Between the Soviet Past and National History: to the Issue of a New Kazakh Identity

Abstract

The article deals with the impact of the politics of memory on the process of national identity formation, which is topical for the domestic political science. It is shown that the politics of memory always deals with different types of collective memory (age, gender, national, religious and other differences), which are built in the form of projection of the past into indefinite and open future, or in the form of questioning of the past from the present. These differences appear as a mediating link in the process of identity constitution. The various ideas, values, symbols and meanings of a cultural or religious kind existing in society allow groups to challenge the identity of the entire community and at the same time maintain the existence of a common identity of the community as a whole. However, it is important, that these relative variations do not become frozen in their existence and do not develop into absolute ruptures and divisions. It is these principles underlie formation of the politics of memory. The process of influence of the politics of memory on the formation of national identity is considered in the article on the example of Kazakhstan identity formation in the post-Soviet period. The authors analyze various state programs the politics of memory; analyze statistical data obtained in the course of sociological research on the peculiarities of the formation of collective memory in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study concludes that Soviet values in Kazakhstan still play a role for the outgoing generation, born and raised in the USSR, while the younger generation replaces them with modern Western values, which also does not contribute to the preservation of national specificity and recognition of the state as an independent, separate sovereign entity. And if traditions used to fit into the dominant all-Soviet context, nowadays they should fit into the postmodern project.