazaks, who were originally offered fmancial incentives by Kazakhstan’s government to return. Kazakhstan was the only Central Asian state that systematically tried to attract the titular nationality back to the republic. As a result, more than 120,000 Kazakhs were resettled in Kazakhstan in 1991-94, early half from the CIS states, with most of the rest arriving from Mongolia154. This “return” of the Mongolian Kazakhs was part of a complex government policy designed to hasten the formation of a Kazakh majority in the republic, as well as in each of its oblasts, by making restitution to the descendants of Kazakhs who had fled or been deported during the 1916 uprising and collectivization. Most of the Mongolian Kazaks were settled in Russian-majority parts of eastern Kazakhstan, but they proved much harder to assimilate than government officials had expected, since their culture, practices, and even language were very different from that of their putative co-nationals155.” An American geographer Alexander C. Diener in article “Problematic Integration of Mongolian-Kazakh Return Migrants in Kazakhstan” examines the return migration of ethnic Kazakhs from Mongolia to their ancestral homeland of Kazakhstan, and the adjustment problems confronting them upon return. This specific example of “diasporic return migration” is emblematic of a process affecting Ibid. P. 108. UNHCR Regional Bureau for Europe, 7he CIS Conference on Refugees and Migrants, European Series, vol. 2, no. 1, 1996, p. 48 155 M.B. Olcott. How New the New Russia? Demographic Upheavals in Central Asia. Orbis. 1996. P. 551. 153 154

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nearly every state within the former USSR, and is especially acute in Central Asia. The study, based on the author’s interviews, explores obstacles to the integration of Mongolian-Kazakhs into Kazakhstani society, and raises the question of whether this process might best be conceptualized as “repatriation” or “patriation.” This paper suggests that “diasporic existence” is not placeless and that a re-evaluation of identity is required even during “return migration” to an “ancestral homeland” by a diaspora with titular status. More specifically, the paper focuses on how changes in the cultural and demographic character of Kazakhstan have impeded the integration within that country (following return migration) of members of a multi-generational ethnic Kazakh community from Mongolia (hereafter “Mongolian-Kazakhs”), and how many members of this group feel more “placeless” and “foreign” in Kazakhstan than when living “abroad.” This paper is part of a broader 18-month study that involved diverse methods of data collection. Primary locations of data gathering in Kazakhstan were Almaty, Astana, Karaganda, Pavlodar, and several small villages. In Mongolia, research was conducted primarily in Ulaan Baator, Nalaikh, and a number of towns and settlements in the Bayan Olgi aimag (province). The primary sources here are the surveys, interviews, and focus groups2 conducted among the Mongolian-Kazakh Oralmandar156 and Kazakhs opting to remain in Mongolia (hereafter referred to as “Kazakh-Mongolians”). In-depth follow-up interviews were conducted among randomly selected respondents to clarify conclusions and questions raised by survey analysis. Kazakh and Mongolian language newspapers, as well as academic writings, government documents, and other media sources also were utilized. Following a brief overview of theoretical issues and terminology, and a historical sketch of the Mongolian-Kazakh community, the paper The term Oralman (dar being the plural ending) officially designates “foreigners or stateless people of the Kazakh origin/nationality permanently living beyond the borders of Kazakhstan at the time of its independence and arriving in Kazakhstan for the purpose of permanent residence” (see Republic of Kazakhstan, 1997). The degree to which this term is applicable to return-migrants from CIS countries is debated (see Cummings, 1999, p. 148; Zhusupov, 2000; and Sarsenbayev, 2001). Author interviews conducted in July 2005 suggest that the term is presently applied to all dispersed ethnic Kazakhs seeking permanent resettlement on the territory of Kazakhstan. 156

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explores the socio-cultural conditions within which the MongolianKazakh community in Kazakhstan are attempting to develop a sense of belonging and reconstruct their conceptions of homeland. In the final section, I offer conclusions that point to the broader implications of these findings. For the past two decades, the scholarly literature on international migration has become increasingly focused on the economic, cultural, and political impacts of transnational migration (Basch et al., 1994; Brettell, 2000; Glick-Schiller et al., 1995; Kearney, 1995, 2000; Levitt and Waters, 2002). Transnational migration is characterized by migrants who retain strong ties to their homeland and who develop hybridized or “transnational” social identities. Transnational migrants maintain these ties by sending remittances, communicating with relatives at home, visiting home, and sometimes returning home permanently (Basch et al., 1994: 4-8). The extent to which transnational migration is truly “new” and qualitatively different than earlier patterns of migration has been debated by several scholars. Foner (1997) and Brettell (2003), for example, demonstrate that transnational ties did exist in the past, yet they argue that the process of globalization has simultaneously shifted global economic opportunities and improved global communications and transportation infrastructures, thereby increasing the volume of international migration flows. Research on transnational migration include studies of economic issues, such as the impacts of remittances on home countries (Adams, 1998; Connell and Conway, 2000; Conway and Cohen, 1998; Trager, 1988), cultural issues, such as the emergence of hybrid identities and cultural practices (Basch et al., 1994; Glick-Schiller et al., 1995; Small 1997), and political issues, such as the rights and status of migrants within the receiving country (Kivisto, 2003; Ong, 1999; Vora, 2008). Additional perspectives seek to quantify the flow of transnational migrants (Berry, 1993), the experiences of transnational migrants in destination communities (Bailey et al., 2002), and the implications of transnational economic structures, such as mining companies and resort developments on local and international migration patterns (Bury, 2007; Torres and Momsen, 2005). Cynthia Werner is Associate Professor in Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, (TX, US) and Holly Barcus is As112

sistant Professor in Geography Department, Macalester College, Saint Paul (MN, US) in article “Mobility and Immobility in a Transnational Context: Changing Views of Migration among the Kazakh Diaspora in Mongolia”157 considers the migration decision-making process within the context of transnational migration. Authors utilize the case of the Kazakh population of Mongolia, a diasporic group moving from a country where Kazakhs are an ethnic minority to a country where Kazakhs are the majority group. In this transnational context, Kazakh nationalism is one of several factors that affect migration decisions. This case study focuses on the diverse mobility strategies of those who are currently living in Mongolia, looking specifically at those who have chosen not to migrate to Kazakhstan. Given the incentives to repatriate to Kazakhstan, how do these individuals calculate the economic and cultural costs of migrating? In this paper, Cynthia Werner and Holly Barcus argue that studies of migration decision making should consider both mobility and immobility, and that individual preferences for one over the other do not remain static over time. This paper is divided into three sections beginning with a discussion of the relevant literature on migration; followed by a description of the case study; and finally, a discussion of the reasons why some Mongolian Kazakhs are choosing to stay in Mongolia. Data are derived from fieldwork in western Mongolia, conducted during the summers of 2006 and 2008. The paper “Migration trends in Central Eurasia: Politics versus economics” (Andrei V. Korobkov, Middle Tennessee State University. Communist and Post-Communist Studies 40, 2007. PP. 169-189) discusses the impact of new migration flows on the economies, welfare mechanisms, financial systems, labor markets, and societies of Central Eurasia. Special attention is given to the governmental response to migration phenomenon from labor migration criminalization to attempts to stimulate the flow of specific migrant groups. This paper discusses the complex relationship between new migration flows and conflicts developing in the post-Soviet region, primarily in Central Eurasia. Two factors have defined the regional scope of the paper. Included in 157 C. Werner, H. Barcus. Mobility and Immobility in a Transnational Context: Changing Views of Migration among the Kazakh Diaspora in Mongolia. Migration Letters, Volume: 6, No: 1, pp. 49–62. April, 2009.

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Central Eurasia are the states of Central Asia (including Kazakhstan) and the Transcaucasus. This approach is based on the similarity of migration patterns in those two sub-regions, the primary orientation of migration flows towards Russia, and the deep ethnic, racial, and cultural divide existing between those countries and the RF. Simultaneously, the disproportionate influence exercised by the RF on the formation of migration flows in the region as both the major recipient of migrants and a ‘‘bridge’’ for those attempting to reach the West, makes it necessary to pay special attention to the patterns of migration to that country and to the dynamics of its migration policies. The present paper considers migration as a factor that can either stimulate or moderate the political and socioeconomic conflicts in the region. It also discusses the impact of the new migration flows on the economies, welfare mechanisms, financial systems, and labor markets of the countries involved. Special attention is given to the dynamics of the governmental response to the new migration wave. “More than half of Kazakhstan’s Central Asian migrants are comprised of Uzbeks, while around 200,000 are Kyrgyz and around 50,000 Tajiks. The majority of migrants are concentrated in four regions: Almaty, Astana, Atyrau and southern Kazakhstan. In the first two regions, migrants are chiefly employed in the construction industry, which is undergoing a real boom, while in Atyrau, several tens of thousands of workers (according to some sources, at least 30,000 Uzbeks) work in the oil industry. In southern Kazakhstan, predominantly Uzbek migrants are employed in the agricultural domain, especially in cotton fields. In Kazakhstan, a kilogram of cotton pays US$0.40 compared with only 0.05 in Uzbekistan. As for the Kyrgyz, a large number of them work on tobacco plantations.” “The migrants are specialized in several different sectors: according to estimates, nearly a third work in the construction industry, another third in convenience services (the food service industry, small business, home repairs services), and the last third in agriculture. The highest salaries are in the construction sector (about US$200 per month), whereas those in agriculture are much lower (about US$80 per month). Although men constitute the overwhelming majority of migrants, there is an increasing number of women migrants: in 2002, women made up only 15 percent of Uzbek migrants to Kazakhstan, 114

but by 2004 they made up nearly a quarter. Kazakhstan indeed lacks employees in sectors largely staffed by women, such as agriculture, the tertiary sector of the food service industry, and domestic services158.” The economic approach to migration presumes that people move in response to differences in opportunities, e.g., higher wages or larger pensions, better education for themselves or their children, lower crime, more social amenities, and more stability. In a static world of identical people, migration would occur until expected utility for all households is equalized at every location. In a dynamic world of diverse individuals and households, redistribution of people is natural, leading to ongoing positive migration flows. In addition, the relative attractiveness of different locations changes as local economic shocks occur and as information about those shocks is disseminated. Thus, changes in migration rates should respond to changing local economic and social conditions. The forces behind these changes may be quite different from the determinants of long-run, stationary migration rates. Since economic variables are likely to fluctuate more rapidly than other underlying social forces, the change in migration rates rather than their constant values will be most affected by changing economic conditions.

158 Marlene Laruelle. Kazakhstan, the new country of immigration for Central Asian workers. Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, 30 April 2008.

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SELF-CONTROL QUESTIONS 1. What were some of the significant academic/research exchanges between Kazakhstan and America? What impact have these exchanges had on broader Kazakh-American relations? 2. Researchers often refer to lack of information. What is the nature of this deficit, and how might it be remedied? 3. What ecological questions are of particular importance in Central Asia? How has America played a role in the past, and how might it continue to do so moving forward? 4. Do you agree or disagree with this statement: “The disappearance of the Aral Sea is one of the century’s greatest ecological disasters.” Why or why not? 5. What is the significance of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site? In what ways might this serve as a model for nuclear issues in other countries? 6. In what ways have major ecological issues impacted health zones in Kazakhstan? How might these issues be mitigated? What does the U.S.A. have to offer Kazakhstan in this regard? 7. With the advent of independence, who left Kazakhstan? Who came to Kazakhstan? Why? What impact has this had on Kazakh culture and social issues?

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environmental determinism and the pastoral economies of the later prehistoric Eurasian steppe. Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice 1 (8), 116. 17. Benecke, N., von den Driesch, A., 2003. Horse exploitation in the Kazakh steppes during the Eneolithic and Bronze age. In: Levine, M., Renfrew, C., Boyle, K. (Eds.), Prehistoric Steppe Adaptation and the Horse. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, pp. 69-82. 18. Bennigsen, A. and Lemercier-Quelquejay, C. 1967. Islam in the Soviet Union. London: Pall Mall. 19. Bennigsen, A. and Wimbush, S. E. 1985. Mystics and Commissars: Sufism in the Soviet Union. London: C. Hurst. 20. Bennion P, et al. (2007) On behalf of the Me´ decins san Frontie` res/ Aral Sea Respiratory Dust and Disease project team: The impact of airborne dust on respiratory health in children living in the Aral Sea region. International Journal of Epidemiology 36: 1103-1110. 21. Benson L. and Svanberg I. (eds.) The Kazaks of China. Essays on the Ethnic Minority. – Uppsala: Uppsala University Press,1988. – 250 p. 22. Benson L., Svanberg I. China’s Last Nomads. The History and Culture of China’s Kazaks. – New York: M.E.Sharp, 1998. – XIII+251 pp. 23. Berry, B. (1993). “Transnational Urbanward Migration, 1830-1980”, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 83(3): 389-405. 24. Blain, J. and Wallis, R. J. 2002. A living landscape? Pagans, archaeology, and spirits in the land. 3rd Stone, 43: 20-7. 25. Boessneck, J., 1969. Osteological differences between sheep (Ovis aries Linné) and goats (Capra hircus Linné). In: Brothwell, D., Higgs, E. (Eds.), Science in Archaeology. Thames and Hudson, London, pp. 331-358. 26. Boomer I, Aladin N, Plotnikov I, and Whatley R (2000) The palaeolimnology of the Aral Sea: A review. Quaternary Science Reviews 19: 1259-1278. 27. Bowyer A.C. Parliament and Political Parties in Kazakhstan. – Washington, DC: Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, 2008. – 71 p. 28. Brettell, C. (2000). “Theorizing Migration in Anthropology: The Social Construction of Networks, Identities, Communities and Globalscapes”, in: C.B. Brettell and J.F. Hollifield, eds., Migration Theory: Talking Across Disciplines, Routledge, pp. 97-135. 29. Brettell, C. (2003). Anthropology and Migration: Essays on Transnationalism, Ethnicity, and Identity, Altamira Press. 30. Brzezinski Z. The Grand Chessboard. American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives. – New York: Collins, 1997. – XIV+223 pp. 31. Burghart D.L., Sabonis-Helf Th. (eds.) In the Tracks of Tamerlane. Central Asia’s Path to the 21st Century. – Washington, DC: NDU, 2004. – XXII + 478 pp. 32. Bury, J. (2007). “Mining Migrants: Transnational Mining and Migration Patterns in the Peruvian Andes”, The Professional Geographer, 59(3): 378-389.

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49. Dangour, A.D., Hill, H.L., Ismail, S.J., 2002. Height, weight and haemoglobin status of 6–59 month old Kazakh children living in Kzyl-Orda region, Kazakhstan. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 56, 1030–1038. 50. David Laitin, Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. 51. Demko, George. The Russian Colonization of Kazakhstan: 1896-1916. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1969. 52. Diener, A. (2003). One Homeland or Two? Territorialization of Identity and the Migration Decision of the Mongolian-Kazakh Diaspora, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison. 53. Diener, A. (2005). “Problematic Integration of Mongolian-Kazakh Return Migrants in Kazakhstan”, Eurasian Geography and Economics, 46(6): 465-478. 54. Diener, A. (2007). “Negotiating Territorial Belonging: A Transnational Social Field Perspective on Mongolia’s Kazakhs”, Geopolitics, 12: 459-487. 55. Diener, A. (2009). One Homeland or Two? The Nationalization and Transnationalization of Mongolia’s Kazakhs, Stanford University Press, Berkeley. 56. D. Walker, “Januarius MacGahan: The Life and Campaigns of an American War Correspondent,” 1988. 57. Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983. 58. Frachetti, M.D., 2008. Pastoralist Landscapes and Social Interaction in Bronze Age Eurasia. University of California Press, Berkeley. 59. Frachetti, M.D., 2009. Differentiated landscapes and non-uniform complexity among Bronze Age societies of the Eurasian Steppe. In: Hanks, B.K., Lindruff, K.M. (Eds.), Social Complexity in Prehistoric Eurasia: Monuments, Metals, and Mobility. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 19-46. 60. Frederick F. Travis, George Kennan and the American-Russian Relationship: 1865-1924. Columbus, OH: Ohio University Press, 1990. 61. Frith Maier (ed., Vagabond Life: The Caucasus Journals of George Kennan. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2003. 62. Garnett Sh., Rahr A., Watanabe K. The New Central Asia. A Report to the Trilateral Commission: 54 (October). – New York, Paris, Tokyo: The Trilateral Commission, 2000. – 79 p. 63. George A. Journey into Kazakhstan. The True Face of the Nazarbayev Regime. – New York: University Press of America, 2001. 64. Glantz MH (1999) Creeping Environmental Problems and Sustainable Development in the Aral Sea Basin. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 65. Gokay B. (ed.). The Politics of Caspian Oil. – Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, New York: Palgrave, 2001. – IX+232 pp. 66. Goheen R F 1987 Education in US Schools of International Affairs. Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.

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Appendix Assignments You will do at least four types of writing in this course: exercises, responses, drafts, and final essays. These assignments connect with each other in a developmental sequence I call a progression. Each progression ends when you submit a final draft of a particular kind of essay. We will be working on four progressions this semester. Exercises & Responses: (300-1000 words, each) Exercises and responses include any kind of writing that you do in class or on your own to practice skills that you will need for successful completion of the final essay. Exercises are not essays, but each exercise will help you build toward your essay draft. We will some kind of informal writing every day in class, and a writing exercise will be due for almost every class. This writing includes not only work you do for yourself, but also responses to other students’ writing. Drafts: (1000+ words, each) After you have completed a series of exercises, you will prepare an essay draft. Much of the writing you will do in your exercises will be exploratory. By contrast, your draft will represent the very best work you can do at that point. The better your draft, the more useful will be the feedback you will get on it. In this class you will learn ways to improve even the best work you can produce on your own. Final Essays: (1200-3000 words each, depending upon progression) Once you have received responses on your draft, you will prepare a final essay. Your final essay will likely differ substantially from the previous draft(s) in form, and often in content. A final essay is the most public kind of writing you will produce for this course. Imagine as your readers, astute and interested people who are largely unfamiliar with the texts you consider, who need you to convince them of why your ideas are significant for someone besides yourself. All final essays should  develop an idea or argument in a coherent, compelling way.  have a thoughtful beginning, middle, and end.  be grammatically correct.  feature a tone appropriate for the intended audience. 126

 demonstrate regard for the essay’s aesthetics.  be accompanied by a cover letter to me explaining your goals for and concerns about the essay. Formatting Assignments All assignments must  be typed using a normal 12 pt font (such as Times Roman), double-spaced, with one inch margins all around, stapled if multiple pages, and include page numbers.  include a header only on the first page with your full name, the date, the assignment number/essay #/draft #, the class section. Please put your word count at the end (excluding Works Cited). All subsequent pages should get your name and the page number. (See examples, below.)

CONTENTS

Introduction.............................................................................................................3 Chapter 1 MAIN STAGES AND DIRECTIONS FOR STUDYING KAZAKHSTAN IN THE USA.............................................................................7 1.1 LITERATURE AND SOURCES ABOUT KAZAKHSTAN IN THE SECOND HALF OF 19TH – BEGINNING OF 20TH CENTURIES..........................................................................................................7 1.2 KAZAKHSTAN IN THE FLOW OF HISTORY: FOREIGN PUBLICITY............................................................................................................16 1.3 MODERN WESTERN LITERATURE ABOUT KAZAKH LIFE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION..................................................27 1.4 FROM NOMADISM TO NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS...........................41 Chapter 2 MODERN KAZAKHS: WHO ARE THEY?.....................................................55 2.1 DEPICTIONS OF KAZAKHS IN WESTERN MEDIA..................................55 2.2 APPLES ARE FROM KAZAKHSTAN...........................................................62 2.3 POSTCARD FROM THE STEPPES: A SNAPSHOT OF PUBLIC RELATIONS AND CULTURE IN KAZAKHSTAN..............................70 2.4 WILLIAM FIERMAN: KAZAKH LANGUAGE AND PROSPECTS FOR ITS ROLE IN KAZAKH GROUPNESS................................85 Chapter 3 BACK AND FORTH: SOCIAL ISSUES AND FUNCTIONAL INTERACTION........................................................................91 3.1 JOINT RESEARCH BETWEEN KAZAKHSTAN AND AMERICA..............................................................................................................91 3.2 KAZAKH AND CENTRAL ASIAN ECOLOGICAL QUESTIONS IN WESTERN PUBLICITY............................................................97 3.3 ECOLOGICAL DISASTER ZONE AND IMPACT ON HUMAN HEALTH.................................................................................................103 3.4. COMING AND GOING: KAZAKH IMMIGRATION AND MIGRATION, AND THE IMPACT OF INDEPENDENCE........................108 Further reading........................................................................................................119 Appendix . ..............................................................................................................126

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Учебное издание Aigerim Bolatkhanovna Alzhanova Foreign Publicists about Kazakhs Educational manual Выпускающий редактор Г. Бекбердиева Компьютерная верстка Г. Шаккозовой Дизайн обложки Р.Е. Скаков ИБ № 7012 Подписано в печать 30.12.13. Формат 60х84 1/16. Бумага офсетная. Печать цифровая. Объем 10,1 п.л. Тираж 50 экз. Заказ № 2077 . Издательство «Қазақ университетi» Казахского национального университета им. аль-Фараби. 050040, г. Алматы, пр. аль-Фараби, 71. КазНУ. Отпечатано в типографии издательства «Қазақ университетi».

NEW BOOKS OF PUBLISHING HOUSE «KȼZȼKH UNIVERSITY» Sarsekenova V.Zh. at all. Grammar tasks for independent work of students on the English language (Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate levels): educational-methodical manual –2013. – 126 p. ISBN 978-601-247-990-4 This manual is intended for students of non-linguistic faculties, studying the English language. Work on the tests, which are composed to the passed grammatical themes, will allow students to develop the skills and habits of oral and written speech, to fix the received grammar knowledge and skills. Collection will be helpful for teachers to use the book as an additional material for the independent work of students and the independent work of students with a teacher. Makisheva M., Duiseyeva L. Reading newspapers: educational manual. – 2013. – 80 p. ISBN 978-601-04-0086-3 This manual is for senior students of the International Relations Faculty. It helps students to expand their political and social vocabulary, read different newspaper articles, of different character expressing their own points of view and to discuss and analyze the problems arisen in them. ɍɮɬɜɯɮɨɜɩ ɇ.Ɂ., ɤ ɠɬ. Learning to translate by translating: Environmental problems: ɨɡɮɪɠɤɳɡɭɦɪɡ ɫɪɭɪɝɤɡ ɫɪ ɫɡɬɡɞɪɠɯ ɩɜɯɳɩɪ-ɮɡɱɩɤɳɡɭɦɤɱ ɮɡɦɭɮɪɞ ɫɪ ɫɬɪɝɧɡɨɜɨ ɹɦɪɧɪɟɤɤ. – 2013. – 91 ɭ. ISBN 978-601-04-0015-3 Ⱦ ɨɡɮɪɠɤɳɡɭɦɪɥ ɬɜɣɬɜɝɪɮɦɡ ɫɬɡɠɭɮɜɞɧɡɩɷ ɧɡɦɭɤɳɡɭɦɤɡ ɡɠɤɩɤɲɷ ɤ ɟɬɜɨɨɜɮɤɳɡɭɦɤɡ ɭɮɬɯɦɮɯɬɷ ɞ ɞɤɠɡ ɭɬɜɞɩɡɩɤɻ ɤɱ ɤɭɫɪɧɸɣɪɞɜɩɤɻ ɞ ɜɩɟɧɤɥɭɦɪɨ ɤ ɬɯɭɭɦɪɨ ɻɣɷɦɜɱ. Ⱦ ɬɜɣɬɜɝɪɮɦɡ ɝɷɧɤ ɤɭɫɪɧɸɣɪɞɜɩɷ ɪɬɤɟɤɩɜɧɸɩɷɡ ɮɡɦɭɮɷ ɤɣ ɭɝɪɬɩɤɦɪɞ ɫɪ ɪɱɬɜɩɡ ɪɦɬɯɢɜɺɵɡɥ ɭɬɡɠɷ ɤ ɨɡɮɪɠɜɨ ɝɪɬɸɝɷ ɭ ɫɪɭɧɡɠɭɮɞɤɻɨɤ ɭɮɤɱɤɥɩɷɱ ɝɡɠɭɮɞɤɥ, ɞ ɳɜɭɮɩɪɭɮɤ, ɫɬɤɞɪɠɻɮɭɻ ɨɜɮɡɬɤɜɧɷ ɫɪ ɣɡɨɧɡɮɬɻɭɡɩɤɺ ɤ ɟɤɟɜɩɮɭɦɪɨɯ ɲɯɩɜɨɤ ɞ ɚɟɪ-Ⱦɪɭɮɪɳɩɪɥ ȼɣɤɤ. ɀɜɩɩɜɻ ɨɡɮɪɠɤɳɡɭɦɜɻ ɬɜɣɬɜɝɪɮɦɜ ɫɬɡɠɩɜɣɩɜɳɡɩɜ ɠɧɻ ɨɜɟɤɭɮɬɜɩɮɪɞ ɤ ɫɬɡɫɪɠɜɞɜɮɡɧɡɥ ɭɫɡɲɤɜɧɸɩɪɭɮɤ «əɦɪɧɪɟɤɻ», ɜ ɮɜɦɢɡ ɨɪɢɡɮ ɝɷɮɸ ɤɭɫɪɧɸɣɪɞɜɩɜ ɞ ɦɜɳɡɭɮɞɡ ɠɪɫɪɧɩɤɮɡɧɸɩɪɟɪ ɨɜɮɡɬɤɜɧɜ ɠɧɻ ɭɜɨɪɭɮɪɻɮɡɧɸɩɪɥ ɬɜɝɪɮɷ ɭɮɯɠɡɩɮɪɞ ɟɡɪɟɬɜɰɤɳɡɭɦɪɟɪ ɰɜɦɯɧɸɮɡɮɜ. Ⱦ.ɂ. Ɍɜɱɨɡɮɪɞɜ, Ɏ.Ⱦ. Ƚɯɬɪɞɜ, Ƚ.ɉ. Ɇɜɬɜɝɜɡɞɜ, Ƀ.Ɇ. Ɉɜɠɤɡɞɜ. Mɡɮɪɠɤɳɡɭɦɜɻ ɬɜɣɬɜɝɪɮɦɜ ɫɪ ɜɩɟɧɤɥɭɦɪɨɯ ɻɣɷɦɯ ɠɧɻ ɭɮɯɠɡɩɮɪɞ ɟɡɪɟɬɜɰɤɳɡɭɦɪɟɪ ɰɜɦɯɧɸɮɡɮɜ ɭɫɡɲɤɜɧɸɩɪɭɮɤ «Ɏɯɬɤɣɨ» Visiting Cards of Kazakhstan. – 2013. – 67 ɭ. ISBN 978-601-04-0077-1 Ɍɜɣɬɜɝɪɮɦɜ ɭɪɭɮɪɤɮ ɤɣ ɜɠɜɫɮɤɬɪɞɜɩɩɪɟɪ ɤ ɪɬɤɟɤɩɜɧɸɩɪɟɪ ɮɡɦɭɮɪɞɪɟɪ ɨɜɮɡɬɤɜɧɜ, ɫɪɭɞɻɵɡɩɩɪɟɪ ɣɜɫɪɞɡɠɩɷɨ ɨɡɭɮɜɨ ɩɜɴɡɥ ɬɡɭɫɯɝɧɤɦɤ. Ɇɜɢɠɷɥ ɯɬɪɦ ɞɦɧɺɳɜɡɮ ɮɡɦɭɮ ɠɧɻ ɜɦɮɤɞɩɪɥ ɫɡɬɡɬɜɝɪɮɦɤ, ɯɭɮɩɪɟɪ ɤ ɫɤɭɸɨɡɩɩɪɟɪ ɫɡɬɡɞɪɠɜ. Ɉɜɮɡɬɤɜɧ ɪɬɟɜɩɤɣɪɞɜɩ ɫɪ ɫɬɤɩɲɤɫɯ ɞɪɣɬɜɭɮɜɩɤɻ ɮɬɯɠɩɪɭɮɤ, ɪɝɡɭɫɡɳɤɞɜɡɮ ɫɪɞɮɪɬɻɡɨɪɭɮɸ ɮɡɬɨɤɩɪɧɪɟɤɤ. Ɍɜɣɬɜɝɪɮɜɩɷ ɧɡɦɭɤɦɪɟɬɜɨɨɜɮɤɳɡɭɦɤɡ ɣɜɠɜɩɤɻ, ɫɪɯɬɪɳɩɷɥ ɭɧɪɞɜɬɸ ɤ ɬɻɠ ɯɫɬɜɢɩɡɩɤɥ ɦ ɮɡɦɭɮɜɨ.

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