The Politics of Depoliticised
Kazakhstan’s Russians: Integration or Radicalization?
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 meant a considerable loss of status for the ethnic Russians living in Kazakhstan. In the following decade, a number of associations tried to give political weight to the concerns of the Russian minority. Since the early 2000s, however, increased emigration, the social integration of the remaining Russians, and the country’s authoritarian political climate have served to depoliticise the Russian question. Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022 shattered the relative social peace of the 2000s and reignited old conflicts between ethnic Russians and the Kazakh majority population. However, the discursive radicalisation of part of the ethnic Russian population is not due to their ethnicity, but rather a consequence of their lack of political participation.
(Osteuropa 5/2025, pp. 191–202)