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Accepted papers
Abstract
This paper explores the process of the formation of the Kazakh nation in its modern sense by the soviet authorities in the first decade of the USSR. It targets the school textbook Enbek pen Mektep (“School and Labor”) and examines the état d’affaires at the time of its publication in 1930, as well as the aims or goals that might have motivated the authors to shape the modernized and socialized idea of a Kazakh nation in this way. Starting from the examination of existing literature in the area of invented traditions and formation of nationhood and following with the historical research of the terms “Kazakh” and “Kazakhness”, this research illustrates a context in which the new attempts of the Soviet authorities to form the Kazakhs as a nation happened. By showcasing the contrasting notions of what “Kazakh” meant between before the Soviet nation-building program and the Soviets’ understanding of Kazakhness, I demonstrate the significant influence of the primary aims of establishing the socialism on the basis of indigenous national group. Moreover, I use the textbook of 1930 to show how the indigenous authors complied with central administration’s directives but were also able to promote some of the indigenous Kazakh traditional values which would not interfere with the Soviet model citizen ideal. Thus, it showcases the reasonings and the process of implementation of various ideas on religion, nation, traditions and way of life as a part of formation of a new Kazakh Socialist.
Abstract
This research project deals with the issue of housing construction of the Kazakh people in the ХІХ century. It is based on the political, economic and social factors that caused the Kazakh people to build permanent housing and move to a sedentary lifestyle. The winter cottages of the Kazakh people are considered as a form of residential construction. Historical evidence is provided that refutes the one-sided view of Russian colonizers and Soviet historians that "Kazakhs are accustomed only to a nomadic way of life". The research work is intended for a comprehensive study based on archaeological data about residential buildings built in the steppe region in the ХІХ century. In addition, to the issues of considering the types of housing construction, local building materials used in building houses, taking into account the natural climatic conditions in housing construction, the succession of generations is revealed by the discovery of sakh stands under the ruined barns of Kazakhs.
The research work is dedicated to the currently relevant issue of using the effective aspects of housing construction, which the communities that lived in the society in the past, left as a legacy to today's generations. As a result of the research, a sketch of a residential house, a barn, a model of a shed that can be built in villages, winter camps where herdsmen live, and fences are proposed.
The purpose of the study: By studying the historical data and archeological researches about the construction of houses in the Kazakh steppe in the ХІХ century, it is proven that the Kazakhs formed their own house-building culture, taking into account the natural-climate, daily lifestyle and household conditions in building winter houses.
Research objectives and methods:
1. conducting a bibliographic review of works related to the research topic
2. determination of the features of the residential houses in winter in the region and comparison of the constructions of the residential houses in the settlements of Zhidebay, Sarkyrama
3. meet scientists and architects, take an interview about Kazakh and modern houses and get their advice;
4. conduct a survey in order to identify and analyze the opinions in the society about the Kazakh architectural culture
5. using the tinkerCAD program, taking into account the advice of architect specialists, a sketch of a barn and housing construction located inside or outside the created winter quarters and a model of a shed that can be used today
Abstract
In April 1940 hundreds of freight cars carrying thousands of Polish citizens were running off from the recently annexed territory of what is nowadays western Ukraine and Belarus to the territory of the Kazakh SSR. Involuntary passengers of these trains were "class enemies." The territory to which they were being deported to was deemed by the high modernist Stalinist state as “wasted space” that was in desperate need of rationalization because the steppe from an aerial view looked rather empty. So in that sense both the land that was to be peopled and the people that were to people the land both were placed on a rather low tier in both spatial and societal hierarchies.
The people who were deported, however, did not think of themselves as “low-value.” They were usually of higher economic of social standing, educated, and even sometimes were willing colonizers at the eastern “outskirts” of the Second Polish Republic before they become colonizers against their will in Kazakhstan. This category of deportees produced many autobiographical volumes and published ego-documents created at the time of the deportation. Their publications impacted the teleological Polish national historical myth of martyrdom that led to the creation of the Polish independent state.
This narrative is omnipresent in Polish language scholarly literature, the deportees are seen as martyrs going to the Polish Golgotha, the annexed territories of the Second Polish Republic are seen as a paradise lost. This lack of a more nuanced perspective on the deportations also causes accounts of the deportations of Polish citizens to Kazakhstan to portray the land and the people who inhabited it to be reduced to mere orientalist background of this episode in the long history of Polish martyrdom. This makes the view of the steppe and its inhabitants of the Stalinist state and the Polish deportees if not synonymous than at least complimentary. The image of an empty barren land devoid of life can be applied to both imaginaries.
This imagination y will be the topic of this essay. It will look at how the history of the deportation was/is portrayed in Polish historical comic books as it is both a visual and a textual media and how the comic books are influenced by the preexisting narratives about the deportation. The essay will be split into two parts: one describing the historical event and the other looking at the representation.
Abstract
In the early twentieth century, tsarist settler colonialism produced severe socioeconomic decline among non-Russian populations. For Kazakh nomads, resettlement policies led to devastating land and resource losses, creating unjustifiable material disparities between indigenous populations and dominant ruling groups comprised of both settlers and collaborating local elites. While historians often view this transitional period through the lens of anticolonial nationalism or top-down state-building, the relationship between national identity and economic justice remains underexplored. The purpose of this study is to examine how Kazakh intellectuals and indigenous communities articulated social justice in response to this economic dispossession, focusing specifically on their reactions to socioeconomic inequalities produced by both imperial-colonial forces and traditional nomadic structures. To investigate this, I qualitatively analyzed primary sources—including political writings, memoirs, and legal documents—to explore everyday struggles and debates from the perspective of indigenous actors. The analysis reveals that confronting both the inegalitarian structures of colonial rule and the internal hierarchies of nomadism was central to Kazakh intellectual discourse. Furthermore, results demonstrate that economic disparity functioned not merely as a social grievance, but as a core ideological critique that generated demands for egalitarian principles during the nation-building process. Ultimately, by centering the material dimensions of social justice, this paper provides a broader understanding of Kazakh national identity that transcends purely state-centered or identitarian interpretations.
Keywords: national identity, social justice, economic oppression, tsarist colonialism, nomadic social structure, Kazakh intellectuals.