Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T08:15:27.013Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Remembering and forgetting: the state policy of memorializing Stalin's repression in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Zhanat Kundakbayeva  and
Didar Kassymova
Zhanat Kundakbayeva*
Affiliation:
History, Archeology and Ethnology Department, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Didar Kassymova
Affiliation:
Department of International Relations, KIMEP University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
*
∗Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The general perception of Western analysts and observers is that the nation-states created as a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union all treat the memory of the dark, repressive aspects of the Stalinist regime in public spaces as a symbolic element in the creation of a new post-Soviet identity [Denison, Michael. 2009. “The Art of the Impossible: Political Symbolism, and the Creation of National Identity and Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Turkmenistan.” Europe-Asia Studies 61 (7): 1167–1187]. We argue that the government of Kazakhstan employs non-nationalistic discourse in its treatment of Stalinist victims’ commemoration in a variety of forms, through the creation of modern memorial complexes at the sites of horrific Soviet activity (mass burial places, labor camps, and detention centers), purpose-built museum exhibitions, and the commemorative speeches of its president and other officials. Kazakhstan's strategy in commemorating its Soviet past is designed to highlight the inclusiveness of repression on all peoples living in its territory at that time, not just Kazakhs, thereby assisting in bringing together its multinational and multiethnic society. Thus, the official stance treats this discourse as an important symbolic source of shaping the collective memory of the nation, based on “a general civil identity without prioritizing one ethnic group over another — a national unity, founded on the recognition of a common system of values and principles for all citizens” [Shakirova, Svetlana. 2012. “Letters to Nazarbaev: Kazakhstan's Intellectuals Debate National Identity.” February 7. Accessed July 28, 2015. http://postsovietpost.stanford.edu/discussion/letters-nazarbaev-kazakhstans-intellectuals-debate-national-identity].

Keywords

KazakhstanSoviet repressionmemorializationcommemorative narrativethe non-nationalistic discourse
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , July 2016 , pp. 611 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abashin, Sergei. 2009. “Mustakillik i pamyat’ ob imperskom proshlom: prokhodya po zalam tashkentskogo Muzeya pamyati zhertv repressii.” Neprikosnovennyi zapas 66 (4). http://magazines.russ.ru/nz/2009/4/ab6.html.Google Scholar
Adler, Nanci. 2005. “The Future of the Soviet Past Remains Unpredictable: The Resurrection of Stalinist Symbols Amidst the Exhumation of Mass Graves.” Europe-Asia Studies 57 (8): 1093–1119.Google Scholar
Adler, Nanci. 2012. “Reconciliation with — or Rehabilitation of- The Soviet Past?” Memory Studies 5 (3): 327–338.Google Scholar
Anstett, Elisabeth. 2011. “Memory of Political Repression in Post-Soviet Russia: The Example of the Gulag.” Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence. September 13, 2011. Accessed February 25, 2013. http://www.massviolence.org/Memory-of-political-repression-in-post-Soviet-Russia-the?decoupe_recherche=elisabeth%20anstett.Google Scholar
Bingula, Mihaela. 2012. “The Role of Museums in the Construction of the Social Memory of the 1990's in Croatia.” Ethnological Researches 17: 153–170.Google Scholar
Connerton, Paul. 2008. “Seven Types of Forgetting.” Memory Studies 1 (1): 59–71.Google Scholar
Denison, Michael. 2009. “The Art of the Impossible: Political Symbolism, and the Creation of National Identity and Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Turkmenistan.” Europe-Asia Studies 61 (7): 1167–1187.Google Scholar
Etkind, Alexander. 2009. “Post-Soviet Hauntology: Cultural Memory of the Soviet Terror.” Constellations 16 (1): 182–200.Google Scholar
Finkel, Evgenii. 2012. “V poiskakh ‘poteriannykh genotsidov': istoricheskaia politika i mezhdunarodnaia politika v Vostochnoi Evrope posle 1989g.” In Istoricheskaia politika v XXI v, edited by Miller, Alexei and Lipman, Maria, 292–328. Moskva, RF: Novoe literatur noe obozrenie.Google Scholar
Forest, Benjamin, and Johnson, Juliet. 2002. “Unraveling the Threads of History: Soviet-Era Monuments and Post-Soviet National Identity in Moscow.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 92 (3): 524–547.Google Scholar
Gar'kavyi, Igor'. 2012. “Pomnit', chtoby zhit'. 75 let s nachala Bol'shogo terrora.” October 30. http://solovki-monastyr.ru/library/543/.Google Scholar
Gillis, John R. 1994. Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
“Glava gosudarstva Nursultan Nazarbaev prinyal uchastie v torzhestvennoi tseremonii otkrytiya Memorial'no-muzeinogo kompleksa pamyati zhertv politicheskikh repressii i totalitarizma “ALZhIR”.” 2007. Official Site of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, last modified May 5, 2007. http://www.akorda.kz/ru/page/page_glava-gosudarstva-nursultan-nazarbaev-prinyal-uchastie-v-torzhestvennoi-tseremon_1348723516#page.Google Scholar
Gnedovskii, Mikhail. 2010. “Starye i novye istoricheskie muzei. Panorama memorial'nykh muzeev (muzeev sovesti).” ossiiskii portal “Uroki istorii.” Accessed October 7. http://urokiistorii.ru/memory/place/1194.Google Scholar
International Memorial Museums Charter. 2011. “Rossiiskii portal “Uroki istorii.” Accessed December 9, 2011. http://falstadsenteret.no/ic_memo/charter.pdf.Google Scholar
Istoriia muzeia “Perm’ 36.” 2009. “Sait Perm’ 36 Muzei istorii politicheskikh repressii.” Accessed September 21, 2010. http://www.perm36.ru/ru/istoriya/istoriya-muzeya.html.Google Scholar
Jankowski, Henryk. 2012. “Kazakh in Contact with Russian in Modern Kazakhstan.” Turkic Languages 16 (1): 25–67.Google Scholar
Jõesalu, Kirsti. 2012. “The Role of the Soviet Past in Post-Soviet Memory Politics Through Examples of Speeches from Estonian Presidents.” Europe-Asia Studies 64 (6): 1007–1032.Google Scholar
“Kazakhstan vspominaet zhertv politicheskikh repressii.” 2002. Web “Centrasia.ru.” Accessed June 2, 2002. http://www.centrasia.ru/newsA.php?st=1022875320.Google Scholar
Kokhanova, Svetlana. 2009. “Arkhipelag Karlag.” Express K. Accessed December 23, 2009. http://www.express-k.kz/show_article.php?art_id=35415.Google Scholar
Kul'maganbetova, Gil'zat. 2012. “Nasledie kazakhskikh kurakov.” Accessed December 6. http://www.enu.kz.Google Scholar
Malinova, Olga. 2012. “Ispol'zovanie proshlogo v rossiiskoi ofitsial'noi simvolicheskoi politike (na primere analiza ezhegodnykh prezidentskikh poslanii.” In Istoricheskaia politika v XXI v, edited by Miller, Alexei and Lipman, Maria, 368–395. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie.Google Scholar
Mezhdunarodnyi ustav memorial'nykh muzeev. 2011. “Rossiiskii portal “Uroki istorii.”” Accessed December 9. http://www.urokiistorii.ru/memory/org/2712.Google Scholar
Miller, Aleksei. 2012. “Istoricheskaia politika v Vostochnoi Evrope nachala XXI v.” In Istoricheskaia politika v XXI v, edited by Miller, Alexei and Lipman, Maria, 7–32. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie.Google Scholar
Moore, Lisa M. 2009. “(Re) covering the Past, Remembering Trauma: The Politics of Commemoration at Sites of Atrocity.” Journal of Public and International Affairs 20: 47–64.Google Scholar
Nazarbayev, Nursultan. 2012a. “Vystuplenie Prezidenta Respubliki Kazakhstan Nursultana Nazarbaeva na otkrytii Monumenta pamiati zhertv goloda 1932–1933.” Ofitsial'nyi sait Prezidenta Respubliki Kazakhstan. Accessed May 31. http://www.akorda.kz/ru/page/vystuplenie-prezidenta-respubliki-kazakhstan-nursultana-nazarbaeva-na-otkrytii-monumenta-pamyati-zhertv-golo#page.Google Scholar
Nazarbayev, Nursultan. 2012b. “Vystuplenie Prezidenta Respubliki Kazakhstan N.A. Nazarbaeva na XIX sessii Assamblei naroda Kazakhstana.” Ofitsial'nyi sait Prezidenta Respubliki Kazakhstan. Accessed April 27. http://www.akorda.kz/ru/page/vystuplenie-prezidenta-respublild-kazaldistan-n-a-nazarbaeva-na-xix-sessii-assamblei-naroda-kazaknstana-27–04–2012_1340715076#page.Google Scholar
Nazarbayev, Nursultan. 2014. “Address of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan N. Nazarbayev to the Nation.” Accessed January 17. http://akorda.kz/en/page/page_215752_.Google Scholar
Owen, Catherine. 2011. “Memorial Ata-Beiit: Kyrgyzstan zakryvaet vozmozhnost’ dialoga s sovetskim proshlym.” Accessed November 14. http://www.cogita.ru/pamyat/istoricheskaya-politika/memorial-ata-beiit-kyrgyzstan-zakryvaet-vozmozhnost-dialoga-s-sovetskim-proshlym.Google Scholar
Pettai, Eva, ed. 2014. Memory and Pluralism in the Baltic States. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Podeh, Elie. 2011. The Politics of National Celebrations in the Arab Middle East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Segodnya v Akorde Glava gosudarstva Nursultan Nazarbaev provel vstrechu posvyashchennuyu pamyati zhertv politicheskikh repressii. 2010. “V meropriyatii prinyali uchastie potomki repressirovannykh iz Kazakhstana i deportirovannykh iz-za rubezha v Kazakhstan v period 30–50-kh godov XX veka.” Official Site of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, last modified May 27, 2010, http://www.akorda.kz/ru/page/page_segodnya-v-akorde-glava-gosudarstva-nursultan-nazarbaev-provel-vstrechu-posvyash_1348723080#page.Google Scholar
Shakirova, Svetlana. 2012. “Letters to Nazarbaev: Kazakhstan's Intellectuals Debate National Identity.” February 7. Accessed July 28, 2015. http://postsovietpost.stanford.edu/discussion/letters-nazarbaev-kazakhstans-intellectuals-debate-national-identity.Google Scholar
Stradanie kak eksponat ili Muzei strogogo rezhima/kak pokazyvat’ v muzeiakh ‘negativnuiu istoriiu.’ 2011. “Rossiiskii portal “Uroki istorii.”” Accessed October 11. http://www.urokiistorii.ru/current/view/2528.Google Scholar
The Doctrine of National Unity of Kazakhstan. Astana. 2009. “Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Nations in New-York.” http://kazakhstanun.org/press-releases/the-doctrine-of-national-unity-of-kazakhstan.html.Google Scholar
“The Strategy for Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan Until the Year 2030.” 1997. Official Site of the President of the Republic of Kazakstan. Accessed October http://www.akorda.kz/en/category/gos_programmi_razvitiia.Google Scholar
“V Uzbekistane otmetili Den’ pamiati zhertv repressii.” 2012. Accessed August 31. http://www.gazeta.uz/2012/08/31/memorial/.Google Scholar
Westrate, Michael. 2009. “Historical Narratives in the Soviet Union and Post Soviet Russia: Destroying the Settled Past, Creating an Uncertain Future.” Europe-Asia Studies 61 (4): 721–722.Google Scholar
Whitmarsh, Andrew. 2001. “'We Will Remember Them’ Memory and Commemoration in War Museums.” Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies 7: 11–15.Google Scholar
Yushchenko, Viktor. 2009. “Vystuplenie Prezidenta Ukrainy Viktora Yushchenko v Den’ pamiati zhertv Golodomora.” Novosti Ukrainy. Accessed November 28. http://www.ua-today.com/modules/myarticles/article_storyid_27851.html.Google Scholar
Zerubavel, Yael. 1995. Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar