Опубликовано в журнале “Отан тарихы”

Kazakhstan has a multiethnic population of great diversity, the product of an extraordinarily complex demographic history. It is home to over 100 ethnic groups. They vary considerably in size, historical experiences and patterns of behavior. Consequently, it is difficult to establish an organizational framework that could serve as an analytical tool for examining group dynamics. Yet without such a framework it is impossible to move beyond a mere recital of group designations. A project of this magnitude would require a full length study. Here, owing to constraints of space, the aim is inevitably far more modest: a preliminary categorization, based on certain salient characteristics, is presented and this is developed into a tentative typology. In order to ground the discussion, some background reference material is included. Below, there is a brief introduction to Kazakhstan, followed by an explanation of terminological usage. Part I surveys (in very truncated form) the origins of the ethnic groups that form the basis for the analysis in Part II. In Part III the threads of the arguments set out in the preceding section are drawn together and systematized. The findings are then tested within a broader, international framework.

Kazakhstan is located in the heart of Eurasia, between the Caspian Sea and the Tien Shan mountains. To the north and west it is bounded by the Russian Federation, to the east by China and to the south by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. It covers an area of 2.7 million sq. km., thus is almost as big as the whole of Western Europe. Yet it has a relatively small population, numbering (according to the 1999 census survey) just under 15 million. The country has a relatively diversified economy. It has world-class deposits of oil and gas, coal, also other minerals such as chrome, copper, gold, lead, wolfram (tungsten) and zinc. Most of its industrial base is connected with the extraction and processing of these resources. However, it also possesses extensive tracts of fine arable land and is an important producer and exporter of agricultural products, notably grain, meat and dairy.

Kazakhstan, as a modern political entity, with fixed borders, came into being after the establishment of Soviet rule in the early 1920s. In 1936 it acquired the status of a full Union republic, the second largest (in terms of territory) of the fifteen constituent Soviet republics. It declared its independence on 16 December 1991, shortly before the formal demise of the Union. A week later, it became one of the founder members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Terminology and Politics
Since the mid-nineteenth century Kazakhstan has experienced huge movements of population. Most of these flows were immigration influxes, but since independence there has been a sizeable exodus from the country. There have also been several waves of internal migration, particularly during the early Soviet period and again in the 1990s.
The demographic turbulence of the post-independence period has been a subject of much debate. Perhaps not surprisingly, discussions have been dominated, explicitly or implicitly, by political considerations. There are two main thrusts to such arguments. One uses the issue of emigration as a gauge of trust in the government – its economic and social policies as well as its style of governance – and concludes that the exodus is an indictment of the conduct of government. This school of thought, moreover, emphasizes the risk of social conflict in the country and stresses the need for, among other things, on-going monitoring of the situation. The other line of argument downplays the exodus and concentrates instead on the positive aspects of government policies, particularly the efforts that have been made to promote inter-ethnic harmony and to develop a viable multiethnic, multicultural state. Both these approaches are valid, but neither, on its own, gives a complete picture of an extremely complicated situation.
The difficulties of discussing demographic issues in Kazakhstan are compounded by the problems of terminology. During the Soviet period a distinction was made between the legal concept of ‘citizenship’, and the ethnic concept of ‘nationality’. Since independence, there has been a blurring of this distinction. At the same time, however, the concept of the ‘titular nation’ – that is to say, the people from whom the state takes its name – has been promoted as a special category. Thus, although the preamble to the 1995 constitution (Konstitutsia 1998: 12) speaks collectively of the ‘people of Kazakhstan’, the territory of Kazakhstan is described as ‘primordial Kazakh land’. By implication, therefore, the titular nation is regarded as the ‘host’, while others are ‘guests’. These ‘guests’ may acquire full citizenship, but are not regarded as having an intrinsic stake in the land, or at least, not one that is on a par with that of the Kazakhs (Karin and Chebotarev 2000: 72) (1).
It is against this background that in Kazakhstan today terms such as ‘ethnic minority’ and ‘diaspora’ have come to be regarded by some as political slurs, on the grounds that they carry overtones of discrimination and exclusion (Masanov: 42). These sensitivities are understandable and need to be taken into account, but the projection of political interpretations on to terminology does not help to further scholarly debate. To be forced to take refuge in euphemisms or in vague, ill-defined categories leads to obfuscation. The problem is compounded when an attempt is made to broaden the scope of the discussion. It becomes almost impossible to draw meaningful comparisons with experiences in other societies if there are no generally accepted definitions of common terms.
Terminological concerns of this nature are by no means unique to Kazakhstan. In many multiethnic societies there are concerns as to the most appropriate way of referring to communities of immigrant origin. The issue has acquired greater immediacy in recent years as new patterns of migration have emerged, accompanied by a sharp rise in the volumes of population movements round the world. This has prompted new interest in the formation and functioning of multiethnic states, which in turn is generating a new terminology to describe dispersed, transnational communities. Increasingly, the term ‘diaspora’ (the etymological meaning of which is ‘dispersal’) is gaining currency as a neutral, inclusive label for such communities. In the past, this term (often spelt with a capitalized initial) was used mainly to refer to the Jewish experience of dispersal by forced expulsion. Since the 1980s, however, the semantic sphere has been steadily widened. The term is still fluid and different criteria are employed to define usage (van Hear 1998: 5; Bruneau 1995: 5). However, communities as diverse as refugees, overseas merchants and guest-workers now tend to be grouped together under this collective heading. This is indicative of the recognition that though the process of ‘dispersal’ may take many forms, there are, nevertheless, common threads. Thus the expansion of the concept of ‘diaspora’ lays the foundations for an analytical category within which the totality of the phenomenon of population movement can be examined.
It is in this broad sense of a ‘dispersed community’ that the term ‘diaspora’ is used here. The Soviet-era term ‘nationality’ is rendered synonymously by ‘ethnic group’ or ‘people’. The term ‘titular nation’ is a controversial usage, but it is retained here because it highlights an important issue, namely the special status of the Kazakh population within Kazakhstan. The great majority of Kazakhs regard this as their rightful due. Others observe that this special status is a reality, but do not necessarily condone it, regarding the privileging of any single ethnic group as inimical to the building of a modern, democratic state.
Part 1: Ethnic Survey (Selected Groups)
In the 1989 Soviet census, the total population for Kazakhstan was estimated at around 16,200,000 (2). Some100 ethnic groups were listed separately. Just under half were represented by fewer than 10,000 individuals (some twenty by fewer than 100). Of the remainder, approximately twenty groups numbered 10,000 to 100,000, (e.g. Kurds, Dungans, and Greeks) and some thirty groups were in the range 100,000 to 1 million (e.g. Koreans, Tatars, Ukrainians and Germans). The biggest groups by far were the Russian and the Kazakh, each numbering over 6 million. Below, the history of the titular nation is described at some length, since it is the formative experiences of the Kazakhs – or more precisely, the perception of these experiences – that shape the psychological context in which contemporary inter-ethnic relations are conducted (3). The entries on the other groups are shorter and intended only as a cursory reference.
1. Titular Nation
The Kazakhs are predominantly of Turkic origin. It is impossible to date with certainty their first appearance on the territory of modern Kazakhstan, but in all probability they formed part of the larger migration of Turkic tribes to the west, which occurred during the sixth century AD. Prior to this, the Sakas, an Indo-European people, had dominated the steppe for hundreds of years. The incoming Turks appear to have merged with the descendants of these earlier settlers. On this basis, some Kazakh historians trace the origins of Kazakh statehood back to the Saka era, a period of some two millennia.
The dominant way of life of the Turkic tribes was nomadic pastoralism, although in the south an urban culture developed along a branch of the ancient ‘Silk Roads’. Islam was brought to Central Asia by the Arabs in the eighth century. It first took hold in the southern tier (modern Uzbekistan), then gradually spread northwards. In the early thirteenth century Kazakhstan came under Mongol domination. Although the Mongols did not survive as a separate ethnic group, the Kazakh aristocracy that subsequently emerged claimed direct patrilineal descent from Genghis Khan. Today, their descendants do not enjoy any formal privileges, but informally this lineage continues to command some respect. The same is true of the small number of Kazakhs who trace their genealogy back to the Arab scholars and holy men who brought Islam to the region in the medieval period.
The first identifiable Kazakh state formation, known as the Kazakh Khanate, was established in the fifteenth century. By this time the Kazakh ruling elite had adopted Islam (of the Sunni sect, Hanafi school), but the main body of the population was not fully converted until some centuries later. In the seventeenth century the Kazakhs split into three tribal confederations, known as the Big, Middle and Small Hordes (Kazakh Ulu, Orta and Kishi Zhus respectively). These units were further divided into tribes and clans. Each Horde had a specific geographic territory within which it conducted its annual cycle of transhumance.
In the eighteenth century, under attack from Oirot Mongols (Jungars) in the east, most Kazakh tribes sought protection from Russia, though some turned to China. The lands of the latter were incorporated into the Chinese empire in the eighteenth century; today this region forms part of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Province. Meanwhile, Russian influence in the steppe region gradually expanded until, in the first half of the nineteenth century, the Kazakh leaders (khans) were deposed and their territory annexed by the Russian empire. Members of the Kazakh aristocracy began to be educated in the Russian system at this time and several subsequently served in the Tsarist administration. In the late ninetieth century, and more especially in the early twentieth century, there were large influxes of Slav settlers into Kazakhstan. Initially, relations between the Kazakhs and the immigrants were amicable, but tensions soon surfaced. One of the chief reasons was the fact that the newcomers expropriated broad swathes of land that formed part of the traditional pastures of the nomads. In 1916 Kazakh resentment erupted in a violent revolt. The Tsarist response was ferocious; many of the insurgents were brutally killed.
In 1920 Soviet rule was established in the region. By this time the total Kazakh population on the territory of the USSR numbered close to 4 million. A Kazakh territorial-administrative entity, with the status of an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) (4) was formed in 1920, which encompassed almost all the traditional Kazakh lands; over 90 per cent of the Kazakh population was located within this new formation. In 1936 the Kazakh ASSR acquired the status of a full Union republic, becoming the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (or less formally, Kazakhstan).
The Kazakhs suffered crushing population losses during the 1930s as a result of the Soviet government’s policies of enforced sedentarisation of the nomads, collectivization and destruction of the rich peasant class (‘de-kulakization’). There were also sweeping political purges at this time that wiped out most of the small, pre-revolutionary intellectual elite. It has been estimated that some 1.75 million Kazakhs – almost half the total Kazakh population – died during these years. Over a million more emigrated. Of these, approximately 600,000 Kazakhs fled to China (where there was already a sizeable Kazakh population), Afghanistan, Iran, and Mongolia; some later moved on to Western Europe, North America, Turkey and the Middle East. Another 453,000 Kazakhs relocated to Uzbekistan and other Soviet republics. Gradually, about 400,000 emigrants returned to Kazakhstan, but others remained aboard (Tatimov 1989: 120-6; Mendikulova 1997: 84-94). In 1959, Kazakhs in Kazakhstan numbered 2.8 million, a third fewer than in 1926; in the Soviet Union as a whole, the Kazakh population had fallen to 3,622,000, a decrease of some 350,000.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the destruction of the traditional life was accompanied by a wide-ranging program of social engineering, aimed at the rapid modernization and Sovietization of Kazakh society. Free and universal schooling was introduced, as a result of which the literacy rate rose from around 7 per cent in 1926 to close on 99 per cent by 1970 (5). Similarly, free health care was introduced. After the catastrophic experiences of the 1930s, this helped to bring about a degree of demographic recovery. Moreover, in the early 1960s, following the crisis in Sino-Soviet relations, up to 100,000 Kazakhs from Xinjiang had moved to Kazakhstan (Mendikulova 1997: 226). By 1970, the Kazakh population had increased to 4.2 million and this trend continued thereafter. Other changes that occurred at this time included the drive for female emancipation, as a result of which Kazakh women began to enter higher education in growing numbers and to play an active role in all spheres of public life. There was also a vigorous secularization campaign which had the effect of reducing the role of Islam (which some would argue had never been very strong among Kazakhs) to little more than a cultural identity.
By the 1970s, a new generation of urbanized, highly educated Kazakhs had emerged. Kazakh representation in the republican government and Party institutions was increasing. Nevertheless, over 70 per cent of the Kazakh population still lived in rural areas, mostly in the less-developed southern belt. They tended to be conservative in culture and outlook, in sharp contrast to the Europeanized, Russian-speaking Kazakhs of the urban centers.
In December 1986, soon after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, the long-serving First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Dinmukhamed Kunaev, was removed from office. He was replaced by a Russian from outside the republic. Kazakh students held a peaceful public demonstration to express their opposition to this move. They had expected that the Slav population would sympathize, if not actually join them in their action, since it was a protest against the heavy-handed policies of Moscow, not against Russians as such (6). However, this did not happen. Many of the demonstrators were hurt, allegedly assaulted by the police, and several were arrested. This triggered a wave of anti-Russian feeling among the Kazakhs. It subsided, but the incident left a bitter residue of resentment.
At about the same time, public concern over the extent of environmental damage in Kazakhstan was surfacing. There were two major disaster areas. One was the Aral Sea region which, owing to the shrinking of the Sea, was experiencing chronic desertification and severe air, soil and water pollution. The other was the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, where prolonged exposure to radiation (officially, nuclear tests were carried out from 1949-63, but unofficial reports indicate they continued for much longer) had caused incalculable damage to the local ecology and to the health of the population. In both areas, the environmental degradation was so severe that tens of thousands of Kazakhs were forced to abandon their homes and to move to other parts of the republic (Asylbekov and Kozina 1995: 36; Akiner 1997: 18).
It was against this background of growing awareness of the sufferings and injustices that had been inflicted on the Kazakh nation over the past century that a strand of xenophobic nationalism began to emerge. When independence was declared in December 1991, many Kazakhs regarded it as a form of restitution, a chance to regain control of their destiny and their land (Karin and Chebotarev 2000: 73). Kazakhs from abroad began to return; by 2003, some 215,000 had come back (World Refugee Survey 2003). These repatriants (Kazakh oralmandar) were greeted enthusiastically, in the spirit of a ‘gathering in’ of the exiled peoples.
However, consolidation of the nation proved to be more difficult than anticipated. Diasporization had had a profound effect on the social, economic and linguistic development of the exiles and they found it difficult to adapt to life in modern Kazakhstan. Equally, the Kazakh authorities were not prepared for the practical problems of resettling large numbers of repatriants. Stringent annual immigration quotas were introduced to limit the flow of returning families (Karin and Chebotarev 2000: 95). Meanwhile, some of the repatriants, dissatisfied with the conditions that they encountered, re-emigrated. Kazakhs within Kazakhstan were also in flux. From the mid-1990s, there was growing internal migration as Kazakhs from rural areas moved to urban centers in search of employment (Asylbekov and Kozina 2001: 67). At the same time, several thousand Kazakhs, mainly from the northern provinces, emigrated to Russia and other parts of the CIS. These various population flows gradually diminished but they brought about a geographic redistribution of the Kazakh population, both within the country and also in the Kazakh diaspora.
Table 1: Kazakh Population Movements in 20th Century
Period (Re-)Emigration Repatriation Internal Migration
1920s-1930s approx. 600,000 flee across Soviet border; 400,000 later return, but 200,000 settle permanently in Mongolia, China, etc; 453,000 move to other Soviet republics large-scale dislocation, esp. during period of forced sedentarisation and collectivization
1960s mass influx of repatriants from China following Sino-Soviet split
1980s internal migration of environmental refugees from Aral Sea and Semipalatinsk regions
post-1991 flows of repatriants from Mongolia, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, Uzbekistan etc;
c. 1994 – ongoing small Kazakh exodus to Russia and other CIS states, small Kazakh re-emigration to Mongolia internal migration, mainly from rural to urban areas
Kazakh population (year)
in Kazakhstan in USSR abroad (CIS, Western Europe, Turkey etc)*
1926 3,713,000 3,968,000 c. 400,000 in China
1959 2,787,000 3,622,000 c. 1.5 m., including some 600,000 in China
1989 6,497,000 8,136,000 c. 4 m., including some 1,100,000 in China
1999 7,985,000 c. 4.2 m., including some 1.5 m. in China
* Figures very imprecise, owing to incomplete data
2. Immigrants from European Russia
2.1 Slavs
Russians
The Russians are eastern Slavs. By religion the overwhelming majority are (at least by tradition) Orthodox Christians. The first significant wave of Russian migration into Kazakhstan dates from the nineteenth century. The settlers, drawn from a wide range of social categories, included members of the Tsarist ‘establishment’ such as administrators, teachers, doctors, engineers, geologists and surveyors; peasant farmers, some of whom came with official sanction and support, while others were illegal migrants; and several waves of political exiles (Social Democrats, Marxists etc.). Cossack military units were stationed in the region to guard the frontiers and to maintain law and order. Four historic units – the Ural, Orenburg, Siberian and Semirechie Cossacks – were (and still are) located wholly or partly on the territory of Kazakhstan (Nishiyama 2000: 65-85; Shigabdinov and Nikitenko, 87-111).
In 1926, some six years after Soviet rule had been instituted, there were already some 1,280,000 Russians in Kazakhstan. During the 1920s and 1930s this number was rapidly augmented by large contingents of Russian aid and development workers (teachers, doctors, engineers, etc), as well as administrators, Communist Party officials, military and security forces. Many political prisoners were also exiled to Kazakhstan. During World War II there was a new wave of Russian immigration when industrial plants as well as scientific, cultural and higher educational institutions were relocated to Kazakhstan from the western regions of the Soviet Union. The last major movement of population came in the 1950s and 1960s, when there was an intensive campaign to develop the economic potential of this region; the largest and most controversial project was the plowing of the ‘Virgin Lands’ of the steppe in order to expand grain production. By 1959, there were almost 4 million Russians in Kazakhstan; two decades later, they numbered almost 6 million. Thereafter the natural demographic increase continued, but was offset to some extent by out-migration. In 1989, the Russian population in Kazakhstan stood at 6,062,000.
During most of the Soviet period the Russians constituted the single biggest ethnic group, averaging around 40 per cent of the population. The majority settled in the northern and north-eastern provinces, where they soon substantially outnumbered the Kazakh population (Erofeeva 1999: 154-64). By 1970, there were large concentrations of Russians in and around the major industrial centers of the north and in the republican capital (Alma Ata, now Almaty). Yet they were also well represented in agricultural areas, constituting over a quarter of the total rural population of Kazakhstan. The diaspora as a whole continued to comprise a broad spectrum of social groups. Russians held dominant positions in the highest political, administrative and law enforcement echelons, also in education, science, the arts and the professions. However, they were to be found in all spheres of activity and many were employed in low status and low income jobs.
Ukrainians and Belarusians
Ukrainians and Belarusians are, like the Russians, eastern Slavs. By religion some are Orthodox Christians, while others are Uniates (Roman Catholics of the eastern rite). Ukrainian immigration into Kazakhstan began during the Tsarist period and, like Russian immigration, was very diverse in social and economic character. It included political exiles from Ukraine’s intellectual elite, as well as farmers, administrators and other servants of the state. By 1926, the diaspora numbered over 861,000 (some 13 per cent of the total population of Kazakhstan). There was a new influx in the late 1930s, when many Ukrainians were deported from Western Ukraine (formerly part of Poland, annexed by the USSR in 1939). The community was at its most numerous in 1970 (just under 1 million); subsequently there was a slow but steady exodus. Belarusian immigration followed a similar pattern to the Ukrainian, but on a much smaller scale. In 1970, the Belarusian diaspora in Kazakhstan reached its peak, numbering over 198,000 and constituting the seventh largest ethnic group in the country; thereafter it began to contract. During the Soviet period Ukrainians and Belarusians occupied the same niches in society as Russians and were generally regarded (by others and themselves) as part of this larger group.
2.2 Turkic, Finno-Ugric and Other Peoples
Tatars (Volga)
The Tatars are a Turkic, Muslim people from the Volga region. They are related to the Crimean Tatars, but have a different history and represent a different linguistic branch. In Soviet censuses both groups were listed collectively as ‘Tatars’ until 1989, when a separate ‘Crimean Tatar’ category was introduced.
Large numbers of Volga Tatars moved into Kazakhstan in the nineteenth century, after the region had been incorporated into the Tsarist empire. The first wave consisted mainly of Muslim clerics and teachers; later, they were joined by entrepreneurs and civil servants. Some contemporary Kazakh intellectuals regarded the Tatar influx as pernicious, preferring Russian culture to the strict Islamic orthodoxy which the Tatars were trying to introduce (Akiner 1995: 28). By the time Soviet rule was established, there was already a significant Tatar presence in Kazakhstan. They played an active role in the new administration, since, on average, they were better educated than the Kazakh population. Moreover, despite differences in religion and ethnic origin they tended to identify themselves culturally and socially with the Slavs. For the Kazakhs, the Tatars represented an intermediate group, not as alien as the Slavs, but more ‘sophisticated’ than Central Asians. Consequently, several Kazakh intellectuals and senior Communist Party officials married Tatars. In 1960 Dinmukhamed Kunaev became the first Kazakh to head the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, a post which he held (with a brief hiatus in the early 1960s) until 1986. Partly of Tatar origin (his mother and paternal grandmother were both Tatars), he promoted Tatars to a number of key positions and more generally, created an environment in which the diaspora prospered. In 1989 they were the fifth largest ethnic group in Kazakhstan, numbering 321,000.
Mordvinians, Udmurts and Others
Other subjects of the Tsarist empire moved to Kazakhstan in the wake of the Russians. They included Mordvinians and Udmurts (Finno-Ugric peoples, mostly Orthodox Christians), also Bashkirs and Chuvash (mixed Finno-Ugric and Turkic descent, mostly Muslim, some Orthodox Christians) from the Volga region, and Moldovans (Indo-Europeans, Orthodox Christians) from the Dniester. Small groups of peoples such as these began to settle in Kazakhstan in the late nineteenth century. Some (especially the Moldovans) were engaged in agriculture, while others worked as manual laborers in the burgeoning industrial sector; a few served as petty bureaucrats. In the twentieth century these communities were swelled by new flows of immigrants, among them a sizeable influx of Moldovan evacuees in World War II. In 1959 the Udmurt, Bashkir and Chuvash diasporas in Kazakhstan were still relatively small, each represented by fewer than 12,000 people; the Moldovans and Mordvinians were slightly more numerous (15,000 and 25,000 respectively). By 1970 all these groups showed a significant increase; there were now 34,000 Mordvinians, 26,000 Moldovans, 23,000 Chuvash, 21,000 Bashkirs and 16,000 Udmurts. In the following years the Bashkir and Moldovan populations continued to expand (in 1989 numbering 41,000 and 32,000 respectively), but the other groups experienced a slight contraction.
The first German immigrants also settled in Kazakhstan in the nineteenth century (see below under Deported Peoples).
3: Central Asians
Uzbeks, Kyrgyz and Turkmen
The Uzbeks are Muslims and, like the Kazakhs, Turkic, though from a different linguistic branch. For centuries they have lived in compact groups in the towns and villages on the territory of southern Kazakhstan, intermingled with Kazakhs. The latter were mostly nomadic or semi-nomadic, while the Uzbeks followed a sedentary way of life, engaged chiefly in trade, crafts and irrigated agriculture. In 1924, when Soviet Central Asia was divided into territorial-administrative units, the Kazakh-Uzbek border was drawn through this area, thereby creating an ‘administrative’ diaspora of some 213,000 Uzbeks. Since the borders at this time were fully transparent and there was no obstacle to movement backwards and forwards, they remained cultural, socially and economically closely tied to Uzbeks in Uzbekistan. In 1989, the Uzbek diaspora in Kazakhstan numbered 331,000 and was still predominantly located in the area adjoining Uzbekistan.
The Kyrgyz and Turkmen are also Turkic Muslims and have for centuries lived on the borders of Kazakhstan. Small groups were incorporated into Kazakhstan following the delimitation of 1924. In 1989, the Kyrgyz diaspora in Kazakhstan numbered 14,000 and the Turkmen 4,000.
Uighurs
The Uighurs, too, are Turkic Muslims, linguistically and culturally more closely related to the Uzbeks than the Kazakhs. The majority (an estimated 10 million) live in the north-west of China, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Province. During the nineteenth century, as the Russian empire expanded eastwards, a number of Turkic peoples came under Tsarist rule. Later they came to be known collectively as Uighurs. The majority lived in the Ferghana Valley and were subsequently incorporated into Uzbekistan, but some were located in the Ili Valley, which became part of Kazakhstan. p. 13-14: In 1926, there were 10,500 Uighurs and 52,000 Taranchis (later included with the Uighurs) on the territory of Kazakhstan. After Communist rule was established in China in 1949, many thousands of Uighurs moved to Kazakhstan. When relations between China and the Soviet Union deteriorated in the 1960s, another wave of Chinese Uighurs crossed the border into Soviet territory. The great majority settled in Kazakhstan. In the 1989 census it was recorded that they numbered 185,300, but some Uighurs claimed that this was an under-estimation.
Dungans
The Dungans (self-designation Hui) are Chinese Muslims from Shaanxi, Gansu and Xinjiang provinces. Little is known of their ethnic origins. They may have been Chinese who adopted Islam, or Muslim prisoners (Arabs, Persians etc.) who were brought to China as prisoners by the Mongols and who then adopted the language and customs of the local population. They migrated to Russian-occupied territory in the aftermath of the Muslim Uprising of 1862-77 against Manchu rule. Mostly farmers, they introduced new crops to the region, including rice and opium poppies. Following the delimitation of Soviet Central Asia in 1924, the Dungans were divided between the Kyrgyz and Kazakh republics. In 1926, the population in Kazakhstan was estimated at 8,500; in 1989 it had reached 30,000. Agriculture is still their principle occupation. In food, clothing and general way of life they have retained Chinese customs (cases of foot-binding, for example, were recorded as late as the 1940s).
4: Deported Peoples (by region of origin)
4.1 European USSR (Volga, Crimea, Ukraine and Belarus)
Germans
There were several waves of German immigration into Russia (7). The earliest settlers were hanseatic merchants in the medieval period. They were followed by traders and master craftsmen, especially in the seventeenth century. The largest influx, however, was prompted by the manifesto issued by Catherine the Great in 1763, which invited foreigners to settle in Russia to assist with the economic development of the country. The immigrants were offered favorable conditions, including guarantees of religious freedom and local self governance. Later monarchs confirmed and expanded these rights. Thousands of Germans – from Hesse, West Prussia, Württemberg, Alsace and other parts of the country – took advantage of these opportunities. The majority was Mennonite, but there were also many Catholics. German villages were established in the Volga region, also in the Black Sea region (including the Crimea), Volhynia, southern Caucasus and Siberia. More Germans came under Russian rule as the Tsarist empire annexed new territories along the Baltic coast. By 1914, there were some 1.6 million Germans in the Russian empire, excluding the Baltic provinces, Poland and Bessarabia (Sheehy and Nahaylo 1980: 18). By this time, small groups of German settlers, mostly farmers, had begun moving to Kazakhstan. In 1926, they numbered just over 51,000.
During World War I the German population in Russia were treated with suspicion and hostility, and threatened with the liquidation of their communities. They were no longer allowed to speak German in public; preaching in German was also forbidden (Landsmannschaft 1997). When Soviet rule was established, their situation improved somewhat. In 1918, they were allowed to establish their own Autonomous Commune on the Volga; in 1924 this became the Volga German ASSR. This was the largest geographic concentration of Soviet Germans and encompassed about a quarter of the total population. Elsewhere in the Soviet Union 17 German National Districts were created in areas where there were large German communities (e.g. in Ukraine and the Crimea).
Conditions soon deteriorated again. The first major deportation of Germans to Central Asia and Siberia took place in the second half of the 1930s. In 1939 the Soviet Union annexed Western Ukraine (previously Polish territory) and Germans from this region were also deported to the east. In 1941 there were further mass deportations of Germans from all parts of the Soviet Union, allegedly for collaborating with the Nazis. That same year the Volga German ASSR was abolished, likewise all the remaining German National Districts. Yet another influx of German exiles to Central Asia came after the war, when some 250,000 Soviet Germans who had found refuge in Germany (and acquired German citizenship) were repatriated to the Soviet Union; all were exiled to penal settlements. About 40 per cent of the total number of German deportees were sent to Kazakhstan. In the mid-1950s, they were partially rehabilitated, but not given the right to return to their former places of residence. By 1959 they were the fourth largest ethnic group in the republic, numbering 660,000; by 1989 they had increased to 947,000 and ranked third (after the Kazakhs and Russians).
Poles
Western Slavs, the Poles are Roman Catholics. There have been several waves of Polish immigration into Kazakhstan. The first influx was in the second half of the nineteenth century, when Polish intellectuals and revolutionaries were exiled to northern Kazakhstan by the Tsarist authorities. During the Soviet era there were two main influxes of Polish deportees. One wave arrived in 1936-38; these were ‘special settler’ deportees from the border regions of Soviet Ukraine and Belarus. A separate wave of Poles arrived in 1940-41, following the Soviet annexation of the Polish parts of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. Poles from these areas were regarded as internees; among them were many army officers and members of the Polish government. In 1941 most of them were amnestied, but remained in Kazakhstan. Several signed up for the Polish army that was formed in the Soviet Union under the command of General Anders. This body was later relocated to Iran and brought under British control, but many thousand former internees remained in Kazakhstan. In the mid-1950s, the ‘special settlers’ were rehabilitated (8). According to census surveys, in 1959 the Polish diaspora in Kazakhstan numbered about 53,000, (9) and in 1989, just under 60,000 (though this was generally regarded as an under-estimation).
Crimean Tatars
A Turkic, Muslim people, the Crimean Tatars were the dominant element in the Crimean Tatar Khanate, established on the Crimean peninsular in 1443. Politically this state had close ties with the Ottoman empire, but was annexed by the Russian crown in 1783. This triggered large migrations of Crimean Tatars to Turkey. Towards the end of the nineteenth century there was an awakening of Crimean Tatar national consciousness. Strongly pan-Turkic and pan-Islamic in orientation, it was much influenced by similar movements in Ottoman Turkey. Great emphasis was placed on education and consequently, the rate of literacy among the Crimean Tatars was one of the highest in the Tsarist empire. In 1917 nationalist leaders proclaimed an independent Crimean Tatar state; this was immediately recognized by Turkey and Germany. However, in 1920 Bolshevik troops gained control of the region and in 1921 the Crimean ASSR was created. Many Crimean Tatars fled abroad at this time, the majority to Turkey. Nevertheless, within the Crimea there was a flowering of Crimean Tatar culture and education during the early Soviet period. This came to an abrupt end in the late 1920s. There followed a period of increasing repression during which the intellectual elite was almost totally destroyed.
By 1939, the population of the Crimea numbered approximately 1,127,000, some 50 per cent of whom were Russian. The Tatars constituted about 25 per cent, while the remainder included Ukrainians, Germans, Greeks and various other groups. From 1941-44 the Crimea was occupied by German forces. On 18 May 1944, immediately after it had been liberated by the Soviet army, the entire Crimean Tatar nation was accused of collaboration with the Germans and deported. Most were exiled to Uzbekistan but a few thousand were sent to Kazakhstan. The Crimean Tatar ASSR was liquidated in June 1946; in 1954 the region was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian SSR. The land and property confiscated from the Crimean Tatars was transferred to Ukrainian and Russian settlers. In 1954 the ‘special settler’ restrictions were lifted, but the Crimean Tatars were not given the right to return home. According to the 1989 census, there were then just over 3,000 Crimean Tatars in Kazakhstan, though this was probably an under-estimation (10).
4.2 North Caucasus
Balkars, Chechens, Ingush, Karachais, Kalmyks
These five peoples were deported en masse from the North Caucasus in 1943-44. The Chechen and Ingush are indigenous Caucasian groups, the Balkars and Karachais are Turkic; all four peoples are Muslim. The Kalmyks are Mongols whose forebears migrated from Central Asia and settled in the coastal steppe to the south of the Volga estuary in the mid-seventeenth century. By religion they are Buddhists.
All these peoples came under Russian rule in the nineteenth century. There was ongoing unrest, however, particularly among the Chechens, who frequently took part in uprisings against the Tsarist authorities. After the 1917 revolution the region was swept by civil war. Soviet troops were not able to establish control until 1920. The administrative-territorial reorganization which was initiated over the following years provided these peoples with a degree of constitutional autonomy within the larger framework of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). In 1936, three of these units were elevated to the status of Autonomous Republics (still within the RSFSR), namely the Kalmyk ASSR, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, and the united Kabardino-Balkar ASSR (the Kabardians were a neighboring Caucasian Muslim people). The Karachai unit remained at the level of an Autonomous Province.
German troops occupied parts of the North Caucasus for a few months in 1942-43. After the region was recaptured by the Red Army, the entire population of Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachais and Kalmyks was deported to Central Asia and Siberia. Of these, almost 500,000 were sent to Kazakhstan, (11) mostly to the southern provinces. The Kalmyk ASSR was abolished, as were the Balkar region within the Kabardino-Balkar ASSR, and the Karachai region within the Karachai-Cherkess Autonomous Province; the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was retroactively disbanded in 1946. In all these areas the land was re-distributed to new settlers. Soon after Stalin’s death in 1953, the people of the North Caucasus began spontaneously to return to their homelands. They were formally rehabilitated in 1957 and some state support was provided for voluntary repatriation. By 1959 many of these deportees had left Kazakhstan, though several thousand remained. (12) Also, some of those who returned to the Caucasus later re-migrated to Kazakhstan. In 1989, there were some 49,000 Chechens and 20,000 Ingush in Kazakhstan, also groups of 1-3,000 each of Balkars, Kalmyks and Karachais.
4.3 South Caucasus
Meskhetian (Akhyska) Turks
The Meskhetian Turks (self-designation Akhyska Turkleri) are Muslims. Their ethnic origins are a matter of dispute: they may be Turks or Turkicized Georgians. In Soviet census surveys they were listed under the generic term ‘Turk’, but other Turkic or Turkicized Muslim groups (e.g. Armenian Muslim Khemshins/Khemshils) were also sometimes included under this designation, so it is difficult to estimate numbers. Their historic homeland is Meskhetia, in south-west Georgia. This area came under Ottoman rule in the sixteenth century, but was partially annexed by the Tsarist empire in 1829.
During World War II this part of the Caucasus was not occupied by enemy troops. Nevertheless, in November 1944, the entire Meskhetian population, numbering 115,500 people, was deported to Central Asia, allegedly for reasons of military security. Most were sent to Uzbekistan, but 28,000 were settled in Kazakhstan (Kurdaev 1998: 302). In the mid-1950s they were rehabilitated, but not given the right of return to their homeland. In 1968 they were given back the right to reside anywhere within the Soviet Union, but in practice were prevented from returning to their place of origin. The 1989 survey listed some 50,000 ‘Turks’ in Kazakhstan, most of whom would have been Meskhetian Turks (13).
Pontic Greeks
Hellenistic colonies settled in the Pontus – the narrow corridor of land
that stretches along the southeastern coast of the Black Sea – over 2,500 years ago. Their descendants adopted Orthodox Christianity and came to be known as ‘Romei’ or ‘Pontic Greeks’. Most of the Pontus was under Ottoman rule for several centuries. In the nineteenth century, in the wake of the numerous Russo-Ottoman wars, the Pontic Greeks began to move along the littoral to areas that were under Tsarist jurisdiction. In 1919, however, there were still an estimated 500,000 Pontic Greeks on Turkish soil. In 1919-23, as the Ottoman Empire was disintegrating and the Republic of Turkey was being born, they suffered a series of massacres, as a result of which more than half the community perished (Bruneau: 115). Those that survived were forced to leave their homeland under the terms of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which stipulated an exchange of Greek and Turkish populations.
Some of the Pontic Greeks moved to Greece, but most went to Georgia, now part of the Soviet Union, where there was already a substantial Pontic Greek diaspora, formed by earlier waves of immigration. Some still spoke a form of ancient Greek at home, though in public life they used demotic Greek. In the 1920s they were allowed to use Greek as a medium of education, also in cultural activities such as the theatre and publications of various sorts. It was a time of intellectual flowering. In the 1930s, however, the situation changed. The use of Greek was circumscribed and in 1937 many of the leaders of the community were arrested. In 1949, all the Pontic Greeks from Georgia were deported; so, too, were other small, historic groups of Greeks on the territory of the USSR, such as those in the Crimea and around the Azov Sea. Most of the Greeks were sent to Uzbekistan, but several thousand were settled in the south of Kazakhstan. In the mid-1950s, when the restrictions on the deported peoples were relaxed, they moved to larger urban centers and entered higher educational institutions. They also began to migrate to Moscow and other major cites in the Soviet Union. Yet in 1989, some 46,000 Greeks were still living in Kazakhstan.
Others
Many smaller groups were also deported from the Caucasus to Kazakhstan c.1938-44. They included several thousand Kurds, Khemshins/Khemshils (Armenian Muslims) and Iranians (Kekilbaev: 189). They were partially rehabilitated in the mid-1950s, and in 1968 were given back the right to reside anywhere within the Soviet Union. Yet as with the Meskhetian Turks, in practice the authorities prevented them from returning to their place of origin.
4.4 Soviet Far East
Koreans
The Korean migration into the Maritime Province of the Tsarist empire was prompted primarily by political and economic difficulties in Korea. There were several waves of settlement between 1863 and 1917. The migrants came from different parts of the Korean peninsula and spoke different dialects. They also professed different faiths. The majority were adherents of Buddhism and Confucianism (with large admixtures of syncretic elements), but there may have been some Catholics, too, since this religion was introduced to Korea in the late nineteenth century (14). Some of those who immigrated to Russian territory were later converted to Orthodox Christianity. By 1917 the Korean community in the Priamur Territory was estimated, probably too conservatively, at 85,000 (Kim and Sim 2000: 63). The majority were engaged in agriculture, especially rice cultivation, as well as fishing and manual labor. Soviet rule was established in the early 1920s, after a fierce struggle between the Red Army and units of the White Army and foreign interventionists. When collectivization was introduced in 1929, several thousand Koreans re-emigrated to their ethnic homeland. In 1931, after the Japanese invasion of southern Manchuria, relations between Japan and the Soviet Union became strained. The border zone was militarized and travel restrictions were imposed on the local Soviet Koreans. Yet in 1933, in recognition of their loyalty to the Soviet regime, a Korean National Region was created. Thus, it was all the more unexpected when in 1937 the entire Soviet Korean population was suddenly deported to Central Asia as ‘special settlers’ (Kim and Sim 2000: 136-51; Oka 2000: 127-45). Most went to Uzbekistan, but over 98,000 were sent to Kazakhstan (Kekilbaev 1998: 117). In the mid-1950s the ‘special settler’ regime was relaxed and they were given back the right of movement within the Soviet Union. They were now free to return to the Far East, but the majority chose to remain in Central Asia. In 1959 the Korean population in Kazakhstan numbered 74,000; by 1989 it had increased to 101,000.
Part 2: Analysis
Diaspora Formation
There were three main types of diaspora in Kazakhstan in the pre-Soviet and Soviet periods: ethnic, religious and penal. These were not discrete categories, but overlapping sets of experiences and identities. Thus, members of a given ethnic group might form part of religious and penal diasporas that did not embrace other members of that ethnic group. Moreover, the loyalties generated by these different affiliations – ethnic, religious and penal – might fluctuate and change over time. Consequently, all three types of diaspora formation must be taken into account in order to understand the dynamics of these relationships.
1. Ethnic Diasporas
The ethnic diasporas were mostly formed by immigration, voluntary or forced. However, as discussed in the Ethnic Survey above, diasporas were also formed by the drawing of boundaries in 1924. The biggest of these was the Uzbek community which in 1926 numbered some 214,000. These ‘administrative’ diasporas were located in border regions and formed part of larger, transnational ethnic groupings. The experience of diasporization was for them mainly passive and, during the Soviet period, did not greatly affect their daily lives. By contrast, the diasporas that were formed by immigration underwent far-reaching social, cultural and economic change.

Table 2: Ethnic Diaspora Formation by Immigration in Pre-Soviet Period (late 18th – early 20th centuries)
Voluntary (spontaneous and/or state-directed) Forced (penal exile)
Characteristics Ethnic Group Characteristics Ethnic Group
military personnel, bureaucrats, settler farmers (legal and illegal) Slavs, mainly Russians, small numbers of Germans political dissidents, religious non-conformists Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, small numbers of others
entrepreneurs, traders, teachers etc. Slavs (mainly Russians), Tatars, small numbers of Mordvinians etc.
religious dissidents Russians, Germans
refugees from China Dungans, Uighurs
Population (on territory of present-day Republic of Kazakhstan) 1897 Kazakhs: 3.4 m. (82%)
Russians: 0.5 m. (11%)
Ukrainians: 0.08 m. (2%)

Table 3: Ethnic Diaspora Formation by Immigration in Soviet Period

Voluntary (spontaneous and/or state-directed) Forced (penal exile to ‘special settlements’ and prison labor camps)

Period Characteristics Ethnic Groups Characteristics Ethnic Groups
1920s agents of Sovietization: aid and development workers (teachers, doctors, engineers etc), CP activists, bureaucrats, security and law enforcers mostly Slav, esp. Russian ‘class enemies’ e.g. property owners, rich peasants (kulaks), political dissidents, religious believers, sent to penal settlements and/or prison camps various, from within
Kazakhstan and from other parts of USSR
Civil War refugees from all over USSR various
1930s-1959s agents of Sovietization various political purges, ‘nationalist’ elites sent to prison camps various, including Kazakhs

c. 1936-1949 mass deportations to penal exile in ‘special settlements’ Koreans, Germans, Poles and others
1941-1949

evacuees from war zones, including many orphaned children; influx of skilled workers owing to mass relocation of industries; also relocation of elite scientific, academic and cultural establishments mainly Slavs from front-line western Soviet republics further waves of mass deportation

peoples of North Caucasus, Crimean Tatars, Pontic Greeks, many smaller ethnic groups (Kurds etc.); other internees

1946 –
c. 1955 PoWs and internees (repatriated Soviet citizens)

German troops, also repatriated Soviet Germans, Japanese and smaller groups of others in forced labor camps
1950s-1970s ‘Virgin lands’ and other major development campaigns, large influxes of agricultural workers, engineers, teachers and other professionals various
Total population in Kazakhstan in 1926: 6.5 m.
Kazakhs: 3.7 m. (57%)
Russians: 1.3 m. (20%)
Ukrainians: 0.9 m. (13%)
Total population in Kazakhstan in 1970: 13 m.
Kazakhs: 4.0 m. (33%)
Russians: 5.5 m. (42%)
Ukrainians: 0.9 m. (7%)
Germans: 0.9 m. (7%)

2. Religious Diasporas
Islam is numerically the largest faith in Kazakhstan. Brought to Central Asia by the Arabs a few decades after the Hijra (beginning of the Muslim era, AD 622), it was gradually accepted, at least nominally, by all the Kazakh population. However, the nomadic way of life precluded the establishment of formal institutions. Until the nineteenth century, the only mosques on the territory of present-day Kazakhstan were in the south, in the valley of the Syr Darya. It was here, in the city of Turkestan, that the mausoleum of the renowned twelfth-century Sufi teacher Ahmed Yasavi, founder of the Yasaviyya order, was located. After the incorporation of Kazakhstan into the Tsarist empire, Muslims from the Volga, Crimea and Caucasus began to move into this region. They introduced a more orthodox form of Islam; during this period many mosques and Muslim colleges (madrassah) were established. In the twentieth century immigration increased, bringing new influxes of Muslims from other Soviet republics (see Ethnic Survey).
The second largest religion is Christianity, first brought by European immigrants (Slavs and Germans) in the nineteenth century. The main denomination is Russian Orthodox, but there have long been substantial congregations of Roman Catholics, Lutherans and other Protestant denominations. The early Jehovah’s Witnesses were mostly penal exiles, though the community has since attracted other converts (Artem’ev: 33-50). Other faiths, likewise introduced by immigrants, are represented by smaller groups of believers (Ivanov and Trofimov 1999).
In the early Soviet period, all faith communities suffered persecution. The Protestants, however, were more severely treated than others, partly on account of their faith, but partly, too, because they were predominantly German. Many of their ministers, as well as ordinary believers, were sent to penal camps, including those in Kazakhstan. In 1951, the peak year of persecution, in the Karaganda forced labor camp alone there were some 95,000 Protestant prisoners of conscience (Fast 2001: 118). After World War II, the Soviet authorities adopted a slightly more tolerant policy towards religion. The main faiths were allowed to re-establish some institutions, albeit under strict scrutiny. In 1943 an official Muslim Spiritual Board for Central Asia and Kazakhstan was created, based in Tashkent. Its function was chiefly administrative. In Kazakhstan, as in the other republics that came under the jurisdiction of this body, there was a subsidiary Muslim organization. An independent Kazakh muftiat was established in 1990. Government policies towards religion were becoming slightly more liberal by this stage. This led to an upsurge of religious activity, a trend that was intensified after independence. In the 1990s, foreign missionaries from all over the world began to flood into Kazakhstan. Some introduced new faiths, but many worked to strengthen existing communities (Ivanov and Trofimov 1999:4). At the same time, however, some of the Protestant communities, likewise some of the Catholic communities, contracted sharply owing to the emigration of large numbers of Germans and Poles (Kurganskaya et al 2002: 193-211).

Table 4: Main Religious Diasporas
Denomination Chronology Traditional Adherents
Islam first introduced c. 10th cent. In Soviet era, Kazakh Muslim clerics subordinated to official Muslim administration (est. 1943) in Tashkent; independent Kazakh muftiat created 1990; 25 registered mosques in 1965, 59 in 1989, c. 1,000 in 1999, also c. 4000 unregistered mosques; several Muslim schools and colleges Kazakhs, Tatars, Uzbeks, Uighurs, Dungans, Chechen, Ingush, Crimean Tatars, Meskhetian Turks, Kurds etc.
Russian Orthodox 1866 first chapels in southern Kazakhstan; 1872 first archbishop; 62 registered communities in 1989, 220 in 1998, also 3 bishoprics, 8 monasteries Russians and other Slavs
Roman Catholics (and Uniates) introduced post-1863 by exiled Polish revolutionaries in northern Kazakhstan; 42 registered communities in 1989, 77 in 1998, also 3 bishoprics, 2 monasteries, 1 convent Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Koreans, Balts
Lutherans introduced mid-19th cent.; 171 registered communities in 1989, 84 in 1998; 1996, bishopric created.; weakened by internal sectarian divisions and by German emigration mainly Germans
Baptists introduced late 19th cent.; in 1944 merged with Lutherans, Pentecostals etc. to form Evangelical Christian Baptists; 168 registered communities in 1989, 77 in 1998 Germans, Russians
Mennonites introduced 19th cent.; most communities merged with Baptists (see above) in 1963 Germans, Russians
Jehovah’s Witnesses introduced end 19th cent.; severely persecuted in Soviet times; 27 registered communities in 1989, 97 in 1998 Slavs, Balts and others
Jews introduced late 19th cent. by immigrants, mainly craftsmen; first synagogue opened post-Soviet era; in 1998 , 4 registered synagogues Slavs¸ esp. Ukrainian
Bahais introduced in 1938 by immigrants; in 1990s registered communities in all main cities; 3 training institutes penal exiles from Tajikistan and Azerbaijan
(Source: Ivanov and Trofimov 1999)

3. Penal Diasporas
Kazakhstan was used a place of exile and punishment during the Tsarist period and much more extensively, during the Soviet period (see Tables 2 and 3). The penal diasporas, like the religious diasporas, cut across ethnic cleavages. There were two types of penal exile during the Soviet period: the ‘special settlement’ regime and the forced labor camp. Both forms of exile were applied in Kazakhstan.
Exile under the ‘special settlement’ regime was employed from the 1920s onwards. At first it was used selectively for ‘enemies of the people’ – particularly rich peasants – who were deported in groups and resettled in remote, undeveloped regions within their own republic or in another republic (Kekilbaev: 53-54; Nekrich: 90). In the late 1930s, the scope of these operations assumed a systematized, mass character as entire populations were uprooted and exiled to Siberia and the Central Asian republics, especially Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, allegedly for collective collaboration with enemy forces.
It is difficult to estimate the total number of people who were deported to special settlements in Kazakhstan. The death rate in the early years was very high; most of the deported peoples lost at least a third of their population. For the year 1943-44 alone, archival evidence indicates that the number of deportees exceeded 406,000 (Besbaev: 16). In 1953, the number of ‘special settlers’ was recorded as 974,900, over half of whom were Germans and another quarter Chechens (Kekilbaev 1998: 100). By this estimate, over a tenth of the total population of the republic consisted of deportees. In the mid-1950s, after Stalin’s death, measures were gradually taken to ‘rehabilitate’ the deported peoples. Some of the victims of the mass deportations succeeded in returning home, others remained in their place of exile (see section on Soviet Diaspora Patterns of Behavior below).
The forced labor camps (GULAG) were even more notorious than the special settlements for the cruelty and harshness of their penal regime. Here the inmates – allegedly guilty of political crimes – had no control over their fate. They were held in inhuman conditions and used as expendable slave labor. Prison camps were functioning in Kazakhstan in the 1920s, but the system was greatly expanded in the early 1930s. By far the largest camp (and one of the largest in the Soviet Union) was the Karaganda camp, known colloquially as ‘Karlag’. It was established in 1931 in central Kazakhstan, in an area that had been specially cleared of previous inhabitants (among them Kazakhs, also Slav and German settlers from the early twentieth century). It had numerous branch camps, one of which was the Akmolinsk Camp for Wives of Traitors to the Homeland, commonly known by the Russian acronym ALZHIR. Thousands of women, some with their children, were incarcerated here for years on end merely because their male relatives had been charged with political crimes. They were brought from all parts of the Soviet Union, but over half were Russian (Kukushkina: 62). From 1941 on, prisoners-of-war (PoWs) began to arrive in Karlag. The peak years were 1946-48, when the number of PoWs held in Karlag averaged 27,000 a year; most of these were Germans and Japanese troops (Shaimukhanov and Shaimukhanova 1997: 154). During 1948-52, four special camps within the Karlag complex were allocated to PoWs, the biggest of which was the Spasskii. Like other prisoners, the foreign servicemen were employed as slave labor. By the mid-1950s, most had been repatriated.
The ostensible motive for the penal deportations to Kazakhstan, both to ‘special settlements’ and to labor camps, was political. However, there was another, and arguably more pressing, reason for this punitive relocation of population, namely, the need for cheap, captive labor to develop agriculture and industry in conditions that would have been utterly unacceptable to a voluntary work force. The Karlag, for example, was a gigantic economic complex, encompassing over 100 farms, numerous food processing plants, clothing factories, coal mines, smelting works and many other industrial units (Abylkhozhin 1998: 94-102). It made a vital contribution to the war effort by producing vast quantities of armaments, uniforms, and other military equipment. After the war, it continued its colossal output of grain, meat, dairy products and fruit; also of coal, electricity, processed metals, glass, china and many other manufactured goods. There were many noted scientists among the prisoners and they carried out research in prison laboratories to develop new techniques in fields such as animal husbandry, crop production and fuels. At its largest extent in 1951, Karlag covered 20,876 sq. km., an area roughly two thirds the size of Belgium. The number of inmates held in the camp at any one time could reach 75,000; in total, over one million prisoners passed through Karlag during the period 1930-56 (Shaimukhanov and Shaimukhanova 1997: 19). They served sentences of up to twenty five years. On release, some returned home but others remained in Kazakhstan, often in the vicinity of the camp.
The ‘special settlers’ also made an important contribution to the economic development of Kazakhstan. They opened up previously uncultivated land and with minimal state assistance – or even actual hindrance – created efficient, often highly, productive farms. Some became famous for their record harvests and received official recognition as models of good management.
A third form of penal servitude that the Soviet authorities used on the territory of Kazakhstan was the Labor Army. This was another form of slave labor, initiated in 1941 to mobilize civilians aged 17 to 50 years old who were not actively serving in the Red Army. Thousands of men and women, mostly Germans (some 121,000), Koreans and Poles, were drafted to work in heavy industry and large-scale construction; in Kazakhstan, many were employed in opening up coals mines in the Karaganda region. Data on the Labor Army are still not fully available, but it has been estimated that in 1942-43, some 750,000 people were serving in its ranks (Aldazhumanov 1998: 315-40). When the Labor Army was disbanded in 1946, the draftees were s