The Perception of North Kazakhstan’s Russian Community on Post-2014 Nation-Building

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the North Kazakhstan’s ethnic Russian community and their perception of the post-2014 nation-building programs initiated in Kazakhstan. After the Crimean annexation by Russia in 2014, the Kazakhstani government reconsidered its nation-building strategy by giving a special focus to its Northern cities where high number of ethnic Russians reside. As a result, the Akorda initiated and implemented several nation-building programs such as the celebration of 550th anniversary of the Kazakh Khanate, Serpin-2050 (Impulse-2050) and Rukhani Zhangyru (Spiritual Revival). This thesis attempts to examine and analyze how these programs are perceived by the ethnic Russian community in the North Kazakhstan region, where it represents substantial majority. Despite the continuous presence of the “Russian question” issue since the fall of the Soviet Union in Kazakhstani political discourse, this research only focuses on post-2014 nation-building programs, as it contends that the Crimean annexation pushed Akorda to re-evaluate its relations with the ethnic Russian community in Kazakhstan. Besides studying the reaction to these three-concrete nation-building programs, this work attempts to understand North Kazakhstan’s ethnic Russian community’s general perception of the post- 2014 nation-building in Kazakhstan. To measure this perception, 20 interviews were conducted and analyzed of the diverse group of representatives of the ethnic Russian community in the North Kazakhstan region. This thesis has found that ethnic Russian community perceives all three post-2014 nation-building programs negatively. Moreover, it has also discovered that despite, age, gender, place of residence, and social background perception of Kazakhstani nation-building is more or less the same among all interviewed ethnic Russians. The thesis makes a conclusion that according to “triadic nexus” relations between the host state – Kazakhstan and external national homeland – the Russian Federation, influence and effect integration and politization of the ethnic Russian community in Kazakhstan. The dynamic of these relations, provokes Kazakhstani government to apply the 6 approach of “exclusion” towards its ethnic Russian community, and it communicates it in the three post-2014 nation-building programs. Understanding and partly accepting it, ethnic Russian community struggles to find its place and loyalty to its state – Kazakhstan.