The Steppe and the Sown

Abstract

This chapter examines the Kazakh steppe’s transformation into a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional society under Russian imperial rule. During the late 19th century, more than 1.5 million peasants from European Russia colonized the Kazakh steppe, a development that sparked far-reaching changed to Kazakh nomadic life and to the environmental profile of the steppe itself. These changes also made Kazakhs far more susceptible to hunger, and this chapter argues that the legacies of Russian imperial rule must be considered an important contributing factor to the Kazakh famine of 1930-33.