| ID | 165967 |
| Title Proper | Discourses of Russian-speaking youth in Nazarbayev’s Kazakhstan |
| Other Title Information | Soviet legacies and responses to nation-building |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Blackburn, Matthew |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Research into post-independence identity shifts among Kazakhstan’s Russian-speaking minorities has outlined a number of possible pathways, such as diasporization, integrated national minority status and ethnic separatism. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with young people in Almaty and Karaganda, I examine how Russian-speaking minorities identify with the state and imagine their place in a ‘soft’ or ‘hybrid’ post-Soviet authoritarian system. What is found is that Russian-speaking minorities largely accept their status beneath the Kazakh ‘elder brother’ and do not wish to identify as a ‘national minority’. Furthermore, they affirm passive loyalty to the political status quo while remaining disinterested in political representation. Russian-speaking minorities are also ambivalent towards Kazakh language promotion and anxious about the increasing presence of Kazakh-speakers in urban spaces. This article argues that two factors are central to these stances among Kazakhstan’s Russian-speaking minorities: the persistence of Soviet legacies and the effects of state discourse and policy since 1991. |
| `In' analytical Note | Central Asian Survey Vol. 38, No.2; Jun 2019: p.217-236 |
| Journal Source | Central Asian Survey Vol: 38 No 2 |
| Key Words | National Minorities ; National Belonging ; Soviet Legacies ; Post-Soviet Identity ; Russian-Speakers ; Post-Soviet Nation-Building |