{"title":"Kazakhstan's National Identity - Building Policy: Soviet Legacy, State Efforts, and Societal Reactions","authors":"A. Burkhanov","doi":"10.31228/osf.io/2hfr6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The collapse of the Soviet Union led to profound changes in ethnicity and identity policies and practices in the newly independent countries, including Kazakhstan. The ethnically diverse population of Kazakhstan presented a particularly unique challenge for the new regime and its approaches to the identity-building policies. This paper focuses on the ethnic and identity-building policies of Kazakhstan and offers an overview of the legal framework regulating language use, education, media, citizenship, and official identity policy. The paper also focuses on the de-facto implementation of the officially stated policies and explores reasons behind inconsistencies and discrepancies between the declared policies and situation on the ground. Finally, this paper also looks at the societal reactions towards the official identity and language policies, expressed in the country’s public and media discourse. This paper argues that the post-independence Kazakhstan’s and identity-building process is affected by several important implications, including legacy of the Soviet nationality policy, significant amount of continuity with late-Soviet policies and practices, search for a new identity and the regime’s aim to prevent political confrontation along ethnic lines by assuring Kazakh hegemony while allowing nominal minority representation.","PeriodicalId":45714,"journal":{"name":"CORNELL INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL","volume":"50 1","pages":"1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"13","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"CORNELL INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.31228/osf.io/2hfr6","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 13
Abstract
The collapse of the Soviet Union led to profound changes in ethnicity and identity policies and practices in the newly independent countries, including Kazakhstan. The ethnically diverse population of Kazakhstan presented a particularly unique challenge for the new regime and its approaches to the identity-building policies. This paper focuses on the ethnic and identity-building policies of Kazakhstan and offers an overview of the legal framework regulating language use, education, media, citizenship, and official identity policy. The paper also focuses on the de-facto implementation of the officially stated policies and explores reasons behind inconsistencies and discrepancies between the declared policies and situation on the ground. Finally, this paper also looks at the societal reactions towards the official identity and language policies, expressed in the country’s public and media discourse. This paper argues that the post-independence Kazakhstan’s and identity-building process is affected by several important implications, including legacy of the Soviet nationality policy, significant amount of continuity with late-Soviet policies and practices, search for a new identity and the regime’s aim to prevent political confrontation along ethnic lines by assuring Kazakh hegemony while allowing nominal minority representation.
期刊介绍:
Founded in 1967, the Cornell International Law Journal is one of the oldest and most prominent international law journals in the country. Three times a year, the Journal publishes scholarship that reflects the sweeping changes that are taking place in public and private international law. Two of the issues feature articles by legal scholars, practitioners, and participants in international politics as well as student-written notes. The third issue is dedicated to publishing papers generated by the Journal"s annual Symposium, held every spring in Ithaca, New York.