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1991 and 2001 was particularly intense in the history of Kazakhstan’s nation-building. Although it resembled other post-Soviet countries, it also had a number of distinct features. Due to the heterogeneity of ethnic and linguistic situation, strong regionalisms, and a gap between urban and rural populations, the government could not adopt language and education extensively as nation-building tools, although the attempts to do so were not totally unsuccessful. In the mid-1990s, the government made a radical step and relocated the capital city to the north. In 1998, Kazakhstan became the only country in the former USSR and the last country in the 20th century to change its governmental site. Unlike Almaty, where any spatial transformations could only be partial because of its previous role, Astana had vacant territories on the left bank of Ishim where the state could build from scratch. The symbolic and material construction of these territories gradually came to symbolize the new identity of the post-Soviet Kazakhstan.
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Is Name Destiny? On Some Cases of Post-Soviet Street-Naming in Almaty and Astana Nari Shelekpayev
“Generally speaking, it was the African countries like Zaire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and to a lesser extent – Asian countries – which, in order to make political pressure, decided to change their names. The attempt of the Burmese leadership to dictate the naming of the country according to the autochthonous phonetics (Myanmar) produced a backlash from the rest of the world. Our own experience has demonstrated how ambiguous the attitude of the international community was towards the attempt to adapt the name of our capital city in accordance with Kazakh traditions.” From a memo by the Minister of Foreign Affairs K. Saudabayev addressed to the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev on August 2, 1994.233
Introduction In February 2014, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the unchallenged leader of Kazakhstan since 1989, proposed to change the official name of his country to Kazakh Yeli (Kazakh State). Although the proposal was widely reported and created an important public debate, the ultimate decision regarding renaming was suspended.234 In 2015, on the eve of the Kazakh Khanate’s 550th anniversary celebration, the municipal administration of Almaty – former capital and largest city in Kazakhstan – announced that “at least ten streets in the city would bear former Kazakh khans’ names in 233 Presidential Archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty, 5H, 1, 3387 (my translation from Russian). 234 “Nazarbayev vydvinul ideju pereimenovat’ Kazahstan.” Accessible at: http://www.forbes.ru/, 6 February 2014. Last retrieved 15 August 2014.
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the near future.”235 These recent developments hint that after 25 years of sovereignty, Kazakhstan’s quest for its “national idea” is on full blast and that place-naming mirrors this process. Despite being perceived by many as leading to an eventual rupture, the process of place-renaming is supposed to create a symbolic extension towards a longer “national” past.
Street-Naming and National Identity The Soviet Union began to disintegrate in the late 1980s following unsuccessful reforms, unfavorable economic conditions, and the rise of democratic movements inside the Union. By the end of 1991, fifteen states of the former Soviet Union had declared their independence. Each republic had a unique experience stemming from variations in historical and political factors. However, all would utilize democratic and nationalistic rhetoric when differentiating new regimes from the past. The term “transition” became a cliché meaning post-communist in politics, neo-liberal in economy, and something ambiguous in other spheres. Gradually, the initial meaning of transition as a movement towards a new beginning was replaced by a perception of it as the new permanent. No one knew how long the transition was to last and when exactly it would end. One of the more remarkable features of this period was the adoption of a new visual language that post-Soviet states invented to aid the distinction from the previous political regime. Kazakhstan adopted its own currency, with Al-Farabi portraits printed on, and reinforced the status of the Kazakh language. The names of many cities, streets, and squares changed as part of the linguistic and cultural appropriation of the Soviet street-naming by the independent Kazakhstan. This chapter intends to examine several cases of street-renaming in Almaty and Astana in the 1990s and describe its main features. To date, some research has been done concerning the construction of national identity in the post-Soviet Kazakhstan.236 Recent works mainly 235 “V Almaty planirujut pomenjat’ nazvanija desjati uliz,” Kazakhstanskaya pravda, 22 June 2015. Accessible at: http://www.kazpravda.kz/news/obshchestvo/v-almati-planiruut-pomenyat-nazvaniya-desyati-ulits/. Last retrieved 22 January 2016. 236 See Ravi Abdelal, “Memories of Nations and States: Institutional History and National Identity in Post-Soviet Eurasia,” Nationalities Papers 30, no. 3 (2002), pp. 459–460; Alexander C. Diener, “National Territory and the Reconstruction of History in Kazakhstan,” Eurasian Geography and Economics 43, no. 8 (2002), pp. 632–650; Edward Schatz, “What Capital Cities Say about State and Nation Building,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 9, no. 4 (2004), pp. 111–140; Sally N. Cummings, “Legitimation and Identification in Kazakhstan,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics
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