Abstract

This paper examines how Soviet ideology and policies shaped the childhood experiences of Kazakh children through an analysis of four Kazakh Soviet children’s novels included in the mandatory state school curriculum: Zhusan isi (1942), Menin atym Qozha (1957), Balalyq shaqqa sayakhat (1960), and Bir atanyń balalary (1973). Using the concept of coloniality of being and discourse analysis, the study explores the protagonists’ inner struggles with Soviet expectations and orphanhood. The paper contrasts arguments between the idealized notion of a “happy Soviet childhood” and the realities faced by children under the Soviet regime, particularly in the Kazakh context, through Kazakh-Soviet children's novels.

The study is structured around two central questions. First, it examines how these novels represent the complexities of Kazakh childhood across distinct Soviet historical phases, including the post-war period, the Thaw, and the late Soviet years. Second, it analyzes how Soviet policies—such as collectivization, war mobilization, schooling, and youth organizations—shaped children’s identities through processes of coloniality.

Given that the authors of these works remain part of the contemporary state school curriculum, the paper argues that their classroom implementation often lacks critical colonial perspectives, contributing to forms of historical erasure. Overall, the study demonstrates how literary texts, when situated within their historical context, can be used in educational settings to foster critical reflection on Soviet colonialism and Kazakh childhood experiences.

While substantial scholarship exists in the English language on Soviet children’s litetature, it, it primarily focuses on Russia as the Soviet production rather than non-Soviet republics. Therefore, there has been little academic research on the issues of power imposed by the Soviet Empire, colonialism, or the decolonial analysis of Kazakh Soviet children’s novels, even though they play a key role in Kazakh literary education.

The paper is based on my master's dissertation and draws on existing scholarship in Kazakh, Russian, and English, as well as primary Kazakh Soviet texts.