New Book by Dr Diana Kudaibergen: What Does It Mean to Be Kazakhstani?

Dr Diana Kudaibergen has published her book entitled What Does It Mean to Be Kazakhstani? Power, Identity and Nation-Building. It provides an in-depth study of this Central Asian nation’s evolution since 1991, exploring how ethnicity, war and internal unrest are shaping and reshaping Kazakh identity. The book is published by Hurst Publishers and is part of the New Perspectives on Eastern Europe and Eurasia series.

More than thirty years since declaring independence, multi-ethnic Kazakhstan is still grappling with its nationhood. While secessionist movements provoked ethnic conflicts, territorial disputes and civil wars across the former USSR, Kazakhstan developed a relatively stable inter-ethnic policy, and predicted Russo–Kazakh tensions largely failed to materialise. Analysing the multiple narratives, actors and often contradictory feelings of national belonging in post-1991 Kazakhstan, Diana T. Kudaibergen investigates why Kazakhstani nation-building is so unusual. Has Kazakh society found a solution to divisive ethno-nationalism? How have ordinary citizens shaped their identities? And how will Moscow’s war on Ukraine, which has led to widespread Russian immigration into Kazakhstan, impact inter-ethnic dynamics?

Dr Kudaibergen builds on unpublished archival materials and hundreds of interviews to explore the ‘hybrid’ nature of nation-building in this complex country. While regime elites promote a top-down civic identity, domestic unrest and pluralistic opposition movements are once again transforming the category ‘Kazakhstani’.

According to a review, the book is "an excellent exploration of the multiple meanings of being Kazakhstani. Kudaibergen offers us a sophisticated and granular approach to the fluidity and hybridity of national identity, their lived experiences and their contestation." — Marlene Laruelle, Research Professor of International Affairs and Political Science, Elliott School of International Affairs, and author of Central Peripheries: Nationhood in Central Asia.

Read more here.