Legacy of the Kazakh Khanate in the Political Culture and Traditions

In 1991 year new state the Republic of Kazakhstan is appeared on the map. The history and culture of Kazakhstan is numbered a thousand years. One of the important issues is about aboriginal population’s origin, formation and origins of its nationality, development of culture and cultural traditions, relationships with other civilizations. Applying for written sources we can verify that Kazakhs khanate had been formed to 1470 when on the territory of Kazakhstan in south-eastern regions Semirechye and in vales of Chu Kazakh sultans Dzhanibek and Girey could head the numerous tribes, which had been jointed in tribe named “Kazakh”, ‘Kazakhs”.

At the beginning of XVI century in the time of Kasymkhan the Kazakh khanate was strengthened, its borders were widened, syrdarya towns Turkestan, Otyrar, Sayram, Sauran, Syganak, Suzak and Chimkent were part of Kazakh khanate . Kazakhstan becomes known in Asia and Europe. The XVI century is an important milestone in the history of Moslem world from which the new time reckoning is began. The distinguished east scientist V. V. Bartold wrote « In the new history of Moslem in contrast to rapid change of dynasties and powers? olitical instability, states small dimensions and that’s why lack of any whatsoever patriotism, now we can see the countries establishing there. We see the Moslem power of Great Mongols in India, then Turkey, Persia ... ” Approximately at that time Kazakh, Yarkend khanates had been appeared in Central Asia. The Turkic Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Kara-kalpaks were announced on the historic scene. When the last khan Taukekhan died, the power had deputed to the number of steppe khans and each of them was at the head of separate groups of Kazakhs and the territories Kazakh khanate existed up to 1716.

At that time the process of disintegration and decay had began and the end of this process the state was being included in Russian empire. The ethnicon of “Kazakh” given the name of state is Turkic word. It is generally agreed that it means “free man” Kazakhs were very hardworking nomads and farmers, have had the great fat herd, rich pastures, and fertile lands on sub mountain and vales of rivers. But telling about Kazakhs and the first Kazakh nation it is necessary to know that origin of that nation as its culture and statehood dated from centuries. Bibliography: http://www. toptravel. ru/bgkkfl2. htm http://kazakhstan. awd. z Turkic roots of Kazakh political culture and traditions Kazakhstan has a rich past. Its geographical and geopolitical position has played a vital role in promoting the country’s development. Located in the center of Eurasia, Kazakhstan has long found itself at the crossroads of the world’s most ancient civilizations and trade routes. It has been a land of social, economic and cultural exchange between East and West, North and South, and between the major players in Eurasia. At different stages of its history, various states emerged and developed in the land which became today’s Kazakhstan. All contributed to Kazakh culture.

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In later centuries, the steppes were home to a powerful state formed by the Huns. Their empire greatly influenced the geopolitical map of that time. The Great Roman Empire in Europe eventually fell from the blows of the Attila the Hun’s daring warriors. Later, the Huns were replaced on the steppes by Turkic tribes. They founded several large states known as “kaganats” stretching from the Yellow Sea in the East to the Black Sea in the West. These states were distinguished by a culture progressive for that time. They were based not only on a nomadic economy but also on an oasis urban culture with rich trade and handicraft traditions.

During this time, cities and caravanserais were founded in the oases of Central Asia, the territory of South Kazakhstan and Central Asia. They stood along the famous trade route known as the Great Silk Road which connecting Europe and China. Other trade routes were also important including the route along the Syr Dariya River to the Aral Sea and the South Urals as well the so called “Sable Road” from South Western regions of Siberia through Central Kazakhstan and the Altai region. It was through trade on the “Sable Road” that the Middle East and Europe were supplied with expensive furs.

Major cities and trade centers founded on these routes included Otrar (Farab), Taraz, Kulan, Yassy (Turkestan), Sauran, and Balasagun. The Great Silk Road not only stimulated the development of trade, it also became a conduit for progressive scientific and cultural ideas. For example, the great philosopher Al-Farabi (870-950) was greatly influenced by the culture of the trade routes. Born in the Farab district, Al-Farabi was dubbed in the East “the Second Teacher” after Aristotle for his profound researches in philosophy, astronomy, musical theory and mathematics.

The outstanding scholar of Turkic philology Mahmud Kashgari lived here in the 11th century. He created the three-volume “Dictionary of Turkic Dialects” which summed up Turkic folklore and literature heritages. In the 11th Century, Yusup Balasaguni of the town of Balasagun, a famous poet and philosopher, wrote “Kutaglu Bilig” (“A Knowledge that Brings Happiness”) which is recognized as having played an important role in the development of modern social, political and ethical conceptions. The Sufi poet Hodja Ahmet Yassaui, who lived in the 12th century, wrote a collection of poetic thoughts “Divan-i-Khikmet” (“Book of Wisdom”).

He is famous throughout the Muslim world. Part of the cultural legacy of that period is the elegant urban architecture. Examples such as the mausoleums of Arystan Baba, of the great Sufi Hodja Akhmet Yassaui in Turkestan and Aisha Bibi in Taraz are among the best preserved. Apart from this, the most ancient nomads of the region invented the “yurt”, a dome-shaped easily dismantled and portable house made from wood and felt, ideal for their nomadic life and beliefs. In 1221, Mongolian tribes of Genghis Khan conquered Central Asia and added their culture and values to the increasingly complex society of the region.

By the second half of the 15th Century a process of consolidation had begun among the peoples of the Central Asian steppe. This process, derived from the various ethnic and cultural identities, was drawn together by a common world view and lifestyle. The first Kazakh khanates emerged at this time. By the first half of the 16th Century, the formation of a single Kazakh nation was completed. The word “Kazakh” in the old Turkic language meant “free” or “independent” which perfectly fit the character of the people who had been long yearning for their own independent state.

In the 17th and 18th Centuries the nomadic Jungar tribes directed by the Chinese Bogdykhans started a large scale war against the Kazakh khanate. However, thanks to the courage of the “batyrs” (knights), the decisiveness of the Kazakh leader Ablai Khan, the diplomatic skills of the Kazakh ‘biys’ (sages) Tole Bi, Kazdausty Kazybek Bi, Aiteke Bi, and self sacrifice of the people, the Kazakhs escaped total capture and physical annihilation. The Kazakh khans were forced to seek the military protection of the Russian Empire, which eventually led to Kazakhstan’s loss of sovereignty in 1871. For a time, the fate of Kazakhstan was tied to the

European model of social development and the fate of the Russian State and its peoples. After the 1917 revolution Soviet power was established in Kazakhstan. Kazakhs suffered greatly under Soviet control. Due to the forced collectivization in the 1930s, hunger caused the death of 1. 5 million Kazakhs, which was more than 40 percent of the nation. Hundreds of thousands Kazakhs fled to China and elsewhere. The brightest and the best of the nation were repressed and often shot dead. The regime’s last gasp was the brutal repression of the Kazakh people on December 17, 1986 as they took to the streets seeking justice.

Many consider this the beginning of the end for the once mighty Soviet Union. Kazakhstan proclaimed its independence on December 16, 1991, and Nursultan Nazarbayev was democratically elected the first President of the country. Bibliography: Kiessling, Kerstin Lindahl. “Conference on the Aral Sea: Women, Children, Health and Environment. ” Ambio Vol. 27, No. 7 (November, 1998): 560-564. Weiner, Douglas. A Little Corner of Freedom: Russian Nature Protection from Stalin to Gorbachev. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002.

Soviet transformation of Kazakh society and legacy in political culture and traditions Arguably the most drastic economic policy employed by Marxist-fashioned governments and the Soviet Union was that of agricultural and industrial collectivization. Forcing local Soviets to develop state-controlled farms and industrial construction projects, the Soviet collectivization programs generally had two overarching purposes: the ideological liberation of the Soviet orbit from class antagonisms and the concupiscent parasitism of “kulak” banditry, and the economic attainment of a fiscally self-sufficient Marxist society.

Soviet republics endured two major phases of collectivization that yielded both beneficial and catastrophic effects. The Stalin government (1922-53) initiated collectivization projects as a means to cultivate “socialism in one country,” with an industrialized war machine and a well-fed population completely free of the capitalist approach. As the Comintern and NATO plunged into the Cold War, the Khrushchev government (1953-64) reimposed agricultural collectivization with the so-called “Virgin

Lands Program” specifically with the intent of freeing the USSR from humiliating dependency on Western capitalist food imports. Soviet collectivization made possible economic and industrial achievements that would otherwise have been impossible. However, the blatant accomplishments of collectivization came at a tremendous price, directly creating some of the most horrendous human and environmental catastrophes of the twentieth century.

In both phases of Soviet collectivization, the people of Kazakhstan endured by far the worst of these disasters, suffering man-made famines and starvation, irreparable environmental desiccation, the eventual transformation of the entire Aral Sea to saline ruin, mass exodus and displacement, and astronomical casualty. Even worse, the second phase of collectivization (the Virgin Lands Campaign) only exacerbated the irrecoverable environmental tragedies of the first phase.

These disasters are entirely derived from the legacy of collectivization. 1 Despite the Soviets' ideological insistence on the benefits of collectivization programs in Kazakhstan, the Kazakh people experienced far greater suffering and calamity than they profited, and are still struggling to recover from the ecological consequences even today. It must be acknowledged that the Soviet Union never intended to directly inflict any physical catastrophe on the Soviet republics or the Kazakh people.

It must also be readily emphasized that the Soviet collectivization policy eventually contributed to undeniable industrial, political, cultural, and employment achievements, which transformed tribal Kazakhstan into a modern republic and an exporter of anything from steel, to cotton, to Snow Queen® vodka. But the price that the Kazakh people were forced to pay was far too high. Both phases of collectivization have inflicted an indelible legacy of agricultural ruin, economic depression, physical ailment, and environmental catastrophe that far outweigh the benefits of the forced proletarian liberation brought by the Soviet Union.

Unfortunate for the Kazakhs, the tragic legacy of calamitous Soviet agro-economic policy did not fall with the Berlin Wall, and it may require centuries to recover Stalin's first phase of Soviet collectivization represents easily the worst physical and environmental nadir of Kazakh history. The collectivization initiative began almost immediately after the final incorporation of the Kazakh tribes and polities into the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) in 1936.

The agricultural potential of the fertile and pristine Kazakh steppe was perceived as an invaluable source of tremendous collective output for the state. As in the other, recently “liberated” peoples newly incorporated into the USSR, those Kazakhs that were fully absorbed into Soviet society through forced collectivization would eventually enjoy significant benefits that would have otherwise been impossible for the semi-nomadic Kazakhs, such as theoretically near-universal literacy and employment, the development of urbanized cities and transportation systems, health care, job security, and sustenance.

Although the majority of these benefits owe themselves to Soviet policy rather than collectivization itself, these accomplishments must be weighed with the tragic consequences if we are to conclude that collectivization had an overall negative effect on Kazakh society.

Bibliography: CNN. com. “Athrax 'time bomb' ticking in Aral Sea, researchers say. ” CNN. http://www. cnn. com/WORLD/asiapcf/9906/21/anthrax. island/ Conquest, Robert. The Harvest of Sorrow. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. Krech, Shepard, John Robert McNeill, and Carolyn Merchant. Encyclopedia of World Environmental History: A-E. New York: Routeledge Press, 2004.

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