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Accepted Paper:
Creating the Tselinniy Krai: Khrushchev's Utopian Plan for Soviet Territory
Alen Askar
(Nazarbayev University)
The focus of my conference paper is to explore Khrushchev's utopian plan to create the Tselinniy Krai, which was an economic-territorial division established during the Virgin Lands Campaign of 1960. Comprising of five oblasts in North Kazakhstan, the Tselinniy Krai was informally regarded as the "Sixteenth Republic" of the Soviet Union. It was the central location for the agricultural campaign, and Tselinograd, the capital of the five oblasts, was granted a specific status.
Khrushchev aimed to challenge Stalin's legacy and rebuilt the Soviet Union fully by transforming Soviet concepts of nationhood and even statehood. He envisioned a political, social, and cultural Soviet reality that differed from the past. However, the policies of the Tselinniy Krai were not entirely successful, and many of Khrushchev's legacies had unforeseen consequences, such as double administration from Moscow and Alma-Ata, local activism from below, and cultural transformation. My paper will explore the factors that drove Khrushchev's utopian plan to create the Tselinniy Krai, his overall vision of the region and how locals understood it as well as the challenges they faced in implementing it. I will also analyze the Tselinniy Krai's impact on Soviet society, politics, and culture.