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'Русский вопрос' в независимом Kахастане:

история, политика, идентичность

Translated from french by Tatiana Grigorieva, edited and prefaced by Natalia Kosmarskaya, 

Moscow, Natalis, 2007, 359 p.

In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, former dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn denounced both its breakup and the independence of the new states, such as Kazakhstan . In a speech at the Russian State Duma, he denounced the independence of the Russian Federation , which would abandon 25 million Russians. Indeed, in December 1991, many Russians residing in the other fourteen former Soviet republics suddenly found themselves living “abroad.” The transformation of the internal borders, until then considered administrative divisions, into internationally recognized external borders, gave rise to questions and concerns.  This was the case especially among the Russians who became a minority in a titular state ruled by another nationality. This book aims to highlight the situation of, and around, the Russian minority in Kazakhstan and to reveal the political, social, and identity transformations this country has experienced since independence. More than fifteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union , the Russian issue that, according to some analysts, could have destabilized the area, eventually underwent a more peaceful evolution. This issue seems to have been gradually solved through a double phenomenon — emigration of those who wanted to leave the country and de-politicization of those who preferred to stay or had no choice.

As in the other Central Asian states, the Russian minority in Kazakhstan became further de-politicized in the 2000s. The political movements and parties, like those of the Cossacks, “Lad,” and “Russkaya obshchina,” failed to mobilize the millions of Russians living in the republic. Numerous relevant sociological studies testify that the majority of Russians living in the Near Abroad have no connections with these associations, which supposedly represent them. Many Russians have never even heard of them nor feel that they could defend them. These associations used to disseminate very pessimistic views on the situation of Russians in the Near Abroad.  They gave a gloomy assessment of their future, either massive repatriation to Russia or complete assimilation into a hostile, culturally alien state. They refused to admit that a critical segment of Russians prefer the integrationist strategy and do not view Russia as their motherland. Moreover, many Russians in Kazakhstan developed their own ways to deal with their new minority status. These include cultural and linguistic acculturation, passive loyalty to the new state, formation of a double “Russian-Kazakh” identity, and, above all, indifference to any nationalist rhetoric, whether Russian or Kazakh.

Since 1991, Kazakhstan, and neighboring post-Soviet Central Asian states in general, used in their political discourses rhetoric on their fight for independence and mandate to choose their own political and economic paths. For Kazakhstani political authorities, massive Russian and European emigration corresponded more to their dreams than to post-imperial disengagement with Russia . Ethnic diversity in Central Asia decreases, whereas the mono-ethnic character of the states is increasingly reality. However, these phenomena allow the political authorities to be held accountable for their duties. Soon it will be increasingly difficult to blame the Soviet regime or the Russians for the lack of democratic, industrial, agricultural, and ecological choices, or to blame contemporary failures and difficulties on their presence. Building a nation-state was not easy for Kazakhstan . This huge territory has a sparse population.  The titular nationality was, until very recently, a minority in their own state.  The national language competes with Russian for usage, even among the Kazakh population.  Russians were — and in some areas near the Russian boarders, still are — a majority. Yet, even with such handicaps, Kazakhstan succeeded in preserving its territorial integrity and Kazakh national identity. The price to pay for this success remains important. The consequences of political authoritarianism, the exclusion of national minorities from public life, and cultural impoverishment have not yet been properly assessed.

The “Russian question” in Kazakhstan raises several more general questions. It first invites to question the nature of “Russian colonialism” in Siberia and Central Asia and, in return, to question Russian identity and its paradoxical relationship to the imperial territory. If Turkistan was a classic “colonial” space, what about Northern Kazakhstan, Ural, and Altay, where the history of the population is actually the history of the Russian progression in Siberia ? Second, the issue of minorities opens the debate on the future of independent Central Asia , which must deal simultaneously with its ethnic diversity, its geopolitical and economic enclosure, and the rise of authoritarianism. Finally, the presence of Russians in Kazakhstan confirms the formation of a pattern common to the whole post-Soviet space, confronted with processes of identity adjustments between territory, population, and state and of new relations between center and periphery. Whatever the future of Russians in the Near Abroad, their return to their homeland that started in the 1970s is probably a major, long-term component of Russia history.

For the first time in five centuries, the space occupied by Russians is decreasing. What, then, will stop Russian emigration from the CIS republics in Russia ? Does the collapse of the Soviet Union suppose a possible implosion of the Russian Federation in areas where Russian and autochthonous populations live together? Does the departure of Russians from Siberia to the central regions of the Federation encourage this evolution? Russians do not view Kazakhstan as a part of the empire occupied from the 19th century as Turkistan was, but as a space conquered during the Russian progress in Siberia . Although control over part of present day Kazakhstan was established only in the 1860's, the regions of Ural, Northern Kazakhstan, and Altay, marked by Russian old-believers’ presence since the 17th and 18th centuries, are always cited as the first historic references of the “Russianness” of Kazakhstan. Renouncing a territory that is such a strong national symbol then raises a complex problem. To refuse Russians the right to consider themselves as natives in this area can also be viewed as a challenge to the Russian presence beyond the Urals. The Caucasus, Siberia , and the Volga–Ural area, populated with non-Russian peoples and autonomous administrative entities, could follow the “Kazakh pattern” in the future.

CОДЕРЖАНИЕ:  

Предисловие научного редактора  

ВВЕДЕНИЕ

РАЗДЕЛ I. ПРОСТРАНСТВО ПОЛИТИКИ. НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ ВОПРОС В КОНТЕКСТЕ «ВИТРИННОЙ» ДЕМОКРАТИИ

Глава 1. Политическая жизнь Казахстана: первое десятилетие

Не слишком востребованная независимость

Установление сильного президентского правления

Поворот к авторитарному режиму (1995 г.)

Устранение оппозиции

Дальнейшее наступление на свободу слова

Глава 2. Место национального вопроса в общественных дискуссиях

Отношение властей к казахским националистам: и противник, и инструмент

Казахская нация или казахстанская нация?

Ассамблея народов Казахстана: «фольклоризация» национальных проблем

Русская специфика национального вопроса

Глава 3. Трудности и результаты самоорганизации русских

О разнообразии русских объединений: недостижимое согласие

Открыться или закрыться? Отношения с другими партиями и объединениями

К чему мы пришли? Еще о ситуации внутри и вокруг русских движений

РАЗДЕЛ II. СТАВКА НА «КАЗАХИЗАЦИЮ» СТРАНЫ. ДВА НАРОДА, ДВА ДИСКУРСА

Глава 1. Проблема гражданства и ее восприятие русскими

Гражданство и/или национальность?

Проблема двойного гражданства

Сложности, возникшие при замене паспортов

Глава 2. Статус языка как предмет обсуждения

Русский и казахские языки при советском строе

Законодательные инициативы периода независимости

Параметры языковой казахизации

Аргументация русских объединений

Глава 3. Проблемы школьного образования

Преподавание русского и казахского языков в школе

Попытки казахизации школьного обучения и их последствия

Выход — движение к «этнической закрытости»?

Глава 4. К политике «национального предпочтения»?

Дискриминационные меры: официозные или официальные?

Казахизация власти и управления

Национальный вопрос и экономика

РАЗДЕЛ III. ИСТОРИЯ И РЕЛИГИЯ НА СЛУЖБЕ САМОУТВЕРЖДЕНИЯ РУССКИХ

Глава 1. Переписывание истории и его цели

Казахизация истории и территории

Разоблачение русской колонизации

Советский период: время «геноцида»?

Глава 2. Ответ русской историографии

Устойчивость колониального мышления

Реабилитация имперского прошлого

Ностальгия по советскому величию

Глава 3. Битва за символическое обладание Степью

Миф о первопроходцах

Чья это земля?

Самобытность Алтая — история и идентичность

Глава 4. Православная церковь и «русский вопрос»

Попытки укрепить связь между русскостью и православием

Церковь и русские объединения: идеологические заимствования

Православная церковь и политическая власть — общие интересы?

Глава 5. Неоднозначное восприятие ислама. Союзник или враг?

От веротерпимого ислама казахов…

…до фундаменталистского «заграничного» ислама

РАЗДЕЛ IV. КАЗАЧЕСТВО И ТЕРРИТОРИАЛЬНЫЕ ИНТРИГИ НА СЕВЕРЕ КАЗАХСТАНА  

Глава 1. Возрождение казачества сквозь призму политики и идентичности

Краткий очерк истории казачества в Казахстане

Завоевание особого правового статуса. Пример России

Проблема идентичности — особый народ?

Глава 2. «Фольклорное» казачество Казахстана: внутренние противоречия

Бурное начало. Давление «сверху» и нагнетание проблем «изнутри»

Три общности — три взгляда на политику и национальный вопрос

Исторические споры между казачеством и казахами

Глава 3. Территориальный вопрос: отделение или автономия?

Верность России или Казахстану?

Северо-восток Казахстана: ирредентизм в действии

Проблема культурной автономии

РАЗДЕЛ V. НИ КАЗАХСТАНЦЫ, НИ РОССИЯНЕ

Глава 1. Уехать или остаться?

Массовый отъезд населения

Отношение русских движений к эмиграции

Проект «первого эшелона» и его судьба

Глава 2. На пути к особой идентичности

Правовые коллизии и ловушки

Этнический национализм русских объединений

Можно ли говорить об идентичности «красноногих»?

Глава 3. «Русский вопрос» в Казахстане как внутренняя проблема России

Лоббирование из России в пользу русских

Терминологические споры: соотечественники, диаспора, русские зарубежья?

ПРИЛОЖЕНИЕ

Хронология основных событий (1990 —2006 гг.)

Статистика населения по данным различных переписей

Предметно-именной указатель

Summary

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