Abstract

This paper examines the construction of the Aral Sea as an “imperial ecological space” through a literary analysis of Kazakh writer Abdijamil Nurpeisov’s novel Final Respects (1983). It draws on the theoretical frameworks of ecological imperialism and postcolonial ecocriticism, revealing the relationship between environmental governance and imperial power structures in Soviet Central Asia.

The paper argues that the large-scale irrigation projects and cotton monoculture which led to the collapse of the Aral Sea ecology reflected a model of modernization grounded in anthropocentrism and technological rationality. The novel shows how this state-driven development model produced environmental and social injustices. The drying of the sea destroyed lives that depended on it, including fishing communities. The Aral Sea disaster was not a natural crisis, but a historically produced catastrophe shaped by the intertwined forces of political power, developmental ideology, and technological rationality.

The paper also examines the hierarchical relations between Moscow and the Soviet republics through the lens of a center–periphery power structure. The novel reveals how centralized decision-making marginalized local voices through its satirical depiction of bureaucratic discourse, scientific authority, and local elites, who devalued fishing communities and placed them in a condition of subaltern voicelessness. Final Respects not only documents the ecological catastrophe but also exposes the imperialist logic underlying Soviet modernization projects. The novel provides a narrative framework for reinterpreting the Aral Sea crisis from a local perspective and helps reassess the significance of postcolonial ecocriticism in Kazakh Soviet literature.

Keywords: Postcolonial ecocriticism; Ecological imperialism; Aral Sea crisis; Soviet Central Asia; Subalternity