Russians in Kazakhstan
Total population | |
---|---|
2,983,317 in 2024 Russian (majority), Kazakh (minority) | |
Religion | |
Russian Orthodox Church | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Kazakh |
There has been a substantial population of
Early colonisation
The first
Russian imperial authorities followed and were able to seize Kazakh territory because the local
In the 1850s, the construction of Russian forts began in southern Kazakhstan including
(Verniy).In 1863, the
.Christianity spread in the predominantly Muslim region together with Russian colonists: the Russian Orthodox Church established a Central Asian bishopric in 1871 with its bishop first residing in Verniy and after 1916 in Tashkent. In the 1890s, many non-Cossack Russian settlers migrated into the fertile lands of northern and eastern Kazakhstan. In 1906 the Trans-Aral Railway between Orenburg and Tashkent was completed, further facilitating Russian and Ukrainian migration to Central Asia.
Between 1906 and 1912, more than half a million Ukrainian and Russian farms were started in Kazakhstan as part of the reforms of the Russian minister of the interior
Soviet period
Russians of Kazakhstan together with other ethnic groups of the region suffered heavily during the
The Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established as part of the RSFSR - the process was not straightforward and included disputes over territories. On 26 August 1920, the Soviet government issued a decree signed by Mikhail Kalinin and Vladimir Lenin "On the formation of the Autonomous Kyrgyz (Kazakh) Soviet Socialist Republic" in the RSFSR. The city of Orenburg, with its majorly Kazakh population, became the capital of the Kazakh Autonomous Republic.
When it came to the formation of borders, there were many opponents to the inclusion of Akmola, Semipalatinsk and Ural regions in the KazASSR. Others, on the contrary, demanded to include the territories of the Omsk region, Barnaul district, Altai region of Russia and some parts of Central Asia into the structure of Kazakhstan. The expediency of the inclusion of Kustanay region into Kazakhstan was comprehensively proved in a note by Akhmet Baitursynov and Mukhamedjan Seralin. It was necessary to prove the necessity of inclusion of Akmola and Semipalatinsk regions. As strangely as it was, these territories, native to Kazakhs, belonged to Western Siberia. Thus, in 1920, the member of the Revcom Alikhan Yermekov in Moscow was at the reception of the leader of the state Vladimir Lenin. In the Kremlin, he made an important report "On the situation of the Kirghiz region in general, and on the issue of borders in particular". Thanks to this document, the Kazakh authorities managed to defend Akmola, Semipalatinsk and Atyrau regions. The republic included a 10-verst long strip along the Urals and Irtysh Rivers, where the Cossacks settled during the expansion of Tsarist Russia.[7]
Many European Soviet citizens and much of Russia's industry were relocated to Kazakhstan during
Many more Russians arrived in the years 1953–1965, during the so-called
In December 1986, Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev appointed Gennady Kolbin, with no ties to the republic, as the first secretary of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Kazakh SSR, breaking with a tradition of ethnic Kazakh dominance in the local administration. Following several incidents of ethnic unrest in 1989, Kolbin was replaced by Nursultan Nazarbayev who following the dissolution of the Soviet Union became the president of independent Kazakhstan.
According to the
Post-Soviet period
Although Nazarbayev is widely credited with peaceful preservation of the delicate inter-ethnic balance in Kazakhstan, hundreds of thousands of Russians left Kazakhstan in the 1990s due to the perceived lack of economic opportunities. A number of factors contributed to this situation. Following independence from the Soviet Union, the Kazakh government adopted a policy of developing the state language that sought to affirm the ethnically Kazakh nature of the country and promote Kazakh language and culture. One aspect of this policy was the government's decision to define Kazakhstan as the national state of the ethnically Kazakh people in the country's first constitution in 1993 and again in its second constitution in 1995.[9]
In 1994 Kazakhstan held its first parliamentary elections since independence. In these elections, Kazakh candidates won a disproportionate number of seats compared to Russian candidates relative to the demographic makeup of the country at the time.[10] Observers attributed the over-representation of Kazakh politicians to electoral tampering carried out by the government, primarily through gerrymandering. Many Russians interpreted this as an attempt to promote Kazakh domination of the state at the expense of Russian influence.[11]
A major factor that contributed to the alienation of Russians and the increase of inter-ethnic tensions in post-Soviet Kazakhstan was the government's language policy. Following independence, the government adopted Kazakh as the country's official language. Russian was designated as the language of interethnic communication but not given official status. Over the course of the 1990s, the government mandated the instruction of Kazakh in schools and introduced Kazakh language fluency requirements for all public sector jobs. Many Russians objected to these measures and advocated for official bilingualism, which was denied.[12]
The government's language policy struck many Russians as inequitable, in part because at the time of independence Russian was the de facto language of communication in government and business. Most Kazakhs were already fluent in Russian, while very few Russians were fluent in Kazakh. This policy had the effect of excluding the vast majority of Russian-speakers from some of the most coveted professional occupations.[13] These various developments contributed to an increasing sense of marginalization and exclusion among Russians in Kazakhstan. Many Russians felt that there were limited opportunities for them and their children in the country, as a result of the government's new linguistic and educational policies.[14] These and other grievances were major causes of the massive emigration of Russians from Kazakhstan that took place in the 1990s.
By 1999, the number of Russians in Kazakhstan dropped to 4,479,618 people, roughly 30% of Kazakhstan's population. Emigration from Kazakhstan reached its peak in 1994, when 344,112 people emigrated from Kazakhstan to Russia. Since then, it has consistently decreased, perhaps because those most eager to leave or with the resources to leave have already done so.[15] At the beginning of his presidency in 2000, Vladimir Putin met with leaders of the Russian community in Kazakhstan who explained to him the situation they faced in the country. This meeting resulted in a proposal of a massive departure of the remainder of Russians from Kazakhstan. It was suggested that these migrants would revitalize depopulated areas of central Russia and provide a counterweight to the demographic decline of Russians within the Russian Federation.
However, support for the idea has since evaporated and the Russian government has not provided the resources necessary for massive repatriation.[16] The majority of Russians who emigrated from Kazakhstan were Russians born in Russia who had moved to Kazakhstan later in life, primarily for professional reasons. Most of this group resided in urban areas and tended to be more highly educated. In contrast, Russians who were born in the country and whose families have lived in Kazakhstan for two to three generations were far less likely to emigrate. This group is concentrated in rural regions, especially in the northern part of the country. In the 1990s, this group made up two thirds of Kazakhstan's Russian population but only one third of the migrants who left the country.[17]
Russians are still an influential socio-political group in Kazakhstan, and they remain active in Kazakhstan's public, military, cultural and economic life. Although the Kazakh language is the state language, Russian is now also officially used as an equal language to Kazakh in Kazakhstan's public institutions. Kazakhstan is also part of the Eurasian Economic Union with Russia. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many Russian immigrants intending to avoid the 2022 Russian mobilization fled to Kazakhstan due to a relatively open border and few restrictions on travel. It is estimated the number of Russians who relocated to Kazakhstan is up to 930,000. [18] [19]
Censuses
Number and share of Russians according to the census over the years by regions:[20][21][22][23][24]
Number | Share (in %) | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1970 | 1979 | 1989 | 1999 | 2009 | 1970 | 1979 | 1989 | 1999 | 2009 | 2021 | ||
Kazakhstan | 5 521 917 | 5 991 205 | 6 062 019 | 4 479 620 | 3 793 764 | Kazakhstan | 42.43 | 40.78 | 37.42 | 29.95 | 23.69 | 15.5 |
Akmola Region | 424 421 | 442 506 | 459 348 | 329 454 | 264 011 | Akmola Region | 44.22 | 44.47 | 43.15 | 39.39 | 35.79 | 26.92 |
Aktobe Region | 145 218 | 158 298 | 173 281 | 114 416 | 103 069 | Aktobe Region | 26.37 | 25.11 | 23.65 | 16.76 | 13.60 | 6.77 |
Almaty | 530 931 | 612 783 | 615 365 | 510 366 | 452 947 | Almaty | 68.28 | 64.04 | 57.40 | 45.19 | 33.16 | 20.48 |
Almaty Region | 481 944 | 514 011 | 518 315 | 339 984 | 306 383 | Almaty Region | 37.87 | 35.36 | 31.54 | 21.81 | 16.94 | 13.12 |
Atyrau Region | 76 316 | 67 957 | 63 673 | 38 013 | 33 617 | Atyrau Region | 22.42 | 18.18 | 14.99 | 8.63 | 6.58 | 5.01 |
East Kazakhstan Region | 881 608 | 899 047 | 914 424 | 694 705 | 561 183 | East Kazakhstan Region | 56.37 | 54.24 | 50.87 | 45.37 | 40.18 | 35.56 |
Jambyl Region | 256 267 | 282 403 | 275 424 | 179 258 | 122 612 | Jambyl Region | 32.34 | 30.36 | 26.51 | 18.12 | 11.99 | 9.60 |
Karaganda Region | 788 777 | 859 363 | 817 900 | 614 416 | 529 961 | Karaganda Region | 50.54 | 50.16 | 46.85 | 43.56 | 39.49 | 35.07 |
Kostanay Region | 432 109 | 483 260 | 535 100 | 430 242 | 380 599 | Kostanay Region | 42.93 | 44.37 | 43.72 | 42.27 | 42.97 | 40.97 |
Kyzylorda Region | 91 797 | 86 084 | 37 960 | 17 155 | 16 146 | Kyzylorda Region | 18.56 | 15.31 | 6.60 | 2.87 | 2.37 | 1.80 |
Mangystau Region | 60 008 | 99 923 | 106 801 | 46 630 | 39 851 | Mangystau Region | 37.68 | 40.15 | 32.93 | 14.81 | 8.21 | 5.21 |
North Kazakhstan Region | 458 783 | 463 114 | 469 636 | 361 461 | 300 849 | North Kazakhstan Region | 52.43 | 52.36 | 51.49 | 49.78 | 50.43 | 44.48 |
Astana | 104 010 | 133 432 | 152 147 | 129 480 | 122 215 | Astana | 57.36 | 67.93 | 54.09 | 40.54 | 19.93 | 12.86 |
Pavlodar Region | 310 004 | 370 916 | 427 658 | 337 924 | 287 970 | Pavlodar Region | 44.41 | 45.94 | 45.38 | 41.87 | 38.78 | 34.91 |
Turkistan Region | 282 553 | 300 365 | 278 473 | 162 098 | 136 538 | Turkistan Region | 21.91 | 19.14 | 15.27 | 8.19 | 5.52 | ? |
West Kazakhstan Region | 197 171 | 217 743 | 216 514 | 174 018 | 135 813 | West Kazakhstan Region | 38.42 | 37.18 | 34.39 | 28.21 | 22.60 | 18.86 |
Prominent ethnic Russians from Kazakhstan
- Nik Antropov
- Anatoli Boukreev
- Alexander Dutov
- Gennady Golovkin (half-Korean)
- Vassiliy Jirov
- Vsevolod Ivanov
- Andrey Kashechkin
- Andrei Kivilev
- Nikolay Koksharov
- Ruslana Korshunova
- Yuri Lonchakov
- Sergei Lukyanenko
- Vladimir Muravyov
- Vladimir Zhirinovsky
- Viktor Patsayev
- Vitaliy Savin
- Vladimir Smirnov
- Adolf Tolkachev
- Alexander Volkov
- Oleg Yankovsky
- Alexander Vinokourov
- Ilya Ilyin
- Igor Sysoev
- Olga Rypakova
- Olga Shishigina
- Dmitriy Balandin
See also
- Kazakhstan–Russia relations
- Demographics of Kazakhstan
- Ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states
- Ukrainians in Kazakhstan
- Kazakhs in Russia
References
- ^ https://stat.gov.kz/getImg?id=ESTAT242525
- ^ https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/about/archives/2023/countries/kazakhstan/
- ^ Assessment for Russians in Kazakhstan
- ^ The Russians are Still Leaving Uzbekistan Archived 2009-02-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Original Russian names are given in brackets.
- ^ Население Казахстана в 1917-1939 гг. Источник: http://e-history.kz/ru/contents/view/1269 © e-history.kz
- ^ https://world-nan.kz/en/blogs/formirovanie-territorii-kazakhskoyi-assr> [bare URL]
- S2CID 144768351.
- ^ Sébastien Peyrouse, "Nationhood and the Minority Question in Central Asia: The Russians in Kazakhstan," Europe-Asia Studies 59 (2007): 484-85
- ^ Jeff Chinn and Robert Kaiser, Russians as the New Minority: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Soviet Successor States (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996), 202.
- ^ Alexandrov, Uneasy Alliance, 109-10.
- ^ Peyrouse, "Nationhood and the Minority Question in Central Asia," 485.
- ^ Alexandrov, Uneasy Alliance, 101-02.
- ^ David D. Laitin, Identity in Formation: The Russian-speaking Populations in the Near Abroad (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), 105.
- ^ Alexandrov, Uneasy Alliance, 112
- ^ Peyrouse, "Nationhood and the Minority Question in Central Asia," 495-96.
- ^ Alexandrov, Uneasy Alliance, 116
- ^ https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-russian-emigres-ukraine-war/32234453.html
- ^ https://thediplomat.com/2022/11/whats-next-for-russians-who-fled-to-kazakhstan/
- ^ "Ethnic composition: 1970 census (data for regions)". pop-stat.mashke.org. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
- ^ "Ethnic composition: 1979 census (data for regions)". pop-stat.mashke.org. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
- ^ "Ethnic composition: 1989 census (data for regions)". pop-stat.mashke.org. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
- ^ "Ethnic composition: 1999 census (data for regions)". pop-stat.mashke.org. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
- ^ "Ethnic composition: 2009 census (data for regions)". pop-stat.mashke.org. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
- Russians left behind in Central Asia, by Robert Greenall, BBC News, 23 November 2005.
- Russian 'separatists' highlight ethnic tensions, by Sergei Blagov, Asia Times, 16 June 2000.
- Kazakh-Russian relations by Erlan Aben Institute for Central Asian and Caucasian Studies, September 2000.