Paper abstract:

On July 5th of 1937, the Bolsheviks issued a decree sentencing the wives of convicted traitors to the homeland to terms of 5 to 8 years in the camps of GULAG. In the aftermath of this decision, about 18 thousand women, among them 88 ethnically Kazakh women, were imprisoned in the Akmola Camp for the wives of traitors to the motherland (ALZhIR). In this article, I consider the question of the relevance and importance of gender and ethnic identities to the Kazakh women prisoners of ALZhIR. I further seek to examine whether and how their identities - as wives and mothers as well as Kazakhs among the mostly European inmates of ALZhIR - overlapped with the growing awareness of their Soviet identity. Through a careful examination of archival documents, diaries, memoirs, and interviews with their family members, I suggest that in the face of inhumane conditions and widespread abuse and exploitation of ALZhIR prisoners by the camp authorities, gender, and ethnic identity became crucial to women’s ability to endure the hardships of camp life and survive. Friendship with other inmates helped women secure access to scarce resources necessary for survival, while motherhood gave women hope and the will to survive and care for their children. Similarly, the use of the Kazakh language, the enduring faith, and Islamic spirituality helped the Kazakh inmates maintain a connection to their communities and restore a sense of stability and certainty.

Paper abstract:

The study focuses on analyzing the exceptional cases of Kalmyk special settlers in Alma-Ata oblast of the Kazakh SSR who were granted release from the special settlement regime between 1944 and 1953. By highlighting the unique nature of the Kalmyks contingent in this region, the study challenges the prevailing scholarly understanding that assumes all Kalmyks, as representatives of the punished people, were uniformly subjected to exile and none were granted freedom from the special settlements, regardless of their exceptional merits.

During the special settlement regime, many Kalmyks perceived Alma-Ata oblast as a promising destination for a better life compared to other exile locations. This perception was based on a strategic assessment of survival, where the anthropological similarities with the local population, the Kazakhs, played a crucial role. The shared physical resemblance became a valuable asset as it allowed the Kalmyks to avoid immediate identification as special settlers, thereby mitigating the hostility experienced in Siberia. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge that this survival strategy was influenced by various complex factors, including language proficiency.

Although the oblast was not initially designated as an exile location for the Kalmyks, it eventually became the second-largest concentration area for Kalmyk special settlers in the Kazakh SSR. Therefore, by highlighting the presence of three distinct groups based on the outcomes and circumstances of the Kalmyk special settlers in the oblast it emphasizes the significance of avoiding generalizations in the consideration of experiences of the Kalmyks exiled to the special settlements in different places. In addition, within these three groups in the oblast, further categorization is possible based on the reasons for permission to change their places of settlement.

However, a common aspect among all Kalmyk special settlers in Alma-Ata oblast is a deliberate choice of this certain oblast as the place of special settlement, which formed part of their survival strategy. As a result, a Kalmyk contingent emerged in the oblast, distinguished by high levels of literacy, a strong commitment to Soviet values, and notable accomplishments within the regime.

The deliberate exclusion of certain Kalmyks within Alma-Ata oblast adds an additional layer of interest to the study. Moreover, the fact that some Kalmyks in the Alma-Ata oblast were granted release from the special settlement further emphasizes the exclusivity of this particular group and offers valuable insights into the nature of the special settlement system implemented by the Stalinist regime.

Paper abstract:

The vast literature devoted to the trajectories of the Jewish resettlement project in the Far East has left aside the spatial aspects of the project. By adopting the "empty territory" postulate, the researchers ignored the project's border localization and its deep ties to the tsarist and Soviet border regimes. Studies of the borders of Inner Asia provide an opportunity to fill this gap by presenting the essential role of the border regime for all stages of the project's existence. Localization in the border zone has largely determined the main factors of its development. An equally important task of the article is to de-colonize the dominant perspective of the Birobidjan project research, in which the colonial categories of empty land, useless territory, natives, and comical distance from the center are accepted as legitimate descriptions of reality. The tragic history of the Jewish migration does not exclude Birobidjan from the colonial archive of the Far East. The proposed attempt to show a broader perspective of the resettlement project provides an opportunity to take a fresh look at the Russian model of presence in Inner Asia. The experience of the Jewish Autonomous Region shows that a colonial cultural formation can exist without the use of violence and even with a certain sympathy for the local population. The rejection of one-sided prospects for overcoming the backwardness of the region (where yesterday's owners of the territory turn into an obstacle to development) can be a step towards the decolonization of consciousness and the revision of the colonial experience of the region. In this context, decolonization means, first of all, the rejection of the rationalization of repressive policies, finding of a balance in relations with indigenous peoples, and the rejection of the idea of the region as a white sheet on which a migrant from Eastern Europe writes his history.