Abstract:

Kazakhstan used to be a part of the Soviet Union and Russian Empire, within a long period of almost 300 years, Kazakhstan was not an independent entity. Apparently, within the period of the Soviet Union the ethnical Kazakh language, traditions, and culture were not developing appropriately, or even openly repressed. For example, the “lingua franca” of the Soviet Union – the Russian language had taken a dominant position in the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, being the main language of science and literature. However, in the 1980s Kazakh self-identification considerably raised, following the popularization of the Kazakh language and increasing ethnic nationalism within the Soviet republic. It is considered that the soviet leader of the republic from 1964 – to 1986 - Dinmukhamed Kunaev, an ethnical Kazakh, had played an important role in strengthening the nation's self-identification of Kazakhs, despite of cautions of Moscow. This paper will discover the rise of Kazakh self-identification within the given period and estimate the contribution of Dinmukhamed Kunaev, as well as explore how such a rise of nationalism was possible in such a centric and totalitarian regime as the Soviet Union.