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Abstract

In this research paper, the main topic of analysis is Sufism among Kazakhs in the late 19th century and contemporary commemoration of it, with the focus on two hagiographies about Etzhemes or Etzhimas Ishan or Ishan-baba-Ahund-Shadman-Khodzha-Ishanov (b. 1833) and the sacred sites associated with him. Islam and Sufism among Kazakhs and their complicated relations with the Russian colonial power are getting more and more scholarly attention. The recent excellent book by Pavel Shablya and Paolo Sartori, The Case of Mansurov, which shows how colonial orientalism pervaded Kazakh religiosity, seeks to shape and understand Kazakh religiosity in its own terms (Shablya and Sartori 2025). This article aims to widen the academic knowledge of Islam in Kazakh steppe, which bordered in south with sedentary parts of Central Asia, with focus on the figure of the so-called Etzhemes of Etzhimas Ishan of the Tashkent area, about whom Russian colonial office Nil Sergeevich Lykoshin (1880-1920), left highly positive memories and compared him in the colonial fashion of that time as only pious and “true” representative of Muslim spirituality and Sufism in Tashkenti area. What is essential is that the memory about Etzhemsa Ishan did not vanish after the turmoil of the 20th century and after the collapse of the USSR, the figure of Etzhemes Ishan became reimagined in a new wave of hagiographies in Kazakh about him, but they are based on colonial written heritages, such as works of Lykoshin

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My paper examines railway infrastructure in Armenia as a key instrument through which imperial and Soviet authorities reshaped space, mobility, and power relations. Focusing on the Armenian railway system during the late Soviet period (1950s–1980s), particularly the construction of the Yerevan–Hrazdan–Ijevan line, my study explores how railway development functioned simultaneously as a strategic infrastructure of state power and as a material environment through which societies imagined political and economic futures.

Railways have historically played a central role in integrating the South Caucasus into wider imperial and regional networks linking the Black Sea, the Caspian basin, and Central Eurasia. Soviet planners presented railway expansion as a mechanism of modernization that would accelerate industrial development, secure strategic borderlands, and strengthen economic integration across the region. In this sense, infrastructure operated not only as a technical system but also as a political project aimed at reorganizing spatial relations between imperial centers and peripheral territories.

Drawing on archival sources and anthropological methodology, my research analyzes how Soviet railway projects articulated what Reinhart Koselleck describes as a particular “horizon of expectation,” in which infrastructure symbolized progress, connectivity, and socialist transformation. At the same time, these projects were deeply embedded in earlier imperial spatial orders, as railway corridors initially constructed under the Russian Empire were repurposed to serve Soviet geopolitical and military objectives in a strategically volatile borderland.

The research further explores the legacies of these infrastructures in the post-Soviet period. Many railway lines built during the late Soviet decades now exist in states of stagnation or partial abandonment, transforming infrastructures once associated with socialist modernization into material reminders of unrealized futures. By examining railways as both instruments of territorial integration and as mnemonic landscapes of imperial power, my study contributes to the broader debate on infrastructure, spatial transformation, and the politics of power in the South Caucasus region.

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This paper analyzes Soviet efforts to standardize and “modernize” funeral practices in Kazakhstan by promoting socialist forms of ceremonial life. During the Soviet period, practices surrounding death became an arena for ideological intervention, as authorities sought to regulate and transform customary and religious traditions associated with life-cycle events. Publications in Soviet Kazakhstan promoting “new socialist rites and traditions” provided guidelines for organizing weddings, funerals, and other ceremonies, proposing ceremonial scenarios, recommended speeches, musical accompaniment, and spatial arrangements intended to establish uniform models of public ritual.

Drawing on Soviet ethnographic and ideological publications alongside contemporary ethnographic material collected during field research among Kazakhs in the Oral (Uralsk) and Aqtobe regions of western Kazakhstan, the study compares prescriptive Soviet texts with ethnographic accounts and field observations. The analysis shows how authorities attempted to standardize funeral ceremonies through practices such as burial in coffins, organized farewell ceremonies, and the introduction of classical music, together with traditional elements, such as joqtau, however they became marginalized and today survive only rarely.

Soviet reforms thus produced a process of selective adaptation: some ritual elements disappeared while communal practices connected to mourning and kinship persisted, contributing to broader anthropological discussions on ritual change and state regulation in socialist contexts.

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Within the Eastern intellectual elite, who were awakening in reaction to Western conquests since the 19th century, Jadidism became a relatively mature political, ideological and religious movement. It was a political doctrine that was periodically updated in accordance with the demands of the times, in terms of both conceptual views and national strategy. In light of the substantial body of research on the Jadidist movement, which is widely regarded as a significant national awakening phenomenon, it is imperative to continue examining its political and strategic methods and philosophy, which closely align with the spirit of the nation.

The beginning of the 20th century was a pivotal moment for the Turkic peoples of Central Asia, characterized by substantial economic and social changes linked to the region's transition to capitalism. During this period, the foundations of a national bourgeoisie began to form, contributing to increased economic activity and the emergence of new class structures. The Jadids emerged at a time when the historical territory of Turkestan was united for all the peoples of Central Asia, and all the materials of Jadidism reflected their political and ideological struggle for the independence of Turkestan. One of the most important aspects of this time was the emergence of a new philosophy and innovative ideas that spread actively among the Turkic peoples. These ideas, in particular, were devoted to the necessity of modernizing society, education, and culture.

In the current context of integration and a unified regional strategy for Central Asia within the framework of global development, there is a need for ideological teachings based on its roots and the mechanisms of national development. Being progressive at its core, Jadidism created a national strategic concept based on a synthesis of the experiences of countries that, at the time, were pursuing the most progressive paths of modernisation. This article analyses the importance of studying the political and strategic teachings of the Jadid movement and its role in the history of Central Asia.

Keywords: Jadidism, Turkestan, political strategy, decolonisation policy, post-Jadidism, identity, ideology.